Please note that you are only required to read about 11 pages here, I have crossed out what you don’t have to read, but I’ve left those pages in if you want to read this section more completely. -VP
请注意，你只需阅读大约 11 页的内容，我已经划掉了你不必阅读的部分，但如果你想更完整地阅读这一节，我保留了那些页面。-VP

be among some city’s professional black bourgeoisie, sipping cocktails and palming myself off as a community spokesman for and leader of the suffering black masses, while my primary concern would be to grab a few more crumbs from the groaning board of the two-faced whites with whom they’re begging to “integrate.”
成为某个城市的职业黑人资产阶级的一员，啜饮着鸡尾酒，自诩为受苦的黑人群体的社区发言人和领导者，而我的主要关注点却是从那些两面派白人的丰盛餐桌上再抓几块面包屑，这些人正乞求与他们“融合”。

All praise is due to Allah that I went to Boston when I did. If I hadn’t, I’d probably still be a brainwashed black Christian.
一切赞美归于安拉，我适时去了波士顿。如果我没有去，我可能仍然是一个被洗脑的黑人基督徒。

Ilooked like Li’l Abner. Mason, Michigan, was written all over me. My kinky, reddish hair was cut hick style, and I didn’t even use grease in it. My green suit’s coat sleeves stopped above my wrists, the pants legs showed three inches of socks. Just a shade lighter green than the suit was my narrow-collared, threequarter length Lansing department store topcoat. My appearance was too much for even Ella. But she told me later she had seen countrified members of the Little family come up from Georgia in even worse shape than I was.
我看起来像 Li’l Abner。我浑身上下都写着 Mason, Michigan。我那卷曲的红头发剪得很土气，我甚至没在上面抹油。我的绿色西装外套袖子只到手腕上方，裤腿露出了三英寸的袜子。比西装稍浅一点的绿色是我的窄领、四分之三长度的 Lansing 百货商店大衣。就连 Ella 也受不了我的样子。但她后来告诉我，她见过 Little 家族从乔治亚州来的乡下成员，他们的状况比我还糟。

Ella had fixed up a niee little upstairs room for me. And she was truly a Georgia Negro woman when she got into the kitehen with her pets and pans. She was the kind of eook whe would heap up your plate with sueh as ham hoek, greens, blaek eyed peas, fried fish, abbage, sweet petatoes, grits and gravy, and combread. And the more you put away the better she felt. I worked out at Ella’s kitehen table like there was no tomer row.
埃拉为我整理了一间楼上的小房间。当她走进厨房，拿起她的锅碗瓢盆时，她真是一个地道的乔治亚州黑人女性。她是那种会往你盘子里堆满火腿骨、青菜、黑眼豆、炸鱼、卷心菜、红薯、粗玉米粉和肉汁，还有玉米面包的厨师。你吃得越多，她就越开心。我在埃拉的厨房餐桌前大快朵颐，仿佛没有明天似的。

Ella still seomed to be as big, blaek, outspeken and impressive a woman as she had been in Mason and Lansing. Only about twe weeks before I arrived, she had split up-with her seeond husband the soldiar, Frank, whom I had met there the previous summer, but she was taking it right in stride. I could see, though I didn’t say, how any average man would find it almost impossible to live for very long with a woman whose every instinet
埃拉似乎仍然是那个在梅森和兰辛时一样高大、黝黑、直言不讳且令人印象深刻的女性。就在我到达前大约两周，她和她的第二任丈夫、士兵弗兰克分手了，我在去年夏天见过他，但她对此表现得泰然自若。虽然我没说，但我能看出，任何一个普通男人都会发现，要和一个每个本能都如此强烈的女人长久生活几乎是不可能的。
was to run everything and everybody she had anything to do with-inctuding me. About my second day there in Roxbury, Ella told me that she didn’t want me to start hunting for a job right away, like most newcomer Negroes did. She said that she had told all those she’d brought North to take their time, to walk around, to travel the buses and the subway, and get the feel of Boston, before they tied themselves down working somewhere, because they would never again have the time to really see and get to know anything about the city they were living in. Ella said she’d help me find a job when it was time for me to go to work.
她打算管理所有与她有关的人和事——包括我。大约在我到罗克斯伯里的第二天，艾拉告诉我，她不希望我像大多数新来的黑人那样立刻开始找工作。她说，她告诉所有她带到北方的人要慢慢来，四处走走，乘坐公交车和地铁，感受波士顿的氛围，然后再在某处工作，因为他们再也不会有时间真正去看和了解他们所居住的这座城市了。艾拉说，当我该去工作的时候，她会帮我找工作的。

So I went gawking around the neighborhood-the Waumbeck and Humboldt Avenue Hill section of Roxbury, which is something like Harlem’s Sugar Hill, where I’d later live. I saw those Roxbury Negroes acting and living differently from any black people I’d ever dreamed of in my life. This was the snooty-black neighborhood; they called themselves the “Four Hundred,” and looked down their noses at the Negroes of the black ghetto, or so-called “town” seetion where Mary, my other half-sister, lived.
于是我就在附近闲逛——Roxbury 的 Waumbeck 和 Humboldt Avenue Hill 地区，这有点像后来我居住的 Harlem 的 Sugar Hill。我看到那些 Roxbury 的黑人举止和生活与我一生中梦想过的任何黑人都不同。这是一个傲慢的黑人社区；他们自称“四百人”，并对黑人贫民窟或所谓的“城镇”地区的黑人嗤之以鼻，我的另一个同父异母的妹妹 Mary 就住在那里。

What I thought I was seeing there in Roxbury were high-class, educated, important Negroes, living well, working in big jobs and positions. Their quiet homes sat back in their mowed yards. These Negroes walked along the sidewalks looking haughty and dignified, on their way to work, to shop, to visit, to church. I know now, of course, that what I was really seeing was only a big-city version of those “successful” Negro bootblacks and janitors back in Lansing. The only difference was that the ones in Boston had been brainwashed even more thoroughly. They prided themselves on being incomparably more “cultured,” “cultivated,” “dignified,” and better off than their black brethren down in the ghetto, which was no further away than you could throw a rock. Under the pitiful misapprehension that it would make them “better,” these Hill Negroes were breaking their backs trying to imitate white people.
我在 Roxbury 看到的，我认为是那些高阶层、受过教育、重要的黑人，他们生活得很好，担任着重要的工作和职位。他们安静的家坐落在修剪整齐的院子里。这些黑人沿着人行道行走，看起来傲慢而有尊严，他们去工作、购物、拜访、去教堂。当然，我现在知道，我真正看到的只是那些在 Lansing“成功”的黑人擦鞋匠和看门人的大城市版本。唯一的区别是波士顿的那些人已经被洗脑得更彻底。他们以自己比贫民区的黑人同胞“更有文化”、“更有教养”、“更有尊严”、生活更好而自豪，而贫民区离他们并不远，一石之遥。在可怜的误解下，认为这会让他们“更好”，这些 Hill 的黑人们拼命地模仿白人。
Any black famity that had been around Beston long enough to own the home they lived in was eonsidered among the Hill elite. It didn’t make any differenee that they had to rent out
任何在贝斯顿生活了足够长时间的黑人家庭，只要拥有他们所居住的房屋，就被视为山丘精英。他们是否必须出租房屋并不重要。
rooms to make ends meet. Then the native-bom New Engtanders among them looked down upon recently migrated Southern home-owners who lived next deer, like Ella. Aind a big percentage of the Hill-dwellers were in Ella’s eategory-Soththern strivers and scramblers, and Wost Indian Negroes, whom both the New Englanders and the Seuthemers ealled “Dlach Jews.” Usu= ally it was the Southerners and the West Indians who not only managed to own the places where they lived, but also at least one other house which they rented as income property. The snooty New Englanders usually owned less than they.
为了维持生计，他们不得不租出房间。然后，那些土生土长的新英格兰人瞧不起最近从南方搬来的房主，比如艾拉。而山上居民中很大一部分都属于艾拉这一类——南方的奋斗者和拼搏者，以及西印度群岛的黑人，新英格兰人和南方人都称他们为“黑人犹太人”。通常，南方人和西印度群岛人不仅拥有自己的住所，还至少拥有另一处作为收入来源的房产。而那些自命不凡的新英格兰人通常拥有的房产比他们少。

In those days on the Hill, any who eoudd claim “professional” status-teachors, preachers, proetieal inures-also comsidered themselves superior. Foraign diplomats could have modeled their conduct on the way the Negro postmen, Püman poters. and dining ear waiters of Roxbury acted, stiding around as if they were weating top hats and cutaways.
在那些日子里，在山上，任何自称拥有“专业”地位的人——教师、传教士、实际从业者——也都认为自己高人一等。外国外交官本可以效仿罗克斯伯里黑人邮递员、普尔曼搬运工和餐车服务员的行为举止，他们走来走去，仿佛戴着高顶礼帽和燕尾服。

I’d guess that eight out of ten of the Hill Negioes of Roxbury, despite the impressive-sounding $job$$job$jobj o b tithes they affected, actually worked as menials and servants. “He’s in banking,” of “He’s in securities.” It sounded as though they were discussing a Rockefeller or a Mellon-and not some gray headed, dignity-posturing bank jauitor, or bond-house messenger. “I’m with an old family” was the euphemism used to dignify the professions of white folks’ oooks and maids who talked so affectedly among their own kind in Roxbury that you-couldn’t even understand them. I don’t know how many forty and fifty-yeaüold errand boys went down the Hill dressed like ambassadors in black suits and white collars, to downtown jobs “in government,” “in finance,” or “in law.” It has nover eeased to amaze ine liow so many Negroes, then and now, eould stand the imdignity of that kind of self-delusion.
我猜罗克斯伯里山区的黑人中，有十分之八的人，尽管他们装模作样地谈论着那些听起来很了不起的“银行”或“证券”工作，实际上却做着仆人和佣人的工作。“他在银行工作”或“他在证券行业”，听起来仿佛他们在谈论一个洛克菲勒或梅隆——而不是某个灰白头发的、摆出一副尊严姿态的银行看门人或债券公司信使。“我在一个老家族工作”是用来美化那些在白人家庭中做厨师和女仆的职业的委婉说法，他们在罗克斯伯里自己的圈子里说话如此做作，以至于你甚至听不懂他们在说什么。我不知道有多少四十到五十岁的跑腿男孩，穿着像大使一样的黑色西装和白领子，从山区下来，去市区从事“政府”、“金融”或“法律”工作。我至今仍惊讶于这么多黑人，无论是过去还是现在，能够忍受这种自我欺骗的屈辱。

