Lesson 4 A Drink in the Passage.doc

Lesson 4 A Drink in the Passage 1 In the year 1960 the Union of South Africa celebrated its Golden Jubilee and there was a nationwide sensation when the one thousand pound prize for the finest piece of sculpture was won by a black man Edward Simelane His work African Mother and Child not only excited the admiration but touched the conscience or heart or whatever it was that responded of white South Africa and seemed likely to make him famous in other countries 2 It was by an oversight that his work was accepted for it was the policy of the government that all the celebrations and competitions should be strictly segregated The committee of the sculpture section received a private reprimand for having been so careless as to omit the words for whites only from the conditions but was told by a very high personage it is said that if Simelane s work was indisputably the best it should receive the award The committee then decided that this prize must be given along with the others at the public ceremony which would bring this particular part of the celebrations to a close 3 For this decision it received a surprising amount of support from the white public but in certain powerful quarters there was an outcry against any departure from the traditional policies of the country and a threat that many white prize winners would renounce their prizes However a crisis was averted because the sculptor was unfortunately unable to attend the ceremony 4 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 5 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 6 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 7 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 8 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 9 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 10 He said to me What do you think of that mate And you know one doesn t get called mate every day 11 I m looking at it I said 12 I come and look at it nearly every night he said You know it s by one of your own boys don t you 13 Yea I know 14 it s beautiful he said Look at that mother s head She s loving that child but she s somehow watching too Like someone guarding She knows it won t be an easy life 15 Then he said confidentially Mate would you like a drink 16 Well honestly I didn t feel like a drink at that time of night with a white stranger and all and a train still to catch to Orlando 17 You know we black people must be out of the city by eleven I said 18 it won t take long My flat s just round the corner Do you speak Afrikaans 19 Since I was a child I said in Afrikaans 20 Well speak Afrikaans then My English isn t too wonderful I m van Rensburg And you 21 I couldn t have told him my name I said I was Vakalisa living in Orlando 22 By this time he had started off and I was following but not willingly We didn t exactly walk abreast but he didn t exactly walk in front of me He didn t look constrained He wasn t looking round to see if anyone might be watching 23 He said to me Do you know what I wanted to do 24 No I said 25 I wanted a bookshop like that one there I always wanted that ever since I can remember But I had bad luck My parents died before I could finish school 26 Then he said to me Are you educated 27 I said unwillingly Yes Then I thought to myself how stupid for leaving the question open 28 And sure enough he asked Far 29 And again unwillingly I said Far 30 He took a big leap Degree 31 Yes 32 Literature 33 Yes 34 He expelled his breath and gave a long ah We had reached his building Majorca Mansions not one of those luxurious places I was glad to see that the entrance lobby was deserted I wasn t at my ease The lift was at ground level marked Whites Only Van Rensburg opened the door and waved me in While I was waiting for him to press the button so that we could get moving and away from that ground floor he stood with his finger suspended over it and looked at me with a kind of honest unselfish envy 35 You were lucky he said Literature that s what I wanted to do 36 He shook his head and pressed the button and he didn t speak again until we stopped high up But before we got out he said suddenly if I had had a bookshop I d have given that boy a window too 37 We got out and walked along one of those polished concrete passageways On the one side was a wall and plenty of fresh air and far down below von Brandis Street On the other side were the doors impersonal doors Van Rensburg stopped at one of the doors and said to me I won t be a minute 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 38 Sorry there s no brandy he said Only wine Here s happiness 39 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 40 Van Rensburg said to me Don t you know this fellow Simelane 41 I ve heard of him I said 42 I d like to meet him he said I d like to talk to him He added You know talk out my heart to him 43 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 and I said in high Afrikaans with a smile and a bow too Ek is a dankbaar Mevrou 44 But nobody knocked me down The woman smiled and bowed and van Rensburg in a strained voice that suddenly came out of nowhere said Our land is beautiful But it breaks my heart 45 The woman put her hand on his arm and