I said nothing. She stamped the card and handed me the books. Not daring to glance at them. I went out of the library, fearing that the woman would call me back for further questioning.A block away from the library I opened one of the books and read a title: A Book of Prefaces. I was nearing my nineteenth birthday and I did not know how to pronounce the word "preface". I thumbed the pages and saw strange words and strange names. I shook my head, disappointed. I looked at the other book; it was called Prejudices, I knew what that word meant; I had heard it all my life. And right off I was on guard against Mencken's books. Why would a man want to call a book Prejudices? The word was so stained with all my memories of racial hate that I cold not conceive of anybody using it for a title. Perhaps I had made a mistakeabout Mencken? A man who had prejudices must be wrong.
我没有说话。她在借书证上打了印，把书给了我。我不敢看书一眼，径直走出图书馆，惟恐这女人把我叫回去，进一步盘问。走出图书馆一个街区，我打开其中一本书，看到书名是：《序言集》。我快过十九岁生日了，但我却不知道"序言"这个词怎么念。我一页一页翻过去，看到一些奇怪的词和一些古怪的名字。我摇摇头，大失所望。我又看了另一本书，书名叫《偏见》。我知道这个词的意思，自我出世以来，就一直听到这个词。因此，我立即对门肯的书警觉起来。为什么一个人要把一本书取名为《偏见》？这个词沾满了我记忆所及的一切种族仇恨，我不能想像任何人用它作书名。说不定我把门肯看错了？一个有偏见的人肯定是不对的。
When I showed the books to Mr. Falk, he looked at me and frowned.
当我把书给福尔克先生看时，他看看我，皱皱眉。
"That librarian might telephone you," I warned him.
"那个图书管理员可能会打电话给你，"我预先警告他说。
"That's all right," he said. "But when you're through reading those books, I want you to tell me what you get out of them."
"那不打紧，"他说。"不过你读完这些书后，我要你告诉我，你从中学到些什么。”