Soon I ranged out of Roxbury and begain to explore Boston proper. Historic buildings everywhere I tumed, and plaques and markers and statues for famous events and men. One statue in the Boston Commons astonished me: a Negio Hamed Crispus Attucks, who had been the first man to fall in the Boston Mas sacre. I had never lmown anything like that.
很快，我走出了罗克斯伯里，开始探索波士顿市区。我转身所见的每一处都是历史建筑，以及纪念著名事件和人物的牌匾、标记和雕像。波士顿公园里的一座雕像让我震惊：一个名叫克里斯普斯·阿塔克斯的黑人，他是波士顿大屠杀中第一个倒下的人。我从未听说过这样的事情。

Iroaned everywhere. In one direction, I walked as far as Boston University. Another day, I took my first subway ride. When most of the people got off, I followed. It was Gambridge, and I eiveled all around in the Harvard University campus. Somewhere, I had already heard of Harvard - theugh I didn’t know much more about it. Nobody that day could have tord me I woud give an address before the Harvard Law Sehoel Forum some twenty years later.
我四处游荡。一个方向，我走到了波士顿大学。另一天，我第一次乘坐了地铁。当大多数人下车时，我也跟着下了。那是剑桥，我在哈佛大学的校园里四处转悠。在某个地方，我已经听说过哈佛——尽管我对它了解不多。那天没有人能告诉我，大约二十年后，我会在哈佛法学院论坛上发表演讲。

Ialso dida lot of exploring downtown. Why a city woud have two big railroad stations North Station and South Station-I eouldrit underotand. At both of the stations, I stood arourd and watehed people amive and leave. And I did the same thing at the bus station where Ella had met me. My wanderings even led me down along the piens amd dooks where I read plaques telling about the old sailing ships that used to put into port there.
我也在市中心进行了很多探索。为什么一个城市会有两个大火车站——北站和南站——我无法理解。在这两个车站，我站在周围，看着人们到来和离开。我在艾拉接我的公交车站也做了同样的事情。我的漫游甚至带我沿着码头和船坞走，在那里我读到了一些关于曾经停靠在那里的古老帆船的铭牌。

In a letter to wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, amd Peginald back in Lansing, I told them about all this, and about the winding, nar row, eobblestoned streets, and the howses that jammed up against each other. Dewntown Boston, I wrote them, hat the biggest stores I’d ever seen, and white people’s restaurants and hotels. I made up my mind that I was going to see every movie that eame to the fine, aireonditioned theaters.
在一封寄给兰辛的威尔弗雷德、希尔达、菲尔伯特和佩吉纳德的信中，我向他们描述了这一切，包括蜿蜒狭窄的鹅卵石街道，以及紧紧挨在一起的房屋。我告诉他们，波士顿市中心有我见过的最大的商店，还有白人的餐馆和酒店。我下定决心，要去看每一部在那些装有空调的豪华影院上映的电影。

On Massachusetts Avenue, next door to one of them, the Leew’s State Theater, was the huge, exciting Roseland State Ballroom. Big posters out in front advertised the nationally famous bands, white and Negro, that had played there. “COMNNG NEXT WEEK,” when I went by that first time, was Glemm Miller. I re member thinking how nearly the whole evening’s music at Mason High Sehool danees had been Glemin Miller’s reeords. What wouldn’t that erowd have given, I wondered, to be standing where Glemm Miller’s baud was actually going to play? I didn’t know how familiar with Reseland I was going to become.
在马萨诸塞大道上，紧邻其中一家，Lee’s State Theater，是巨大而令人兴奋的 Roseland State Ballroom。前面的大海报宣传着曾在那里演出的全国知名乐队，无论是白人还是黑人。当我第一次经过时，“下周即将到来”的是 Glenn Miller。我记得自己当时在想，Mason High School 舞会上几乎整晚的音乐都是 Glenn Miller 的唱片。我好奇，那人群会付出什么，才能站在 Glenn Miller 乐队即将实际演出的地方？我并不知道自己将会对 Roseland 有多么熟悉。

Ella began to grow coneerned, beeause even when I had fir mally had enough sight seeing, I didn’t stich around very mmeh on the Hill. She kept dropping hints that I ought to mingle with the “nice young people my age” who were to be seen in the
埃拉开始感到担忧，因为即使我最终看够了风景，我也没在希尔区待太久。她不断暗示我应该和“同龄的年轻人”多接触，这些人在希尔区随处可见。

Townend Drugstore twe blocks from her house, and a couple of other places. But even before I eame to Beston, I had always felt and aeted toward anyone my age as if they were in the “kid” elass, like my younger brother Peginald. They had always looked up to me as if I were eonsiderably older. On weekends baek in Lansing where Id go to get away from the white people in Mar son, I’d hung around in the Negro part of town with Wilfred’s and Philbert’s set. Though all of them-were several yeans older than me, I was bigger, and I aetwally looked odder than most of them.
Townend Drugstore 离她家有两个街区，还有其他几个地方。但即使在我来到波士顿之前，我总是觉得并对待与我同龄的人，就好像他们属于“孩子”一类，就像我弟弟 Peginald 一样。他们总是仰视我，好像我比他们大很多。在兰辛度周末时，为了远离马森的白人，我会和 Wilfred 以及 Philbert 那帮人在镇上的黑人区闲逛。尽管他们都比我大几岁，但我个子更大，而且实际上看起来比他们大多数人都要老成。

I didn’t want to disappoint or upset Ella, but despite her advice, I began going down into the town ghetto section. That world of grocery stores, walk-up flats, cheap restaurants, poolrooms, bars, storefront churches, and pawnshops seemed to hold a natural lure for me.
我不想让 Ella 失望或难过，但尽管她劝告，我还是开始去镇上的贫民区。那个充满杂货店、公寓楼、廉价餐馆、台球室、酒吧、临街教堂和当铺的世界似乎对我有一种天然的吸引力。

Not only was this part of Roxbury much more exciting, but I felt more relaxed among Negroes who were being their natural selves and not putting on airs. Even though I did live on the Hill, my instincts were never-and still aren’t-to feel myself better than any other Negro.
不仅是罗克斯伯里的这一部分更加令人兴奋，而且我在这些自然表现、不做作的黑人中间感到更加放松。尽管我确实住在山上，但我的本能从未——现在仍然不是——觉得自己比其他黑人更优越。

I spent the first month in town with my mouth hanging open. The sharp-dressed young “cats” who hung on the corners and in the poolrooms, bars and restaurants, and who obviously didn’t work anywhere, completely entranced me. I couldn’t get over marveling at how their hair was straight and shiny like white men’s hair; Ella told me this was called a “conk.” I had never tasted a sip of liquor, never even smoked a cigarette, and here I saw little black children, ten and twelve years old, shooting craps, playing cards, fighting, getting grown-ups to put a penny or a nickel on their number for them, things like that. And these children threw around swear words I’d never heard before, even, and slang expressions that were just as new to me, such as “stud” and “cat” and “chick” and “cool” and “hip.” Every night as I lay in bed I turned these new words over in my mind. It was shocking to me that in town, especially after dark, you’d occasionally see a white girl and a Negro man strolling arm in arm along the sidewalk, and mixed couples drinking in
我在镇上的第一个月总是张着嘴。那些衣着光鲜的年轻“猫儿”们，他们站在街角、台球室、酒吧和餐馆里，显然没有在任何地方工作，完全迷住了我。我无法停止对他们头发直亮如白人头发的好奇；埃拉告诉我这叫“康克”。我从未尝过一滴酒，甚至从未抽过一支烟，而在这里，我看到了十岁、十二岁的小黑孩子们在玩骰子、打牌、打架，让大人为他们押上一分或五分钱。这些孩子们说的脏话我从未听过，还有像“帅哥”、“猫儿”、“妞儿”、“酷”和“时髦”这样的俚语对我来说也是全新的。每晚躺在床上，我都在脑海中反复琢磨这些新词。令我震惊的是，在镇上，尤其是天黑后，你偶尔会看到一个白人女孩和一个黑人男子手挽手沿着人行道散步，还有不同种族的夫妇在喝酒。
the neon-lighted bars-not slipping off to some dark corner, as in Lansing. I wrote Wilfred and Philbert about that, too.
霓虹灯闪烁的酒吧——不像在兰辛那样偷偷溜到某个黑暗的角落。我也写信告诉了 Wilfred 和 Philbert 这件事。
I wanted to find a job myself, to surprise Ella. One afternoon, something told me to go inside a poolroom whose window I was looking through. I had looked through that window many times. I wasn’t yearning to play pool; in fact, I had never held a cue stick. But I was drawn by the sight of the cool-looking “cats” standing around inside, bending over the big, green, felt-topped tables, making bets and shooting the bright-colored balls into the holes. As I stared through the window this particular afternoon, something made me decide to venture inside and talk to a dark, stubby, conk-headed fellow who racked up balls for the pool-players, whom I’d heard called “Shorty,” One day he had come outside and seen me standing there and said “Hi, Red,” so that made me figure he was friendly.
我想自己找份工作，给埃拉一个惊喜。一天下午，某种感觉促使我走进了一家台球室，我正透过它的窗户往里看。我曾多次透过那扇窗户看进去。我并不是渴望打台球；事实上，我从未碰过球杆。但里面那些看起来很酷的“猫”吸引了我，他们弯着腰站在绿色的大台球桌旁，下注并将彩色的球打进洞里。就在这个特别的下午，我透过窗户凝视时，某种东西让我决定冒险进去，和那个为台球手摆球的矮胖、深色皮肤、头发蓬松的家伙聊聊，我听说他叫“肖蒂”。有一天他出来，看到我站在那里，对我说：“嗨，红毛。”这让我觉得他很友好。
As inconspicuously as I could, I slipped inside the door and around the side of the poolroom, avoiding people, and on to the back, where Shorty was filling an aluminum can with the powder that pool players dust on their hands. He looked up at me. Later on, Shorty would enjoy teasing me about how with that first glance he knew my whole story. “Man, that cat still smelled country!” he’d say, laughing. “Cat’s legs was so long and his pants so short his knees showed-an’ his head looked like a briar patch!”
我尽可能不引人注目地溜进门，绕过台球室的侧面，避开人群，走到后面，Shorty 正在往一个铝罐里装台球选手用来擦手的粉末。他抬头看了我一眼。后来，Shorty 会喜欢拿这件事来取笑我，说他一看到我就知道我的全部故事。“伙计，那家伙身上还有乡村的味道！”他会笑着说，“那家伙的腿那么长，裤子那么短，膝盖都露出来了——他的头看起来像个荆棘丛！”
But that afternoon Shorty didn’t let it show in his face how “country” I appeared when I told him Id appreciate it if hed tell me how could somebody go-about getting a job like his.
但那天下午，当我告诉 Shorty 如果他告诉我如何能找到像他这样的工作我会非常感激时，他没有在脸上表现出我看起来有多“土”。
“If you mean raeking up bells,” said Shoriy, “I dorit know of no pool joints around here needing anybody. You mean you just want any slave you can find?” A “slave” meant work, a job.
“如果你是说敲钟，”肖里说，“我不知道这附近有什么需要人的赌场。你是说，你只是想要随便找个奴隶吗？”这里的“奴隶”指的是工作，一份活儿。

