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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.
人们曾经一度并不了解抽烟是一种上瘾的行为，这令人难以相信。我曾经就心中的疑惑 问过姐姐——她一直在反复地尝试戒烟——父亲是否意识到了这一点。我想知道作为一个从 高中便开始抽烟的人，她是怎么看待自己的这个习惯的。
It was our father who gave her her first cigarette, one day when she had taken water to him in the fields.
有一天她去给在地里干活的父亲送水的时候，父亲给了她第一支烟。
"I always wondered why he did that," she said, puzzled, and with some bitterness.
“我一直在想为什么他会那么做，”她说，她感到苦涩而困惑。
"What did he say?" I asked.
“他说了些什么？”我问道。
"That he didn't want me to go to anyone else for them," she said, "which never really crossed my mind."
“他说他不想让我去其他人那里要烟，”她说，“而我从来没想过要那么做
So he was aware it was addictive, I thought, though as annoyed as she that he assumed she would be interested.
所以，他知道抽烟是上瘾的，尽管我和她一样感到困扰，但我觉得父亲当时认为她对抽烟应该是感兴趣的。
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年级的时候开始抽烟，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，还有所有想要这种“探险”的男孩，都从一个在郊区经营着种族隔离酒吧及卖酒的商店的男人那里买这些东西。在入口处有一个大的标牌上面写着“有色人种”。我们在那里喝酒是不被允许的，只能买酒。我那时候抽“古日”牌香烟，因为姐姐抽这个牌子。那时候我觉得她那因为烟中的毒素而暗黑色的嘴唇及牙床很迷人。然而，只是我的身体无法耐受香烟。 6个月后，我便得了慢性咽喉痛。我欣然地放弃了抽烟。由于这是我和兄弟们的一种仪式——穆尔、利昂以及“无赖”费尔利——我继续喝酒。