said Jannie Jannie 46 Then another woman and a man all about the same age came up and stood behind van Rensburg 47 He s a B A van Rensburg told them 48 The first woman smiled and bowed to me again and van Rensburg said as though it were a matter for grief I wanted to give him brandy but there s only wine 49 The second woman said I remember Jannie Come with me 50 She went back into the room and he followed her The first woman said to me Jannie s a good man Strange but good 51 And I thought the whole thing was mad and getting beyond me with me a black stranger being shown a testimonial for the son of the house with these white strangers standing and looking at me in the passage as though they wanted for God s sake to touch me somewhere and didn t know how but I saw the earnestness of the woman who had smiled and bowed to me and I said to her I can see that Mevrou 52 He goes down every night to look at the statue she said He says only God could make something so beautiful therefore God must be in the man who made it and he wants to meet him and talk out his heart to him 53 She looked back at the room and then she dropped her voice a little and said to me Can t you see it s somehow because it s a black woman and a black child 54 And I said to her I can see that Mevrou 55 She turned to the man and said of me He s a good boy 56 Then the other woman returned with van Rensburg and van Rensburg had a bottle of brandy He was smiling and pleased and he said to me This isn t ordinary brandy it s French 57 He showed me the bottle and I wanting to get the hell out of that place looked at it and saw it was cognac He turned to the man and said Uncle you remember The man at the bottle store said this was the best brandy in the world 58 I must go I said I must catch that train 59 I ll take you to the station he said Don t you worry about that 60 He poured me a drink and one for himself 61 Uncle he said what about one for yourself 62 The older man said I don t mind if I do and he went inside to get himself a glass 63 Van Rensburg said happiness and lifted his glass to me It was a good brandy the best I ve ever tasted But I wanted to get the hell out of there Then Uncle came back with his glass and van Rensburg poured him a brandy and Uncle raised his glass to me too All of us were full of goodwill but I was waiting for the opening of one of those impersonal doors Perhaps they were too I don t know Perhaps when you want so badly to touch someone you don t care I was drinking my brandy almost as fast as I would have drunk it in Orlando 64 I must go I said 65 Van Rensburg said I ll take you to the station He finished his brandy and I finished mine too We handed the glasses to Uncle who said to me Good night my boy The first woman said May God bless you and the other woman bowed and smiled Then van Rensburg and I went down in the lift to the basement and got into his car 66 I told you I d take you to the station he said I d take you home but I m frightened of Orlando at night 67 We drove up Eloff Street and he said Did you know what I meant I wanted to answer him but I couldn t because I didn t know what that something was He couldn t be talking about being frightened of Orlando at night because what more could one mean than just that 68 By what I asked 69 You know he said about our land being beautiful 70 Yes I knew what he meant and I knew that for God s sake he wanted to touch me too and he couldn t for his eyes had been blinded by years in the dark And I thought it was a pity he was blind for if men never touch each other they 11 hurt each other one day And it was a pity he was blind and couldn t touch me for black men don t touch white men any more only by accident when they make something like Mother and Child 71 He said to me What are you thinking 72 I said Many things and my inarticulateness distressed me for I knew he wanted something from me I felt him fall back angry hurt desiring I didn t know He stopped at the main entrance to the station but I didn t tell him I couldn t go in there I got out and said to him Thank you for the sociable evening 73 They liked having you he said Did you see that 74 I said Yes I saw that 75 He sat slumped in his seat like a man with a burden of incomprehensible insoluble grief I wanted to touch him but I was thinking about the train He said Good night and I said it too We each saluted the other What he was thinking God knows but I was thinking he was like a man trying to run a race in iron shoes and not understanding why he cannot move 76 When I got back to Orlando I told my wife the story and she wept Introduction This is a short story written by Alan Paton set in 1960 about a black sculptor whose work of art leads him into a relationship with a white young man The story was adapted and made into a 28 minute short film in 1997 by Zola Maseko one of the most talented South African filmmakers The story shows how class differences and racial prejudice can prevent people from reaching touching and connecting with each other To have a better understanding of the text it s necessary to know about the national situation of the Union of South Africa in the 1960s Pre reading I About the author I do not like to mention it But there is a