He asked what kind of work I haddone. I todd himi that Id washed restaurant dishes in Mason, Michigan. He nearty dropped the powder ean. “My homeboy! Man, gimme some skin! Im from Lansing!”
他问我做过什么工作。我告诉他我在密歇根州的梅森洗过餐馆的盘子。他差点把粉罐掉下来。“我的老乡！伙计，击个掌！我来自兰辛！”

I never told Shorty and he never suspected-that he was about ten yoars older than I. He took us to be about the same age. At first I would have been embarrassed to tell him, later I
我从未告诉 Shorty，他也从未怀疑——他比我大十岁左右。他以为我们年纪相仿。起初我会因为告诉他而感到尴尬，后来我
just never bothered. Shorty had dropped out of first year high sehool in Lansing, lived while with an whele and aunt in Detroit, and had spent the last six years living with his eousin in Roxbury. But when I mentioned the names of Lansing people and places, he remembered many, and pretty soon we sounded as if we had been raised in the sume block. I eould seme shorty’s genuine gladness, and I don’t have to say how lueky I felt to find a friend as hip as he obriously was.
从来就没费过心。Shorty 在兰辛的高中一年级就辍学了，曾和一位姑妈在底特律住过一段时间，过去六年一直和他的表亲住在罗克斯伯里。但当我提到兰辛的人名和地名时，他记得很多，很快我们听起来就像是在同一个街区长大的。我能感受到 Shorty 由衷的喜悦，而我找到像他这样显然很懂行的朋友，有多幸运就不用说了。
“Man, this is a swinging town if you dig it,” shory said. “You’re my homeboy I’m going to sehool you to the happent ings.” I stood there and ginimed like a fool. “You got to go anywhere now? Well, stiok around antil I get off.”
“伙计，如果你喜欢，这里可是个热闹的地方，”肖里说。“你是我哥们，我要带你去最棒的地方。”我站在那里，像个傻瓜一样笑着。“你现在要去哪儿吗？那就在这儿等我下班吧。”

One thing I liked immediately about Shorty was his frankness. When I told him where I lived, he said what I already know- that nobedy in town-eould-stand the Hill Negioes. But he thought a sister whe gave me a “pad,” not chargimg me rent, net even running me out to find “some stave,” couddn’t be at bad. Shorty’s stave in the poolroom, he said, was just to keep ends together while he learned his hom. A eoupte of years be fore, he’d hit the numbers and bought a saxophone. “Got it right in there in the eloset now, for my lesson tonight.” Shorty was taking lessons “with some other studs,” and he intermed one day to organize his own small band. “There’s a let of bread to be made gigging right around here in Poxbury,” Shorty ex plained to me. “I don’t dig joining some big band, one-nighting all over just to say I played with Count or Duke or somebody.” I thrught that was smart. I wished I had studied a hom but I never had been exposed to one.
我立刻喜欢上 Shorty 的一点就是他的直率。当我告诉他我住在哪里时，他说了我已经知道的事情——镇上的没人能忍受 Hill 的黑人。但他认为一个姐姐给我“住处”，不收我房租，甚至不赶我出去找“一些奴隶”，应该不会太坏。Shorty 说他在台球厅的“奴隶”只是为了维持生计，同时他在学习他的号。几年前，他中了彩票，买了一把萨克斯。“现在就在壁橱里，为了今晚的课程。”Shorty 正在“和其他一些家伙”一起上课，他打算有一天组织自己的小乐队。“在 Poxbury 这里演出能赚不少钱，”Shorty 向我解释道。“我不想加入什么大乐队，到处巡演就为了说我曾经和 Count 或 Duke 之类的人一起演出过。”我觉得这很聪明。我希望我也学过一种乐器，但我从未接触过。

All afternoon, between trips up front to rack balls, Shorty talked to me out of the eorner of his mowh. which hustlers standing around, or playing at this or that table-sold “reefers,” Of had just come out of prison, or were “seenidstory men.” Shorty told me that he played at least a dollar a day on the numbers. He said as soon as he hit a number, he would use the winning organize his band.
整个下午，在前台来回拿球的间隙，Shorty 总是从嘴角挤出话来跟我聊。那些站在周围或在不同球桌间游走的赌徒们卖着“大麻”，有的刚从监狱出来，有的则是“故事贩子”。Shorty 告诉我，他每天至少会花一美元在数字彩票上。他说，一旦中奖，他就打算用赢来的钱组建自己的乐队。

I was ashamed to have to admit that I had never played the numbers. “Well, you-ain’t never had mothing to play with,” he
我不得不羞愧地承认，我从未玩过数字游戏。“好吧，你从来没有什么可玩的，”他说。
said excusing me, “but you start when you get a stave, and if you hit, you got a stake for something.”
说“不好意思”，“但你从得到一根木棍开始，如果你击中了，你就有了争取某样东西的筹码。”

He pointed out some gamblers and some pimps. Some of them had white whores, he whispered. “I aint’t going to lie= I dig them wo-dollar white chicks,” Shorty said. “There’s a lot of that ac tion around here, nights: you’ll see it.” I said I already had seen some. “You ever had one?” he asket.
他指出了一些赌徒和一些皮条客。他低声说，其中一些人还有白人妓女。“我不说谎，我喜欢那些两美元的白人女孩，”肖蒂说。“晚上这里有很多这种活动，你会看到的。”我说我已经看到了一些。“你试过吗？”他问。

My embarrassment at my inexperience showed. “Hell, man,” he said, “don’t be ashamed. I had a few before I left Lansingthem Polack chicks that used to eome over the oridge. Here, they’re mostly Italians and Irish. But it don’t matter what kind, they’re something else! Ain’t no different nowhere-there’s nothing they love better than a black stud.”
我对自己缺乏经验的尴尬显露无遗。“见鬼，伙计，”他说，“别觉得羞耻。我离开兰辛之前也有过几个——那些波兰妞儿经常过桥来。在这儿，她们大多是意大利人和爱尔兰人。但哪种都一样，她们真是与众不同！哪里都一样——没有什么比黑人猛男更让她们着迷的了。”

Through the aftemoon, shorty introduced me to players and loungers. “My homeboy,” he’d say, “he’s looking for a slave if you hear anything.” They all said they’d look out.
整个下午，Shorty 带我认识了一些玩家和闲人。“我的老乡，”他会说，“他在找一份苦差，如果你听到什么消息的话。”他们都说会帮忙留意。

At seven oclock, when the night ball-racker came on, Shorty told me he had to hury to his saxophore lesson. But before he left, he held out to me the six or seven dollars he had collected that day in nickel and dime tips.“You got enomgh bread, homeboy?”
七点钟，当夜场的舞会开始时，Shorty 告诉我他得赶去上萨克斯风课。但在他离开之前，他把他那天收集的六七美元零钱小费递给我。“你有足够的钱吗，兄弟？”

I was okay, I told him-I had two dollais. But Shorty made me take three more. “I ittle fattening for your pocket,” he said. Before we went out, he opened his saxophone case and sliowed me the horn. It was gleaming brass against the green velvet, an alto sax. He said, “Keep eool, homieboy, ant come back tomor” row. Some of the eats will tuill you up a stave."
我告诉他我没事，我有两块钱。但 Shorty 硬是让我再拿三块。“给你的口袋增点肥，”他说。我们出门前，他打开萨克斯盒，给我看那乐器。绿丝绒上闪耀着黄铜光泽，那是一把中音萨克斯。他说：“保持冷静，兄弟，明天再来。有些吃的会让你精神一振。”

When I got home, Ella suid there had been a telephone call from somebody named shorty. He hod left a message that over at the Roseland State Ballroom, the shoeshine boy was quitting that night, and shorty had told him to hold the job for me.
当我回到家时，艾拉说有个叫肖蒂的人打来电话。他留了个口信，说在 Roseland State Ballroom，擦鞋男孩那晚要辞职，肖蒂已经让他把那份工作留给我。
“Malcolm, you haven’t had any experience shining sinoes,” Ella said. Her expression and tone of voice told me she wasn’t happy about my taking that job. I didn’t particulariy care, because I was already speechless thinking about being somewhere close to the greatest bands in the world. I didnit even wait to eat any dimner.
“Malcolm，你没有任何擦鞋的经验，”Ella 说。她的表情和语气告诉我，她对我接受那份工作并不高兴。我并不特别在意，因为我已经因为想到能接近世界上最伟大的乐队而说不出话来。我甚至没等吃晚饭就离开了。

