評論
打印
A third conflicting emotion was now creeping in, a compensatory emotion which said, "You do not sit on this bench to challenge; you sit there because you are tired. You are tired; therefore you sit." He would not move, because he was tired, or was it because he wanted to sit where he liked?
第三種不同的想法油然而生個讓他心安理得一點的想法在說：“你坐在這個長凳上不是挑戰，你坐在這兒是因為你累了；你累了，所以你才坐在這兒。”他不會動，是因為他累了，還是因為他想要坐在自己喜歡坐的地方呢？
People were now pouring out of a train that had pulled into the station. There were so many people pushing and jostling one another that nobody noticed him. This was his train. It would be quite easy to step into the train and ride off home, but that would be giving in, suffering defeat, refusing the challenge, in fact admitting that he was not a human being. He sat on. Lazily he blew the cigarette smoke into the air, thinking... his mind was far from the meeting and the bench, he was thinking of Bietjiesvlei and Ou Klaas, how he had insisted that Karlie should come to Cape Town. Ou Klaas could look so quizzically at one and suck at his pipe. He was wise to know and knew much. He had said one must go to Cape Town and learn the ways of the world. He would spit and wink slyly when he spoke of District Six and the women he knew in Hanover Street. Ou Klaas knew everything. He said God made us white or black and we must therefore keep our places.
人們從剛剛進站的火車里涌出。人很多，大家你擠我，我推你，沒有人注意到他。這就是他要搭乘的火車，登上火車回家，這是很容易做到的。但那樣做就等于屈服，接受失敗，放棄挑戰，實際上等于承認他不是個人。于是他繼續坐在那里，懶洋洋地把抽的煙吐到空氣中，思考著……他的思緒已遠離這次集會和這張長凳，他正在想別吉斯烏雷和歐·克拉斯，想看歐·克拉斯過去如何堅持卡里應該來開普敦。歐·克拉斯可能會吸著他的煙袋鍋，好奇地望著某個人。他很聰明，想了解很多東西，并且見多識廣。他說過一個人必須去開普敦，了解世界的各個方面。當他說到第六區和他所認識的漢諾夫大街的女人們時，他總是要吐口水，并詭異地眨著眼睛。歐·克拉斯知道所有的事情。他說上帝把我們造成白人或黑人，因此我們必須安分守己。