voice I cannot silence Paton Alan Paton 1903 1988 Paton craggy old liberal hater of and hated by apartheid loved and unloved by the ANC famous for Cry the Beloved Country Alan Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg South Africa He started his career by teaching at a school in Ixopo The dramatic career change to director of a reformatory for black youths at Diepkloof near Johannesburg had a profound effect on his thinking The publication of Cry the Beloved Country 1948 made him one of South Africa s best known writers and by the time he died it had sold over 15 million copies Following his non racial ideals he helped to found the South African Liberal Party and became its president Alan Paton source II Background 1 South Africa in the 1960s to exclude遺漏 疏忽 20 outcry n a cry of protest 強烈抗議 21 oversight n careless error疏忽 22 personage n an important person要人 23 polished adj shiny from polishing磨光的 24 quarter n an unspecified group of people某方面人士 25 renounce v to formally give up right claim ownership放棄 26 sculptor n someone who makes sculptures from stone wood clay雕塑家 27 segregate v to impose the separation of a race from the rest of society區(qū)別對待 隔離 28 slumped adj sunk deep collapsed heavily 陷落的 垂頭的 29 squint v to look with the eyes partly open瞇著眼睛 30 strained adj worried and nervous in their manner or appearance緊張的 31 testimonial n sth given as a tribute for a person s service or achievement感謝或贊賞的 表示 Structure The text can be divided into four parts Part I para 1 6 This part is an introduction the winner his sculpture and his story from the writer s point of view Part II para 7 36 Simelane the sculptor and storyteller were invited to have a drink with a young white man at his home who admires his sculpture a lot Part III para 37 65 This part introduced his first experience in having a cognac especially with a white family and it was in the passage Part IV para 66 76 The sculptor was driven back to the station by the young white man and his returning home Comprehension Para 1 1 In the year 1960 the Union Africa celebrated its Golden Jubilee and there was a nationwide sensation when the one thousand pound prize for the finest piece of sculpture was won by a black man Edward Simelane In the year 1960 the Union of South Africa celebrated its fiftieth anniversary and there was a great excitement throughout the country when people heard that the prize for the finest piece of sculpture was won by a black man Golden Jubilee 50th anniversary 1 His work African Mother and Child not only excited the admiration but touched the conscience or heart or whatever it was that responded of white South Africa His sculpture African Mother and Child not only won the admiration of the white people for its artistic merit but also deeply touched or moved their hearts and conscience because the work made them see the injustice of racial discrimination and the black people s yearning for a better life for their children that responded here means responded in that way or similarly responded Para 2 2 It was by an oversight that his work was accepted It was because of a careless mistake that his work was accepted because as a black person he was not supposed to participate in the competition 2 The committee of the sculpture section received a private reprimand for having been so careless as to omit the words for whites only from the conditions The committee of the sculpture section received a personal rebuke blaming that they were too careless and left out the words whites only from the participating conditions requirements a private reprimand a non public criticism a criticism that is not made public Para 3 5 3 but in certain powerful quarters there was an outcry against any departure from the traditional policies of the country but some politically influential groups strongly protest against this decision as it was not in conformity with the traditional apartheid policies of the country departure from a divergence from a rule or traditional practice 4 I wasn t feeling up to it Simelane said mischievously to me My parents and my wife s parents and out priest decided that I wasn t feeling up to it And finally I decided so too Obviously Simelane and his families and friends don t think he should go to the ceremony and thus they decide to use the excuse of sickness What do you think is the real reason they would make such a decision feeling up to to have the strength or energy to do sth or deal with sth e g I just didn t feel up to going 5 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 In Orlando you the blacks gradually develop a throat as strong as iron and you just throw back your head and drink the brandy up in one gulp in order to avoid police detection a throat of iron it s a metaphor here meaning a strong throat put back throw back put it down drink it down in one gulp Para 7 9 7 They gave a window to it with a white velvet backdrop if there is anything called white velvet and some complimentary words They gave a whole window to the sculpture with a white curtain at the back and some words in praise of the work The curtain backdrop was made of white velvet if there is such a thing as white velvet white velvet it s hard to associate white velvet with sof