The ballroom was all lighted when I got there. A man at the
当我到达时，舞厅灯火通明。一位男士在
front door was letting in memberg of Benny Goodman’s baind. I told him I wanted to see the shoeshine boy, Freddie.
前门让 Benny Goodman 乐队的成员进来了。我告诉他我想见擦鞋童 Freddie。
“You’re going to be the new one?” he asked. I said I thought I was, and he laughed, “Well, maybe you’ll hit the itumbers and get a Cadillac, toe.” He told me that I’d find Freddie upstairs in the men’s room on the second floor.
“你就是新来的那个？”他问道。我说我想是的，他笑了，“好吧，也许你会走运，开上凯迪拉克，伙计。”他告诉我可以在二楼的男洗手间找到 Freddie。

But downstairs before I went up, I stepped ovei and sinatched a glimpse inside the ballroom. I just eouldn’t believe the size of that waxed floor! At the far end, under the soft, rose-colored lights, was the bandstand with the Benny Goodminn musieiains moving around, laughing and tallking, arranging their homs and stands.
但在我上楼之前，我走到楼下，朝舞厅里瞥了一眼。我简直无法相信那打蜡地板的大小！在远处，柔和的玫瑰色灯光下，是乐队演奏台，Benny Goodman 的乐手们四处走动，笑着交谈，摆放他们的乐器和支架。

A wiry, brown-skinmed, eonked fellow mpstaim in the men’s reem greeted me. “You Shorty’s homeboy?” I soid I was, and he said he was Freddie. “Geod old boy,” he said. “He called itue, he just hoard I hit the big number, and he figmed inght I’d be quit ting.” I told Freddie what the man at the fiont door had said about a Gadillae. He laughed and said, “Bumis them white cats up when you get yourself something. Yeah, I told them I was going to get me one-just to bug them.”
一个瘦削、棕色皮肤、眼睛凹陷的家伙在男厕里跟我打招呼。“你是肖蒂的老乡？”我说是的，他说他是弗雷迪。“好家伙，”他说，“他猜对了，他刚听说我中了大奖，就猜我会辞职。”我告诉弗雷迪前门那人说的关于凯迪拉克的事。他笑了，说：“等你有了车，就让他们那些白人傻眼。没错，我告诉他们我要买一辆——就为了气他们。”

Froddie then said for me to pay eloge attention, that he was going to be busy and for me to wateh but not get in the way, and he’d toy to get me ready to take over at the next dance, a eouple of nights later.
弗罗迪接着告诉我，要特别留神，他会很忙，让我在一旁看着但不要妨碍他，他会试着让我准备好，在接下来的舞会上接手，那是在几天后的晚上。

As Freddie busied himself setting up the shoeshine stand, he told me, "Get here eady…your shoeshine fags aith brushes by this footstand . . your polish bottles, paste wax, suede brushes over here . . . everything in place, you get mahed, you rever meed to waste motion…
当 Freddie 忙着设置擦鞋摊时，他告诉我：“把东西准备好……你的擦鞋刷子放在这个脚架旁边……你的鞋油瓶、蜡、麂皮刷放在这边……每样东西都放好，你就能高效工作，不需要浪费动作……”

While you shined shoes, I learned, you also kept watch on eustomers inside, leaving the uninds. You dated over and of fered a small white hand towel. “A lot of eats who aint platming to wash their hands, sometimes you ean run up with a towel and shame them. Your towels are really your best hustle in here. Gest you a penny apicec to launder you always get at least a niekel tip.”
当你擦鞋时，我了解到，你也在留意里面的顾客，留意他们的动向。你适时地递上一条小白毛巾。“很多不打算洗手的人，有时你可以拿着毛巾跑过去，让他们感到羞愧。你的毛巾在这里真的是你最好的招数。每条毛巾花一分钱清洗，你总能至少得到五分钱的小费。”

The shoeshine eustomers, and any from the inside rest room who took a towel, you whiskhmomied a couple of lieks. "A inickel
擦鞋的顾客，以及任何从内部休息室拿毛巾的人，你都偷了几毛钱。“一个五分钱

Or a dime tip, just give 'em that", Freddie said. “But for two bits, Uncle Tom a little-white eats espeeially like that. IVe had them to come baek two, three times a dance.”
“或者给个一毛钱的小费，就那样给他们，”弗雷迪说。“但给两毛五分钱的话，那些特别像白人老爷的汤姆叔叔就会特别喜欢。我曾经让他们在一场舞会上回来两三次。”

From down below, the sound of the musie had begini floting up. I guess I stoed transfixed. “You never” seen a big dance?" asked Freddie. “Run on awhite, and wateh.”
从下面传来音乐声，已经开始飘上来了。我想我站在那里呆住了。“你从没”看过大型舞会吗？”弗雷迪问。“跑上去，看看。”

There were a fow eouples alveady dameing under the rose eolored lights. But even more exeiting to me was the crowd thronging in. The most glamorous looking white women Pdever seen-young ones, old ones, white eats buying tickets at the wirt dow, sticking big wads of green bills back into their pockets, cheoking the women’s eoats, and taking their amms and squiring them inside.
在玫瑰色的灯光下，已经有几对情侣在跳舞。但更让我兴奋的是涌入的人群。我从未见过如此迷人的白人女性——年轻的、年长的，白人绅士在售票窗口买票，把大叠的绿色钞票塞回口袋，检查女士们的外套，挽着她们的胳膊，护送她们进入。

Freddie had some early eustomers when I got back upstairs. Botween the shoeshine stand and thrusting tomels to them just as they approached the washbasin, Freddie seemed to be doing four things at once. “Here, you can take over the whiskbroom,” he suid, “just two-or three licks but let iom feel it.”
我回到楼上时，弗雷迪已经有几个顾客了。在擦鞋摊和给顾客递毛巾之间，弗雷迪似乎同时在做四件事。“给，你可以接过这把刷子了，”他说，“只要刷两三次，但让他们感觉到。”

When things slowed a little, he said, “You ain’t seen nothing tonight. You wait until you see a spooks’ dance! Mant, out people earry on!”, Whenever he had a monient, he kept schooling me. “Shoelapes, this drawer here. You just staving out, Im going to make these to you as a present. Buy them for a nickel a pait, tell cats they need laces if they do, and charge two bits.”
当事情稍微慢下来时，他说：“你今晚还没看到什么呢。等你看到鬼魂的舞蹈吧！伙计，我们的人可厉害了！”每当他有空闲时，他都会继续教导我。“鞋带，这个抽屉里。你刚开始，我要把这些送给你当礼物。一毛钱买一双，如果别人需要鞋带，就告诉他们，然后收两毛五分钱。”

Every Benny Goodman reoord I’d ever heard in my life, it seemed, was filtexing faintly into where we were. Butilig ant other oustomer lull, Freddic let me slip back outside again to listen. Peggy Lee was at the mike singing. Beautiful! She had just joined the band and she was from Nomth Dakota amd had been singing with a group in Chieago when Mrs. Benmy Cood man diseovered her, we had heard some customers say. She finished the seng and the crowd burst into applause. She was a bighit.
我一生中听过的每一张 Benny Goodman 唱片，似乎都在我们所在的地方微弱地播放着。但与其他顾客的安静不同，Freddie 让我再次溜出去听。Peggy Lee 正在麦克风前演唱。太美了！她刚刚加入乐队，来自 North Dakota，之前在 Chicago 的一个组合中唱歌，我们听到一些顾客说，是 Mrs. Benny Goodman 发现了她。她唱完这首歌，人群爆发出掌声。她大受欢迎。
“It knocked me out, too, when I first broke in here,” Fretdie said, grinning, when I went back in there. “But, look, you ever shined any shoes?” He laughed when I said I hadn’t, excepting my own. “Well, let’s get to work. I never had neither.” Freddie
“我一开始进来的时候也惊呆了，”弗雷迪笑着说，当我回到那里时。“但是，听着，你擦过鞋吗？”当我说我只擦过自己的鞋时，他笑了。“好吧，我们开始工作吧。我也从来没擦过。”弗雷迪
got on the stand and went to work on his own shoes. Burush, liquid polish, brush, paste wax, shine rag, lacquer sole dressing $\dots$$\dots$dots\ldots…step by step. Freddie showed me what to do.
站在台前，开始处理自己的鞋子。刷子、液体鞋油、刷子、蜡、擦鞋布、鞋底漆……一步一步来。Freddie 向我展示了该怎么做。
“But you got to get a whole lot faster. You can’t waste time!” Freddie showed me how fast on my own shoes. Then, beeause businges was tapering off, he had time to give me a demonstration of how to make the shine rag pop like a firecracker. “Dig the action?” he asked. He did it in slow motion. I got down and tried it on his sheec. I hed the primople of it. “Jugt got to do it faster,” Freddie said. “It’s a jive noise, that’s all. Cats tip better, they figure you’re knocking yourself out!”
“但你必须更快一点。你不能浪费时间！”Freddie 在我自己的鞋上展示了速度。然后，因为生意逐渐减少，他有时间给我演示如何让擦鞋布像鞭炮一样发出声响。“看懂了吗？”他问道。他用慢动作演示了一遍。我蹲下来在他的鞋上试了试。我掌握了要领。“只要做得更快一点，”Freddie 说。“那只是种花哨的声音，仅此而已。客人们会多给小费，他们会觉得你非常卖力！”

