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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.
然后他进去了，但没有关门，我能够听到门里说话的声音。大约一分钟之后，他回到了门口，手里拿着两杯红葡萄酒。他态度热情，面带微笑。
Sorry there's no brandy， he said. "Only wine. Here's happiness."
“不好意思，没有白兰地了，”他说，“只有葡萄酒。祝你快乐。”
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.
当时我确实没有料到我会在走廊里喝酒。我当时的感受不仅仅是你可能会想到的那样，我一直在担心其中的一扇没有人情味儿的门会随时打开，有人会看到我在“白人的”楼房里，看到我和范兰斯堡违反了国家的管制酒的法律。如果当时我勃然大怒我就不会让自己陷入这样尴尬的境地，但你知道，我这人不轻易生气。即使我本来是个容易发火的人，但我发现我也很难对这个特别的男子发火。但我想要离开那里，却无法脱身。
Van Rensburg said to me, "Don't you know this fellow Simelane?"
范兰斯堡对我说你不认识西梅拉内这个人吗？”
I've heard of him, I said.
“我听说过他我说。
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."
“我很想认识他，”他说，“我想和他谈谈。”他补充道，“你知道，我想和他说说我的心里话。”
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,
一位大约五十岁的妇女从远处的房间走了过来，手里端着一盘饼干。她微笑着向我点头致意。我拿了一块饼干，但即使给我世界上所有的钱我都不会用南非荷兰语对她说“谢谢太太”或者是那令人讨厌的“谢谢小姐”之类的话，我也不想和她说英语，因为她说的是南非荷兰语。于是出于礼貌——使用这种礼貌的黑人会被一些南非荷兰人打翻在地——我便斗胆用了南非荷兰语“夫人”这个词。
