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He seemed perfectly calm when he sat down on the bench, but inside his heart was thumping wildly. Two conflicting ideas now throbbed through him. The one said, "I have no right to sit on this bench"; the other said, "Why have I no right to sit on this bench?" The one voice spoke of the past, of the servile position he had occupied on the farms, of his father and his father's father who were born black, lived like blacks and died like oxen. The other voice spoke of the future and said, "Karlie, you are a man. You have dared what your father would not have dared. You will die like a man!"
当他坐在长凳上时，似乎显得非常平静，但他的心在怦怦直跳。两种冲突的想法在他心里搏斗。一个说我没有权利坐在这个长凳上。”另一个说我为什么没有权利坐在这个长凳上？”一个声音在说过去，说他在农场里受奴役的地位，说他的父亲和他的祖父，他们生来就是黑人，像其他黑人一样痛苦地活着，像公牛一样死去。另一个声音谈到了未来，它在说卡里，你是一个人。你已经做了你父亲从来不敢做的事情。死也要死得有人的尊严！”
Karlie took out a cigarette and smoked. Nobody seemed to notice his sitting there. This was an anti-climax. The world still pursued its monotonous way. No voice shouted "Karlie has conquered!" He was a normal human being sitting on a bench in a busy station, smoking a cigarette. Or was this his victory, the fact that he was a normal human being? A well-dressed white woman walked down the platform. Would she sit on the bench, Karlie wondered. And then that gnawing voice, "You should stand and let the white woman sit." Karlie narrowed his eyes and gripped tighter at his cigarette. She swept past him without the slightest twitch of an eyelid and walked on down the platform. Was she afraid to challenge, to challenge his right to be human? Karlie now felt tired.
卡里拿出一支香烟，抽了起来。似乎没有人注意到他坐在那里。这真是令人扫兴。这个世界仍旧在以它单调的方式运转着。没有人喊：“卡里已经成功了！”他仍是一个普通人，正坐在繁忙的火车站的一个长凳上抽着烟。事实是他成了一个普通人，这就是他获得的胜利吗？一位穿着讲究的白人妇女沿着站台走了过来。卡里琢磨着，她会坐在这个长凳上吗？卡里的脑海中响起了那令人痛苦的声音：“你应该站起来，让这位白人妇女坐下。”卡里眯起眼睛，把香烟握得更紧了。那个女人急匆匆地从他身边走过，眼皮连动都没动一下，继续沿着站台走着。她是害怕挑战，挑战他做人的权利吗？卡里现在感到累了。
