I never did listen too well. I had no time for wasteful conversation, and I didn’t care about certain things that should’ve made me afraid. When I made up my mind, it was as good as made up, and if you tried to tell me different, I’d just lower my head and butt harder than before. Lawrence was more sensible—sometimes an appeaser, always a peacemaker. You could count on my brother to step through his options first; to think a thing through before making any move. In this way, he and I were nothing alike, but most times, my way proved to be the right one, and for that reason, Lawrence always listened to me. They would easily kill a slave for what we’d just done. We weren’t slaves anymore, but every chance them planters got, they liked to remind us of how things used to be. Share croppin’ was only a slightly less evil system that saw us still bound to the white man and his land. Black codes governed the day, and to hear daddy tell it, them Freedman’s Bureau labor agreements never did amount to much of anything. Now, daddy had been a slave, already fifteen years by the time the war ended. He remembers what it was like on the Montrose plantation; the before and the after. The promises and the lies; bondage invisible, but present still. In fact, to hear him tell it, we’d never really stopped being slaves, but were too busy trying to survive to focus on the distinction. At the time of the incident, daddy had slowed down a lot, the difference in his and momma’s ages showing up in obvious ways. He didn’t have to worry though. I did whatever had to be done so they would never suffer from any need. This time was no different.

中文翻译：

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食用部分

我从来没有好好听过。我没有时间进行浪费的谈话，我不在乎某些本该让我害怕的事情。当我下定决心时，它和弥补一样好，如果你试图告诉我不同​​，我只会比以前更努力地低头和屁股。劳伦斯更明智——有时是一个安抚者，总是一个和平缔造者。你可以指望我哥哥先完成他的选择；在采取任何行动之前先考虑清楚。这样一来，他和我就完全不一样了，但大多数时候，事实证明我的方式是正确的，因此，劳伦斯总是听我的。他们会因为我们刚刚所做的事情而轻易杀死一个奴隶。我们不再是奴隶，但他们种植园主得到的每一次机会，他们都喜欢提醒我们过去的情况。Sharecropin'只是一个稍微不那么邪恶的系统，它看到我们仍然与白人和他的土地捆绑在一起。黑色准则支配着这一天，听爸爸说，弗里德曼局的劳工协议从来没有起到任何作用。现在，爸爸已经是个奴隶，战争结束时已经十五年了。他还记得蒙特罗斯种植园的情景；之前和之后。承诺和谎言；束缚无形，但依然存在。事实上，听他说，我们从来没有真正停止过做奴隶，而是忙于生存而无暇专注于区别。事发时，爸爸已经慢了很多，他和妈妈的年龄差异以明显的方式表现出来。不过他也不必担心。我做了任何必须做的事情，这样他们就永远不会有任何需要。