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It is hard to believe there was a time when people did not understand that cigarette smoking is an addiction. I wondered aloud once to my sister—who is perennially trying to quit—whether our father realized this. I wondered how she, a smoker since high school, viewed her own habit.
人們曾經一度并不了解抽煙是一種上癮的行為，這令人難以相信。我曾經就心中的疑惑 問過姐姐——她一直在反復地嘗試戒煙——父親是否意識到了這一點。我想知道作為一個從 高中便開始抽煙的人，她是怎么看待自己的這個習慣的。
It was our father who gave her her first cigarette, one day when she had taken water to him in the fields.
有一天她去給在地里干活的父親送水的時候，父親給了她第一支煙。
"I always wondered why he did that," she said, puzzled, and with some bitterness.
“我一直在想為什么他會那么做，”她說，她感到苦澀而困惑。
"What did he say?" I asked.
“他說了些什么？”我問道。
"That he didn't want me to go to anyone else for them," she said, "which never really crossed my mind."
“他說他不想讓我去其他人那里要煙，”她說，“而我從來沒想過要那么做
So he was aware it was addictive, I thought, though as annoyed as she that he assumed she would be interested.
所以，他知道抽煙是上癮的，盡管我和她一樣感到困擾，但我覺得父親當時認為她對抽煙應該是感興趣的。
I began smoking in eleventh grade, also the year I drank numerous bottles of terrible sweet, very cheap wine. My friends and I, all boys for this venture, bought our supplies from a man who ran a segregated bar and liquor store on the outskirts of town. Over the entrance there was a large sign that said COLORED. We were not permitted to drink there, only to buy. I smoked Kools because my sister did. By then I thought her toxic darkened lips and gums glamorous. However, my body simply would not tolerate smoke. After six months, I had a chronic sore throat. I gave up smoking, gladly. Because it was a ritual with my buddies—Murl, Leon, and "Dog" Fairly—I continued to drink wine.
我在上11年級的時候開始抽煙，也是在那一年我喝了很多瓶很甜、很便宜的葡萄酒。我的朋友和我，還有所有想要這種“探險”的男孩，都從一個在郊區經營著種族隔離酒吧及賣酒的商店的男人那里買這些東西。在入口處有一個大的標牌上面寫著“有色人種”。我們在那里喝酒是不被允許的，只能買酒。我那時候抽“古日”牌香煙，因為姐姐抽這個牌子。那時候我覺得她那因為煙中的毒素而暗黑色的嘴唇及牙床很迷人。然而，只是我的身體無法耐受香煙。 6個月后，我便得了慢性咽喉痛。我欣然地放棄了抽煙。由于這是我和兄弟們的一種儀式——穆爾、利昂以及“無賴”費爾利——我繼續喝酒。
