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Then he went in, leaving the door open, and inside I could hear voices. Then after a minute or so, he came back to the door, holding two glasses of red wine. He was warm and smiling.
然后他進去了，但沒有關門，我能夠聽到門里說話的聲音。大約一分鐘之后，他回到了門口，手里拿著兩杯紅葡萄酒。他態度熱情，面帶微笑。
Sorry there's no brandy， he said. "Only wine. Here's happiness."
“不好意思，沒有白蘭地了，”他說，“只有葡萄酒。祝你快樂。”
Now I certainly had not expected that I would have my drink in the passage. I wasn't only feeling what you may be thinking, I was thinking that one of the impersonal doors might open at any moment, and someone might see me in a "white" building, and see me and van Rensburg breaking the liquor laws of the country. Anger could have saved me from the whole embarrassing situation, but you know I can't easily be angry. Even if I could have been, I might have found it hard to be angry with this particular man. But I wanted to get away from there, and I couldn't.
當時我確實沒有料到我會在走廊里喝酒。我當時的感受不僅僅是你可能會想到的那樣，我一直在擔心其中的一扇沒有人情味兒的門會隨時打開，有人會看到我在“白人的”樓房里，看到我和范蘭斯堡違反了國家的管制酒的法律。如果當時我勃然大怒我就不會讓自己陷入這樣尷尬的境地，但你知道，我這人不輕易生氣。即使我本來是個容易發火的人，但我發現我也很難對這個特別的男子發火。但我想要離開那里，卻無法脫身。
Van Rensburg said to me, "Don't you know this fellow Simelane?"
范蘭斯堡對我說你不認識西梅拉內這個人嗎？”
I've heard of him, I said.
“我聽說過他我說。
I'd like to meet him, he said. "I'd like to talk to him." He added in explanation, "You know, talk out my heart to him."
“我很想認識他，”他說，“我想和他談談。”他補充道，“你知道，我想和他說說我的心里話。”
A woman of about fifty years of age came from the room beyond, bringing a plate of biscuits. She smiled and bowed to me. I took one of the biscuits, but not for all the money in the world could I have said to her dankie, my nooi or that disgusting dankie, misses, nor did I want to speak to her in English because her language was Afrikaans, so I took the risk of it and used the word mevrou, for the politeness of which some Afrikaners would knock a black man down,
一位大約五十歲的婦女從遠處的房間走了過來，手里端著一盤餅干。她微笑著向我點頭致意。我拿了一塊餅干，但即使給我世界上所有的錢我都不會用南非荷蘭語對她說“謝謝太太”或者是那令人討厭的“謝謝小姐”之類的話，我也不想和她說英語，因為她說的是南非荷蘭語。于是出于禮貌——使用這種禮貌的黑人會被一些南非荷蘭人打翻在地——我便斗膽用了南非荷蘭語“夫人”這個詞。
