I wasn't feeling up to it, Simelane said mischievously to me. "My parents, and my wife's parents, and our priest, decided that I wasn't feeling up to it. And finally I decided so too. Of course Majosi and Sola and the others wanted me to go and get my prize personally, but I said, 'boys, I'm a sculptor, not a demonstrator."'
“我没精力去领奖,”西梅拉内戏谑地对我说,“我的父母、岳父岳母,以及我们的牧师都认为我没精力去领这个奖。最后,我也决定不去领奖了。当然,马乔希和苏拉及其他人都希望我亲自去领奖,但我说:‘孩子们,我是一个雕塑师,而不是一个示威者。’”
This cognac is wonderful, he said, "especially in these big glasses. It's the first time I've had such a glass. It's also the first time I've drunk a brandy so slowly. In Orlando you develop a throat of iron, and you just put back your head and put it down, in case the police should arrive."
“这种干邑白兰地非常棒,”他说,“尤其是用这种大玻璃杯喝,我还是第一次用这么大的玻璃杯来喝这种酒。这也是我第一次这么慢地喝白兰地。在奥兰多,你得练就一副铁喉咙。一仰头就把酒倒进嘴里了,生怕被警察看见。”
He said to me, "This is the second cognac I've had in my life. Would you like to hear the story of how I had my first?"
他对我说这是我平生第二次喝干邑白兰地。想不想听我第一次喝白兰地的故事?”
You know the Alabaster Bookshop in Von Brandis Street? Well, after the competition they asked me if they could exhibit my African Mother and Child. They gave a whole window to it, with a white velvet backdrop, if there is anything called white velvet, and some complimentary words.
你知道冯布兰达斯大街上的埃勒巴斯特书店吗?嗯,这次比赛之后,他们问我是否可以展出我的《非洲母子》。他们用一整个橱窗摆放这尊雕像,后面衬着白色的天鹅绒——如果有白色天鹅绒这种东西的话,他们还为这尊雕塑配上了一些溢美之辞。
Well somehow I could never go and look in that window. On my way from the station to the Herald office, I sometimes went past there, and I felt good when I saw all the people standing there; but I would only squint at it out of the corner of my eye.
嗯,不知怎么地,我从未能走近橱窗朝里看一看。从火车站到《先驱报》报社,我有时会从那里经过,当我看到人们站在那里驻足观看时,我感觉不错;但我只是用眼角的余光瞟它几眼罢了。
Then one night I was working late at the Herald, and when I came out there was hardly anyone in the streets, so I thought I'd go and see the window, and indulge certain pleasurable human feelings. I must have got a little lost in the contemplation of my own genius, because suddenly there was a young white man standing next to me.
之后,有一天晚上我在《先驱报》报社工作到了很晚,当我从报社出来时,街上几乎空无一人,于是,我想我要去那里看看那个橱窗,来满足一下某种愉快的人类情感。在凝视我自己的天才之作的时候,我一定是有点忘乎所以,因为我突然发现,一位白人青年站在我身旁。