My name is Elias. I am a poor black worker in South Africa. The time when I first met Nelson Mandela was a very difficult period of my life. I was twelve years old. It was in 1952 and Mandela was the black lawyer to whom I went for advice. He offered guidance to poor black people on their legal problems. He was generous with his time, for which I was grateful.我叫埃利亚斯。我是南非一名贫穷的黑人工人。我第一次见到纳尔逊·曼德拉的时候是我一生中非常困难的时期。我十二岁。那是在1952年，曼德拉是我寻求建议的黑人律师。他就贫困黑人的法律问题向他们提供指导。他对自己的时间很慷慨，对此我很感激。
I needed his help because I had very little education. I began school at six. The school where I studied for only two years was three kilometres away. I had to leave because my family could not continue to pay the school fees and the bus fare. I could not read or write well. After trying hard, I got a job in a gold mine. However, this was a time when one had got to have a passbook to live in Johannesburg. Sadly I did not have it because I was not born there, and I worried about whether I would become out of work.我需要他的帮助，因为我受的教育很少。我六点钟开始上学。我只就读了两年的学校就在三公里外。我不得不离开，因为我的家人无法继续支付学费和车费。我读写不好。经过努力，我在一家金矿找到了一份工作。然而，这是一个必须有存折才能住在约翰内斯堡的时代。遗憾的是，我没有得到它，因为我不是在那里出生的，我担心自己是否会失业。
The day when Nelson Mandela helped me was one of my happiest. He told me how to get the correct papers so I could stay in Johannesburg. I became more hopeful about my future. I never forgot how kind Mandela was, When he organized the ANC Youth League, I joined it as soon as I could. He said: "The last thirty years have seen the greatest number of laws stopping our rights and progress, until today we have reached a stage where we have almost no rights at all."纳尔逊·曼德拉帮助我的那天是我最快乐的一天。他告诉我如何得到正确的文件，这样我就可以留在约翰内斯堡。我对自己的未来更加充满希望。我从未忘记曼德拉是多么善良，当他组织非国大青年联盟时，我尽快加入了它。他说：“在过去的三十年里，有最多的法律阻止了我们的权利和进步，直到今天，我们已经到了一个几乎没有权利的阶段。”