By the end of the dance, Freddie had let me shine the shoes Of three or four stray drunks he talked into having shimes, and I had protieed pioking up my speed on Predtie’s shoes untin they looked hike mirrors. After we had helped the janitoms to elean up the ballroom after the danee, throwing out all the paper and eigarette butts and empty liquor bottes, Fredtie was nice enough to drive me all the way home to Ella’s on the Hill in the secondhand maxoon Buiek he said he was going to tiade in on his Cadillae. He talked to me all the way. “I giens it’s all inght if I tell you, piek up a eouple of dozen paeks of rubbers, two-bits apiece. You notice some of those eats that eame up to me around the end of the danee? Well, when some have new ehieks going right, they’ll eome asking you for rubbers. Charge a dollar, gent erally you’ll get an extra tip.”
舞会结束时，弗雷迪让我给三四个醉汉擦鞋，他哄他们说擦鞋挺有意思的。我在弗雷迪的鞋上练习速度，直到把它们擦得像镜子一样亮。舞会结束后，我们帮看门人打扫舞厅，扔掉所有的纸屑、烟蒂和空酒瓶，弗雷迪很好心地开车送我到埃拉在希尔区的家，他开的是一辆二手马克斯韦尔别克，他说他打算用它换一辆凯迪拉克。他一路都在跟我说话。“我想跟你说一下应该没关系，买两打避孕套，两毛五分钱一个。你注意到舞会快结束时有些人过来找我吗？嗯，当一些人和新女友进展顺利时，他们会来找你要避孕套。通常收一块钱，你还能得到额外的小费。”

He looked across at me. “Some hustles yor’ice too new for. Gats will ask you for ligur, some will want reefers. But you don’t need to hove nothing exeept rubbers until you eail dis who’s a eop.”
他看着我。“有些勾当你还太嫩了。有人会找你要酒，有些人会想要大麻。但你不需要带任何东西，除了避孕套，直到你弄清楚谁是警察。”
“You oan make ton, twolve dollars a davee for youmself if you work everything might,” Freddie said, before I got out of the ear in front of Blla’s. “The main thing you got to remember is that everything in the world is a hustle. So long, Hed.”
“如果你全力以赴地工作，你一天可以为自己赚到十、十二美元，”弗雷迪在我从贝拉家门前下车前说道。“你必须记住的主要事情是，世界上的一切都是一场拼搏。再见，赫德。”

The next time I man into Freddie I was downtown one night a few weeks later. He was panked in his pean giay Cadillac, shaip as a tack, “cooling it.”
下次我遇到 Freddie 是在几周后的一个晚上，我在市中心。他坐在他那辆闪亮的粉红色凯迪拉克里，看起来非常时髦，正在“放松”。
“Man, you sure sehooled me!” I said, and he laughed, he knew
“伙计，你可真把我给耍了！”我说道，他笑了，他明白
what I meant. It hadn’t taken me long on the job to find out that Fredtie had done less shoeshining and towel hustling than selling liquor and refers, and putting white “Johns” in toueh with Negro whores. I alse leamed that white ginls always floeked to the Negro danees seme of them whores whoce pimps brought them to mix business and pleastre, others who eame with their black boy fivinds, and some whe eame in alone, for a little free lance lusting among a plentiful availability of enthusiastie Negre men.
我的意思。我在工作中很快就发现，Fredtie 做擦鞋和递毛巾的活儿不多，更多的是卖酒和毒品，以及把白人“嫖客”介绍给黑人妓女。我还了解到，白人女孩总是成群结队地来参加黑人舞会，其中一些是妓女，她们的皮条客带她们来既做生意又寻欢，另一些是跟着她们的黑人男朋友来的，还有一些是独自来的，为了在众多热情的黑人男性中寻找一点自由的情欲。

At the white danees, of eourse, nothing black was allowed, and that’s where the black whores’ pimps seon showed a new shoeshine boy what he could piek up on the side by slipping a phome number or addross to the white Johns who eame around the end of the danee looking for “black ehieks.”
在白人舞会上，当然不允许有任何黑人的存在，而正是在那里，黑人妓女的皮条客很快就向新来的擦鞋男孩展示了，他可以通过偷偷递给那些在舞会结束时寻找“黑人女孩”的白人 Johns 电话号码或地址，从中捞取外快。

Most of Poseland’s danees were for whites only, and they had white bands only. But the only white band ever to play there at a Negio daine, to my reoollection, was Chanlie Bamet’s. The fact is that very few white bands could have satisfled the Negro dane ers. But I know that Chanlie Bamet’s “Cherokee” and his “Red skin Phumba” drove thore Negroes wild. They’d jampack that ballroom, the black girls in way out silk and satin dresses and shoes, their hail dome in all kinds of styles, the men shamp in thein zoot suits and crazy eonks, and everybody grinning and greased and gasoed.
大多数 Poseland 的舞会只对白人开放，而且只有白人乐队演奏。但据我回忆，唯一一个在黑人舞会上演奏的白人乐队是 Charlie Barnet 的。事实上，很少有白人乐队能满足黑人舞者的需求。但我知道 Charlie Barnet 的“Cherokee”和他的“Redskin Rhumba”让那些黑人疯狂。他们会挤满舞厅，黑人女孩穿着时髦的丝绸和缎子连衣裙和鞋子，发型各式各样，男人们穿着他们的 zoot suits 和疯狂的 conks，每个人都笑容满面，油光发亮，兴奋不已。

Some of the bandomen would eome up to the men’s room at about eight o’loek and get shoeshines before they went to Work. Duke Cllington, Gount Basic, Lionel Hampton, Gootie Wit Hams, Jimmie Lunceford were just a few of those who sat in my ehair. I would really make my shine rag sound like someone had set off Chinese freerackers. Duke’s great alte saxman, Johniny Hodges-he was Shorty’s idol still owes me for a shoeshine I gave him. He was in the ehair one night, having a friendly argument with the drummien, sonny Greer, whe was standing there, when I tapped the bottom of his shoes to signal that I was finished. Hodges stepped down, reaehing his hand in his peeket to pay me, but then smatehed his hand out to gesture, and just
一些乐队成员会在八点左右来到男洗手间，在去工作之前擦鞋。Duke Ellington、Count Basie、Lionel Hampton、Cootie Williams、Jimmie Lunceford 只是坐在我椅子上的其中几位。我会让我的擦鞋布发出像中国鞭炮一样的声音。Duke 的伟大的中音萨克斯手，Johnny Hodges——他是 Shorty 的偶像，还欠我一次擦鞋的钱。他有一天晚上坐在椅子上，和鼓手 Sonny Greer 友好地争论，Sonny Greer 站在那里，当我轻敲他的鞋底表示我已经擦完时，Hodges 下来，伸手到口袋里准备付钱给我，但突然把手抽出来做手势，然后
forgot ime, and walked away. I wouldn’t have dared to bether the man who eould do what he did with “Daydream” by asking him for fifteen cents.
忘记了时间，然后走开了。我绝不敢打扰那个能用《Daydream》做出那种事的人，向他索要十五美分。

I Fromernber that I struek up a little shoeshine stand eonver sation with Count Bosie’s great blues singer, Jimmie Rushing. (He’s the one famous for “Sent For You Yesterday, Here You Come Today” and things like that.) Pushing’s feet, I remember, were big and fumy shaped not long like most big feet, but they wewe round and moly poly like Rushing. Anyhow, he even introduced me to some of the other. Basie onts, like Lester Young, Haryy Edison, Buddy Tate, Don Byas, Dickie Wells, and Buck Glayton. They’d wall in the rest room later, by themsolves. “Hi, Ped.” They’d be up there in my ohair, and my shine rag was popping to the beat of all of their reoords, spinning in my head. Musiciains never have had, anywhere, a greater shoeshineboy fan than I was. I would write to Wilfred and Hilda and Philbert and Peginald baek in Lansing, trying to deseribe it.
我记得我摆了一个小擦鞋摊，与 Count Basie 的伟大的蓝调歌手 Jimmie Rushing 搭上了话。（他以“Sent For You Yesterday, Here You Come Today”等歌曲闻名。）我记得，Rushing 的脚又大又圆，不像大多数大脚那样长，而是圆滚滚的，就像 Rushing 本人一样。总之，他甚至把我介绍给了其他一些 Basie 乐队的成员，比如 Lester Young、Harry Edison、Buddy Tate、Don Byas、Dickie Wells 和 Buck Clayton。他们后来会独自走进休息室。“嗨，Ped。”他们会坐在我的椅子上，我的擦鞋布随着他们所有唱片的节奏跳动，在我脑海中旋转。音乐家们从未在任何地方有过比我更忠实的擦鞋童粉丝。我会写信给在兰辛的 Wilfred、Hilda、Philbert 和 Reginald，试图描述这一切。

Inever got any decent tips until the middle of the Negro dances which is when the daneers started feeling good and getting gonerous. After the white danees, when I holped to elean out the ballroom, we would throw out perhops a dozen empty liquor botthes. But after the Negro donees, we would have to throw out eartons full of empty fifth bottles not rotgut, either, but the best brands, and especially Seoteh.
直到黑人舞会的中段，我才得到像样的小费，那时舞者们开始感到愉快并变得慷慨。在白人舞会结束后，当我帮忙清理舞厅时，我们可能会扔掉大约一打空酒瓶。但在黑人舞会之后，我们不得不扔掉整箱整箱的空五分之一瓶装酒，而且不是劣质酒，而是最好的品牌，尤其是苏格兰威士忌。

Buing lulls up there in the men’s room, sometimes I’d get in five minutes of watehing the daneing. The white people darreed as though somebody had trained them left, one, two; night, three, four-the same steps and patterns over and over, as though sommebody had wound them up. But those Negroesmobody in the woild could have ehoreographed the way they did whatever they felt just grabbing partners, oven the white ehicks who came to the Negro-dances. And my blaek brothren today may hate me for saying it, but a lot of blaek girls nearly got ruil over by some of those Negro males semambling to get at those white women, you would have thought God had lowered some of his angels. Times have sure ehanged, if it happened
在男厕所里，我有时能看上五分钟的舞蹈。白人跳舞就像有人训练过他们一样，左，一，二；右，三，四——一遍又一遍地重复着同样的步伐和模式，仿佛有人给他们上了发条。但那些黑人，世界上没有人能编排他们随心所欲的舞步，他们随便抓个舞伴，甚至是那些来参加黑人舞会的白人女孩。我今天的黑人兄弟们可能会恨我这么说，但很多黑人女孩差点被那些争先恐后想要接近白人女性的黑人男性撞倒，你会以为上帝降下了他的天使。时代确实变了，如果这种事发生的话。
today, those same bloek ginls would go after those Negro menand the white women, toe.
今天，那些同样的黑帮女孩会追求那些黑人男人和白人女人。

