It is one of the supreme ironies that on 11 February 1990, the day that Nelson Mandela was released after 27-and-a-half years in prison, the event that much of South Africa and the rest of the world had been waiting decades for, the country was not ready for him.
在1990年2月11日，被囚禁27年半的的曼德拉终于获释，这真是个极大的讽刺。因为大部分南非人和世界上其他人民都等这一刻数十年了，这个国家还没有准备好迎接他的变革。
The iconic image of that moment – a lean, beaming Mandela in a dark suit emerging from Victor Verster prison holding hands with Winnie, both raising triumphant clenched fist salutes – belied the chaos around them.
瘦弱却神采奕奕的曼德拉穿着深色套装，和妻子温妮手拉手从维克多·韦斯特监狱走出来成为了这一刻的标志性形象，他们举起握拳的双手，与周围混乱的场面有些不符。
The first person to shake Mandela's hand as he exited the prison gates was John Battersby, a journalist with the Christian Science Monitor, who had arrived on the scene five minutes before only to walk straight into Mandela, who greeted him with his trademark bonhomie (much to the chagrin of the rest of the journalist pack, who had been waiting outside the gates for 11 hours).
在他走出监狱后第一个和他握手的是《基督教科学箴言报》的记者约翰·巴特斯比，他提前五分钟来这里，径直走向曼德拉，后者向他投以标志性的温和笑容（这让其他记者很懊恼，他们已经在门口等了11个小时。）
