> “We [were] very sorry to be parted from one another,” Lewis told Hurston. “We [went] seventy days cross[ing] the water from the Afica[n] soil, and now they pa

> “We [were] very sorry to be parted from one another,” Lewis told Hurston. “We [went] seventy days cross[ing] the water from the Afica[n] soil, and now they part us from one another. Therefore we cry. Our grief [was] so heavy [it] look[ed] like we can't stand it. I think maybe I [will] die in my sleep when I dream about my mama.” Better? But really even without the journalistic [corrections], the tone is still very different from Hurston's original transcription: > “We were very sorry to be parted from one another,” Lewis told Hurston. “We went seventy days crossing the water from the African soil, and now they part us from one another. Therefore we cry. Our grief was so heavy it looked like we can't stand it. I think maybe I will die in my sleep when I dream about my mama.”