Anyway, some eouples were so abandoned flinging high and wide, improvising steps and movements that you eouldn’t beHeve it. I could feel the beat in my bones, even though I had never daneed.
无论如何，有些夫妇跳得如此放纵，动作高远且广泛，即兴的舞步和动作让人难以置信。我能在骨子里感受到节奏，尽管我从未跳过舞。
“Showtime!” people would start hollening about the last hour of the danee. Then a eouple of dozen really wild eouples would stay on the floor, the ginls ehanging to low white smeakers. The band now would really be blasting, and all the other daneons would form a clapping, shouting circle to wateh that wild eompetition as it began, eovering only a quarter or so of the ballroom floor. The band, the spectatoris and the daneers woud be mak ing the Poseland Bathroom feellike a big, rocking ship. The spotlight would be turning, pink, yellow, green, and blue, pieking up the eouples lindy hopping as if they had gone mad. “Wait, Man, wail!” people would be shouting at the band, and it would be wailing, until first one and then another couple just ran-out of strength and stumbled off toward the erowd, exhatioted and soaked with sweat. Sometimes I would be down there standing imide the door jumping up and down in my gray jacket with the whiskbroom in the pocket, and the manager would have to come and shout at me that I had eustomers upstains.
“Showtime！”人们会在舞会的最后一小时开始喊叫。然后几十对非常疯狂的舞伴会留在舞池中，女孩们换上低帮白色运动鞋。乐队此刻会真正地轰鸣起来，所有其他舞者会围成一个拍手、喊叫的圈子，观看那场狂野的竞赛，它通常只占据舞厅地板的一小部分。乐队、观众和舞者们会让 Poseland Bathroom 感觉像一艘巨大的摇摆船。聚光灯会旋转，粉色、黄色、绿色和蓝色，捕捉到那些仿佛疯了的林迪舞者。“等等，伙计，等等！”人们会对着乐队喊叫，乐队也会继续咆哮，直到一对又一对的舞伴耗尽力气，踉跄地走向人群，筋疲力尽，浑身是汗。有时我会站在门内，穿着我那件口袋里有刷子的灰色夹克上下跳跃，经理会过来喊我，说楼上有顾客。

The finst liquor I draink, my first eigavetes, even my first reef ers, I can’t specifieally remember. But I know they were all mixed together with my first shooting eraps, playing eards, and betting my dollai a day on the numbers, as I staved hanging out at night with Shorty and his friends. Shorty’s jokes about how country I had been made us all laugh. I still was country, I know how, but it all felt so great beeause I was aecepted. All of us would be in somebody’s place, usually one of the ginls’, and we’d be tuming on, the reefem making everybody’s head light, of the whisky agtow in our middtes. Everybody understood that my head had to stay kinky awhile longer, to grow long enough for Shorty to conk it for me. One of these nights, I remarked that I had saved about half enough to get a zoot.
我第一次喝的烈酒，第一支烟，甚至我的第一次性经历，我都记不太清了。但我知道，这些都与我的第一次射击、玩牌和每天在号码上赌钱混在一起，因为我开始和 Shorty 和他的朋友们晚上出去玩了。Shorty 笑话我以前有多土，我们都笑了。我知道自己仍然很土，但这一切感觉如此美好，因为我被接受了。我们都会在某个人的地方，通常是一个女孩的家，我们会 high 起来，大麻让每个人的头都轻飘飘的，威士忌在我们的肚子里燃烧。每个人都明白我的头发还得再卷一段时间，长得足够长，好让 Shorty 帮我烫发。其中一个晚上，我提到我已经攒了差不多一半的钱，可以买一套 zoot 了。
“Save?” Shorty couldn’t believe it. “Homeboy, you never heard of credit?” He told me he’d call a neighborhood clothing
“赊账？”肖蒂不敢相信。“兄弟，你从来没听说过信用吗？”他告诉我他会给附近的一家服装店打电话。
store the first thing in the morning, and that I should be there early.
早晨第一件事就是去商店，我应该早点到那里。

A salesman, a young Jew, met me when I came in. “You’re Shorty’s friend?” I said I was; it amazed me-all of Shorty’s contacts. The salesman wrote my name on a form, and the Roseland as where I worked, and Ella’s address as where I lived. Shorty’s name was put down as recommending me. The salesman said, “Shorty’s one of our best customers.”
一个年轻的犹太销售员在我进来时迎接了我。“你是 Shorty 的朋友？”我说是的；这让我感到惊讶——Shorty 的所有关系。销售员在表格上写下了我的名字，Roseland 作为我的工作地点，Ella 的地址作为我的居住地。Shorty 的名字被列为推荐人。销售员说：“Shorty 是我们最好的客户之一。”

I was measured, and the young salesman picked off a rack a zoot suit that was just wild: sky-blue pants thirty inches in the knee and angle-narrowed down to twelve inches at the bottom, and a long coat that pinched my waist and flared out below my knees.
我被量了尺寸，年轻的销售员从架子上挑了一套非常夸张的佐特装：天蓝色的裤子，膝盖处宽达三十英寸，到裤脚处逐渐收窄至十二英寸，还有一件长外套，掐腰设计，下摆在我的膝盖下方展开。

As a gift, the salesman said, the store would give me a narrow leather belt with my initial “L” on it. Then he said I ought to also buy a hat, and I did-blue, with a feather in the four-inch brim. Then the store gave me another present: a long, thicklinked, gold-plated chain that swung down lower than my coat hem. I was sold forever on credit.
作为礼物，售货员说，商店会送我一条带有我名字首字母“L”的窄皮带。然后他说我还应该买一顶帽子，我照做了——蓝色的，四英寸宽的帽檐上有一根羽毛。接着商店又送了我一份礼物：一条长长的、链节粗大的镀金链子，垂下来比我的大衣下摆还要低。我永远被信用销售征服了。

When I modeled the zoot for Ella, she took a long look and said, “Well, I guess it had to happen.” I took three of those twenty-five-cent sepia-toned, while-you-wait pictures of myself, posed the way “hipsters” wearing their zoots would "cool it"hat dangled, knees drawn close together, feet wide apart, both index fingers jabbed toward the floor. The long coat and swinging chain and the Punjab pants were much more dramatic if you stood that way. One picture. I autographed and airmailed to my brothers and sisters in Lansing, to let them see how well I was doing. I gave another one to Ella, and the third to Shorty, who was really moved: I could tell by the way he said, “Thanks, homeboy.” It was part of our “hip” code not to show that kind of affection.
当我为 Ella 展示这套佐特装时，她看了很久，然后说：“好吧，我想这是必然的。”我拍了三张二十五美分的棕褐色调立等可取的照片，摆出“嬉皮士”们穿着佐特装“酷炫”的姿势：帽子斜戴，膝盖紧靠，双脚分开，两个食指指向地面。长外套、摇摆的链子和旁遮普裤这样站着更显戏剧性。一张照片，我签上名，航空邮寄给了在兰辛的兄弟姐妹们，让他们看看我过得有多好。另一张给了 Ella，第三张给了 Shorty，他真的很感动：从他说的“谢谢，哥们儿”我能看出来。按照我们“嬉皮”的规矩，是不该表现出那种感情的。

Shorty soon decided that my hair was finally long enough to be conked. He had promised to school me in how to beat the barbershops’ three- and four-dollar price by making up congolene, and then conking ourselves.
Shorty 很快决定我的头发终于够长可以烫了。他答应教我如何通过自制烫发水来节省理发店三到四美元的费用，然后我们自己烫发。

I took the little list of ingredients he had printed out for me, and went to a grocery store, where I got a can of Red Devil lye,
我拿了他为我打印的小配料单，去了一家杂货店，在那里买了一罐 Red Devil 碱液，
two eggs, and two medium-sized white potatoes. Then at a drugstore near the poolroom, I asked for a large jar of Vaseline, a large bar of soap, a large-toothed comb and a fine-toothed comb, one of those rubber hoses with a metal spray-head, a rubber apron and a pair of gloves.
两个鸡蛋和两个中等大小的白土豆。然后在台球室附近的药店，我要了一大罐凡士林、一大块肥皂、一把大齿梳子和一把细齿梳子、一个带金属喷头的橡胶软管、一个橡胶围裙和一副手套。
“Going to lay on that first conk?” the drugstore man asked me. I proudly told him, grinning, “Right!”
“要弄第一个康克头吗？”药房的人问我。我咧嘴笑着，自豪地告诉他：“对！”

Shorty paid six dollars a week for a room in his cousin’s shabby apartment. His cousin wasn’t at home. “It’s like the pad’s mine, he spends so much time with his woman,” Shorty said. “Now, you watch me-”,
Shorty 每周花六美元在他表兄破旧的公寓里租了一间房。他表兄不在家。“这房间就像是我的一样，他大部分时间都和他的女人在一起，”Shorty 说。“现在，你看我的——”，

He peeled the potatoes and thin-sliced them into a quart-sized Mason fruit jar, then started stirring them with a wooden spoon as he gradually poured in a little over half the can of lye. “Never use a metal spoon; the lye will turn it black,” he told me.
他剥了土豆，把它们切成薄片放进一个夸脱大小的梅森水果罐里，然后开始用木勺搅拌，同时逐渐倒入半罐多一点的碱液。“千万别用金属勺；碱液会让它变黑，”他告诉我。

A jelly-like, starchy-looking glop resulted from the lye and potatoes, and Shorty broke in the two eggs, stirring real fasthis own conk and dark face bent down close. The congolene turned pale-yellowish. “Feel the jar,” Shorty said. I cupped my hand against the outside, and snatched it away. “Damn right it’s hot, that’s the lye,” he said. “So you know it’s going to burn when I comb it in-it burns bad. But the longer you can stand it, the straighter the hair.”
一种果冻状、淀粉样的黏稠物由碱液和土豆制成，Shorty 打进了两个鸡蛋，快速搅拌，他的卷发和深色脸庞低垂着。Congolene 变成了淡黄色。“摸摸罐子，”Shorty 说。我把手贴在罐子外面，立刻缩了回来。“没错，很烫，那是碱液，”他说。“所以你知道当我梳进去的时候会灼烧——灼烧得很厉害。但你忍得越久，头发就越直。”

