Letters written by former South African president Nelson Mandela during his 27 years in jail reveal the agony of being separated from his family. 南非前总统纳尔逊·曼德拉在27年的牢狱生活之中所写的信件寄托了其被迫离家的相思之苦。 Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island in 1990 and served as president from 1994-99

Excerpts of the letters, which go on sale on Tuesday, show his frustration as his wife and children are harassed by the apartheid government. "I feel I have been soaked in gall ," he told Winnie Mandela as she served 18 months in solitary confinement .

In a letter to his children he wrote: "For long you may live like orphans." Many of the letters were copied by Mr Mandela into exercise books which were confiscated by the authorities.

They were finally handed back to him by a former security policeman in 2004. The private correspondence reveals a husband and father, struggling to keep his family together while under considerable political and emotional pressure. In June 1969, he wrote to his two daughters, Zeni and Zindzi aged 9 and 10 respectively, when both he and their mother were in prison.

"Now you will get no birthday or Christmas parties, no presents or new dresses no shoes or toys," he told them.

That same year, he was not allowed to attend the funeral of Thembi, the elder of two sons from his first marriage, who died in a car crash aged 24.

"When I was first advised of my son’s death I was shaken from top to bottom," he wrote. A letter to Winnie Mandela in August 1970 shows his anger at his family’s plight（困境，境况） .

"I feel I have been soaked in gall, every part of me, my flesh, bloodstream, bone and soul, so bitter am I to be completely powerless to help you in the rough and fierce ordeals you are going through," he wrote.