He made me sit down, and he tied the string of the new rubber apron tightly around my neek, and combed up my bush of hair. Then, from the big Vaseline jar, he took a handful and massaged it hard all through my hair and into the scalp. He also thickly Vaselined my neck, ears and forehead. “When I get to washing out your head, be sure to tell me anywhere you feel any little stinging,” Shorty warned me, washing his hands, then pulling on the rubber gloves, and tying on his own rubber apron. “You always got to remember that any congolene left in burns a sore into your head.”
他让我坐下，把新橡胶围裙的带子紧紧系在我的脖子上，梳顺了我那丛头发。然后，他从大罐凡士林里抓了一把，用力揉进我的头发和头皮里。他还厚厚地给我的脖子、耳朵和额头涂上了凡士林。“等我开始洗你的头时，一定要告诉我哪里感到刺痛，”肖蒂警告我，一边洗手，然后戴上橡胶手套，系上自己的橡胶围裙。“你永远要记住，任何留在头上的 congolene 都会在头上烧出疮来。”

The congolene just felt warm when Shorty started combing it in. But then my head caught fire.
当 Shorty 开始梳理时，congolene 只是感觉温暖。但随后我的头就像着了火一样。

I gritted my teeth and tried to pull the sides of the kitchen table together. The comb felt as if it was raking my skin off.
我咬紧牙关，试图将厨房桌子的两边拉近。梳子感觉就像在刮掉我的皮肤。

My eyes watered, my nose was rumning. I couldn’t stand it
我的眼睛湿润了，鼻子在流鼻涕。我无法忍受。
any longer; I bolted to the washbasin. I was cursing Shorty with every name I could think of when he got the spray going and started soap-lathering my head.
不再耽搁；我冲到洗脸池旁。当 Shorty 打开喷雾器并开始给我的头打肥皂时，我用我能想到的所有名字咒骂他。

He lathered and spray-rinsed, lathered and spray-rinsed, maybe ten or twelve times, each time gradually closing the hotwater faucet, until the rinse was cold, and that helped some.
他一遍又一遍地涂抹肥皂，冲洗，再涂抹，再冲洗，大概重复了十到十二次，每次逐渐关小热水龙头，直到最后冲洗的水变冷，这让他感觉好了一些。
“You feel any stinging spots?”
“你感觉到任何刺痛的地方吗？”
“No,” I managed to say. My knees were trembling.
“不，”我勉强说道。我的膝盖在颤抖。
“Sit back down, then. I think we got it all out okay.”
“那就坐下吧。我想我们已经把所有事情都说清楚了。”
The flame came back as Shorty, with a thick towel, started drying my head, rubbing hard. “Easy, man, easy!” I kept shouting.
火焰重新燃起，Shorty 用厚毛巾开始擦干我的头，用力搓揉。“轻点，伙计，轻点！”我不断喊道。
“The first time’s always worst. You get used to it better before long. You took it real good, homeboy. You got a good conk.”
“第一次总是最糟的。你很快就会习惯的。你表现得很好，兄弟。你的发型很不错。”

When Shorty let me stand up and see in the mirror, my hair hung down in limp, damp strings. My scalp still flamed, but not as badly; I could bear it. He draped the towel around my shoulders, over my rubber apron, and began again Vaselining my hair.
当 Shorty 让我站起来照镜子时，我的头发垂下来，湿漉漉的，显得无精打采。我的头皮仍然火辣辣的，但不像之前那么严重了；我可以忍受。他把毛巾披在我的肩膀上，盖在我的橡胶围裙上，然后又开始给我的头发抹凡士林。
I could feel him combing, straight back, first the big comb, then the fine-tooth one.
我能感觉到他在梳理，向后直梳，先用大梳子，然后用细齿梳。
Then, he was using a razor, very delicately, on the back of my neck. Then, finally, shaping the sideburns.
然后，他非常小心地用剃刀在我脖子后面操作。最后，修剪鬓角。
My first view in the mirror blotted out the hurting. I’d seen some pretty conks, but when it’s the first time, on your own head, the transformation, after the lifetime of kinks, is staggering.
我第一次在镜子里看到自己时，痛苦被抹去了。我见过一些很漂亮的 conks，但当它第一次出现在你自己的头上时，那种转变，在经历了多年的卷发之后，是令人震惊的。
The mirror reflected Shorty behind me. We both were grinning and sweating. And on top of my head was this thick, smooth sheen of shining red hair-real red-as straight as any white man’s.
镜子映出了我身后的 Shorty。我们俩都咧嘴笑着，满头大汗。而我头顶上是一层厚厚的、光滑的闪亮红发——真正的红色——像任何白人的头发一样直。
How ridiculous I was! Stupid enough to stand there simply lost in admiration of my hair now looking “white,” reflected in the mirror in Shorty’s room. I vowed that I’d never again be without a conk, and I never was for many years.
我多么可笑啊！愚蠢到站在那里，完全被镜子中我“变白”的头发迷住了，那是 Shorty 房间里的镜子。我发誓再也不会没有 conk 了，而且我确实很多年都没有再没有过。
This was my first really big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man’s hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into be-
这是我迈向自我堕落的第一步：当我忍受了所有的痛苦，实际上是在燃烧自己的肉体，只为让头发看起来像白人的头发。我加入了美国众多被洗脑的黑人男女之中。
lieving that the black people are “inferior”-and white people “superior”-that they will even violate and mutilate their Godcreated bodies to try to look “pretty” by white standards.
相信黑人是“低等的”，而白人是“高等的”——他们甚至会违背和毁坏上帝创造的身体，试图按照白人的标准变得“漂亮”。
Look around today, in every small town and big city, from two-bit catfish and soda-pop joints into the “integrated” lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria, and you’ll see conks on black men. And you’ll see black women wearing these green and pink and purple and red and platinum-blonde wigs. They’re all more ridiculous than a slapstick comedy. It makes you wonder if the Negro has completely lost his sense of identity, lost touch with himself.
看看今天，在每个小镇和大城市，从廉价的小餐馆到华尔道夫酒店的“融合”大堂，你会看到黑人男子顶着卷发。你还会看到黑人妇女戴着这些绿色、粉色、紫色、红色和铂金色的假发。这一切比闹剧还要荒谬。这让人不禁怀疑，黑人是否已经完全失去了自我认同感，与自己失去了联系。
You’ll see the conk worn by many, many so-called “upperclass” Negroes, and, as much as I hate to say it about them, on all too many Negro entertainers. One of the reasons that I’ve especially admired some of them, like Lionel Hampton and Sidney Poiter, among others, is that they have kept their natural hair and fought to the top. I admire any Negro man who has never had himself conked, or who has had the sense to get rid of it-as I finally did.
你会看到许多所谓的“上流社会”黑人戴着直发，而且，尽管我很不愿意这么说，但很多黑人艺人也是如此。我特别钦佩其中一些人，比如 Lionel Hampton 和 Sidney Poitier 等人，原因之一就是他们保持了自然发型并奋斗到了顶峰。我钦佩任何从未做过直发，或者有智慧摆脱直发的黑人男性——就像我最终所做的那样。

I don’t know which kind of self-defacing conk is the greater shame-the one you’ll see on the heads of the black so-called “middle class” and “upper class,” who ought to know better, or the one you’ll see on the heads of the poorest, most downtrodden, ignorant black men. I mean the legal-minimum-wage ghetto-dwelling kind of Negro, as I was when I got my first one. It’s generally among these poor fools that you’ll see a black kerchief over the man’s head, like Aunt Jemima; he’s trying to make his conk last longer, between trips to the barbershop. Only for special occasions is this kerchief-protected conk exposed-to show off how “sharp” and “hip” its owner is. The ironic thing is that I have never heard any woman, white or black, express any admiration for a conk. Of course, any white woman with a black man isn’t thinking about his hair. But I don’t see how on earth a black woman with any race pride could walk down the street with any black man wearing a conk-the emblem of his shame that he is black.
我不知道哪种自我贬低的直发烫发是更大的耻辱——是你会看到那些所谓的黑人“中产阶级”和“上层阶级”头上的那种，他们本应更明白事理；还是你会看到那些最贫穷、最受压迫、最无知的黑人男子头上的那种。我指的是那些住在贫民窟、拿着法定最低工资的黑人，就像我第一次烫直发时那样。通常在这些可怜的傻瓜中，你会看到他们头上戴着黑色头巾，像杰迈玛阿姨那样；他们试图在去理发店之间让直发烫发保持得更久。只有在特殊场合，这种被头巾保护的直发才会露出来——展示主人有多“时髦”和“酷”。讽刺的是，我从未听过任何女人，无论是白人还是黑人，对直发烫发表达过任何赞赏。当然，任何与黑人男子在一起的白人女人都不会考虑他的头发。但我不明白，任何有种族自豪感的黑人女人怎么可能和一个烫着直发——象征着他为自己是黑人而感到羞耻的标志——的黑人男子走在街上。

To my own shame, when I say all of this I’m talking first of all about myself-because you can’t show me any Negro who ever conked more faithfully than I did. I’m speaking from per-
令我感到羞愧的是，当我说这一切时，我首先是在谈论我自己——因为你找不到任何一个比我更忠实地烫过头发的黑人。我是从个人经历中说出这些的——
sonal experience when I say of any black man who conks today, or any white-wigged black woman, that if they gave the brains in their heads just half as much attention as they do their hair, they would be a thousand times better off.
当我谈到今天任何一个烫发的黑人男性或戴白色假发的黑人女性时，我根据个人经验说，如果他们能像对待自己的头发那样，对头脑中的智慧给予一半的关注，他们的境况将会好上一千倍。

Shorty would take me to groovy, frantie seenes in different ehicks’ and eats’ pods, where with the lights and julke down mellow, everybody blew gage and juieed back and jumped. I met ehicks who were fine as May wine, and eats who were hip to all happenings.
Shorty 会带我去各种时髦、疯狂的场景，在不同的“ehicks”和“eats”的聚会场所，灯光柔和，音乐低沉，每个人都吸着大麻，喝着酒，跳着舞。我遇到了像五月美酒一样迷人的“ehicks”，以及对所有新鲜事都了如指掌的“eats”。

That paragraph is deliberate, of eourse, it’s just to display a bit more of the slang that was used by everyone I respeoted as “hip” in those days. And in no time at all, I was talking the slang Hike a lifelong hipster.
那段话当然是故意的，只是为了展示一些我当时所尊敬的“时髦”人士使用的俚语。很快，我就像个终身时髦人士一样说起了俚语。

Like hundreds of thousands of country bred Negroes who had come to the Northern black ghetto before me, and have come sinee, I’d abo acquined all the other fashionoble ghetto adom-ments-the zoot suits and eonk that I have deseribed, hiquor, eigarettes, then reefers all to erase my embarmssing baek ground. But I still harbered one seeret humiliation. I eouldn’t danee.
就像成千上万在我之前来到北方黑人贫民窟的乡村黑人一样，我也获得了所有其他时髦的贫民窟装饰——我描述过的佐特套装和康克酒、烈酒、香烟，还有大麻，都是为了抹去我尴尬的背景。但我仍然怀有一个秘密的耻辱。我不会跳舞。

I can’t remeniber when it was that I actually leamed how that is to say, I can’t recall the specific night or nights. But daneing was the ehief action at these “pad parties,” se I’ve ne doubt about how and why my initiation into lindy hopping eame about. With aleohol or manijuana lightening my head, and that wild music wailing away on those portable reeord players, it didn’t take long to loosen up the daneing instinets in my Afri ean heritage. All I remember is that during some party around
我不记得具体是什么时候，确切地说，我记不清是哪一晚或哪几晚。但跳舞是这些“pad parties”上的主要活动，所以我毫不怀疑我是如何以及为何开始跳林迪舞的。酒精或大麻让我头脑轻飘飘，那狂野的音乐在便携式唱片机上嚎叫，没过多久就激发了我非洲血统中的舞蹈本能。我只记得在某个派对上，
this time, when nearly everyone but me was up daneing, some gifl grabbed me they often would take the initiative and grab a partner, for no giyl at those parties ever would dream that anyone prosent eouldn’t danee and there I was out on the floor.
这一次，当除了我之外的几乎所有人都在跳舞时，一个女孩抓住了我——她们经常会主动抓住一个舞伴，因为在那些派对上，没有一个女孩会想到在场的任何人不会跳舞——于是我就这样被拉到了舞池中央。

I was up in the jostling erowd and suddenly, mexpectedly, I got the idea. It was as though somebody had elieked on a light. My long suppressed African instinets broke through, and leose.
我在拥挤的人群中，突然，出乎意料地，我有了这个想法。就像有人打开了灯。我长期压抑的非洲本能突破了，释放了。

Having spent so much time in Mason’s white environment, I hat always believed and feared that daneing involved a cortain order or pattern of specifie steps as dancing is done by whites. But here among my own less inhibited people, I diseovered it was simply letting your feet, hands and body spontaneously aet out whatever impulses were stirred by the musie.
在梅森的白色环境中度过了如此多的时间，我一直相信并害怕跳舞涉及某种特定的步骤顺序或模式，就像白人跳舞那样。但在这里，在我自己不那么拘束的人群中，我发现跳舞只是让你的脚、手和身体自发地表达出音乐激发的任何冲动。

From then on, hardly a party took plaee without me turning up inviting myself, if I had to and lindy hopping my headof.
从那时起，几乎没有一个派对我不去参加，如果必要的话，我会不请自来，然后尽情地跳林迪舞。

I’d always been fast at pieking up new things. I made up for lost time now so fast that soon ginis were asking ime to datiee with them. I worked my partners hard, that’s why they liked me se mueh.
我总是很快就能学会新东西。现在我弥补失去的时间如此之快，以至于很快就有女孩邀请我约会。我让我的搭档们努力工作，这就是他们如此喜欢我的原因。

When I was at work, up in the Roseland men’s roomi, I just eouldn’t keep still. My shine rag popped with the rhythm of those great bands roeking the ballroom. White enstomers on the shine stand, espeeially, would laugh to see my feet suddenly break loose on their own and eut a few steps. Whites are eorreet in thinling that blaek people are natural daneers. Even litte kids are-except for those Negroes today who are so “integrated,” as I had been, that their instinets are inhibited. You know those “daneing jibogos” toys that you wind up? Well, I was like a live one musie just wound me up.
当我在 Roseland 男洗手间工作时，我根本无法保持静止。我的擦鞋布随着那些在舞厅里摇摆的伟大乐队的节奏跳动。尤其是站在擦鞋架上的白人顾客，看到我的脚突然自己动起来跳几步，都会笑出声来。白人认为黑人天生是舞者，这是正确的。就连小孩子也是——除了那些如今如此“融合”的黑人，就像我曾经那样，他们的本能被抑制了。你知道那些“跳舞机器人”玩具吗？只要上发条就能动？嗯，我就像一个被音乐上发条的活生生的机器人。

By the next dance for the Boston black folk I remember that Lionel Hampton was eoming in to play I had given my notice to the Poseland’s manager.
到了下一次为波士顿的黑人举办的舞会时，我记得 Lionel Hampton 要来演奏，我已经向 Poseland 的经理递交了辞呈。
When I told Ella why I had quit, she laughed aloud. I told her Feouldn’t find time to shine shoes and danee, too. She was glad, beeause she had never liked the idea of my working at that no prestige job. When I told Shorty, he said he’d known I’d seon outgrow it anyway.
当我告诉埃拉我为什么辞职时，她大声笑了。我告诉她我找不到时间既擦鞋又跳舞。她很高兴，因为她从来不喜欢我做那份没有声望的工作。当我告诉肖蒂时，他说他早就知道我会很快不再适合这份工作。

Shorty could dance all right himself but, for his own reasons, he never cared about going to the big darces. He loved just the music-making end of it. He praetieed his saxophone and listened to records. It astonished me that Shorty didnct care to go and hear the big bands play. He had his alto sax ittol, folmny Hodges, with Duke Ellington’s band, but he said he thought too many young musicians were only earbon copying the big-oand names on the same instrument. Anyway, shomty was realiy serious about nothing except his musie, and about working for the day when he could start his own little grotp to gig aromnd Boston.
Shorty 自己跳舞跳得不错，但出于自己的原因，他从来不在意去参加大型舞会。他只喜欢音乐创作的部分。他练习他的萨克斯，听唱片。让我惊讶的是，Shorty 并不在意去听大乐队的演奏。他有一把中音萨克斯，和 Duke Ellington 乐队的 Johnny Hodges 一样，但他说他认为太多年轻音乐家只是在同一件乐器上模仿大乐队的名字。不管怎样，Shorty 除了音乐之外对什么都不认真，他只为了有一天能组建自己的小乐队在波士顿演出而努力。
The morning after I quit Roseland, I was down at the men’s clothing store bright and early. The salesman checked and found that I’d missed only one weekly payment: I had “A-1” credit. I told him I’d just quit my job, but he said that didn’t make any difference; I could miss paying them for a couple of weeks if I had to; he knew I’d get straight.
我离开 Roseland 的第二天早上，我一大早就到了男装店。销售员检查后发现我只错过了一次周付款：我的信用评级是“A-1”。我告诉他我刚辞职了，但他说那没关系；如果必要的话，我可以几周不付款；他知道我会还清的。
This time, I studied carefully everything in my size on the racks. And finally I picked out my second zoot. It was a sharkskin gray, with a big, long coat, and pants ballooning out at the knees and then tapering down to cuffs so narrow that I had to take off my shoes to get them on and off. With the salesman urging me on, I got another shirt, and a hat, and new shoesthe kind that were just coming into hipster style; dark orange colored, with paper-thin soles and knob style toes. It all added up to seventy or eighty dollars.
这一次，我仔细查看了衣架上所有适合我尺寸的衣服。最终，我挑选了我的第二套“zoot suit”。这是一套鲨鱼皮灰色的，配有一件又大又长的外套，裤子在膝盖处膨胀开来，然后逐渐收窄到裤脚，窄到我不得不脱鞋才能穿脱。在销售员的怂恿下，我又买了一件衬衫、一顶帽子和一双新鞋——那种刚刚开始流行的嬉皮士风格；深橙色，鞋底薄如纸，鞋头呈球形。总共花费了七八十美元。

It was such a red-letter day that I even went and got my first barbershop conk. This time it didn’t hurt so much, just as Shorty had predicted.
那天是如此重要，我甚至去理发店做了我的第一个直发烫。正如肖蒂所预言的那样，这次没有那么疼。

That night, I timed myself to hit Roseland as the thick of the crowd was coming in. In the thronging lobby, I saw some of the real Roxbury hipsters eyeing my zoot, and some fine women were giving me that look. I sauntered up to the men’s room for a short drink from the pint in my inside coat-pocket. My replacement was there-a scared, narrow-faced, hungry-looking little brown-skinned fellow just in town from Kansas City. And when he recognized me, he couldn’t keep down his admiration and wonder. I told him to “keep cool,” that he’d soon catch on to the happenings. Everything felt right when I went into the ballroom.
那天晚上，我掐准时间，在人群最密集的时候到达 Roseland。在拥挤的大厅里，我看到一些真正的 Roxbury 潮人打量着我的 zoot suit，一些漂亮的女人也向我投来那种目光。我悠闲地走向男洗手间，从大衣内侧口袋里的酒瓶中喝了一小口。我的替班在那里——一个紧张、瘦削、面带饥色的棕色皮肤小伙子，刚从堪萨斯城来到镇上。当他认出我时，他无法掩饰自己的钦佩和惊讶。我告诉他“保持冷静”，他很快就会适应这里的一切。当我走进舞厅时，一切都感觉恰到好处。