Vocabulary

sheepish adj. 窘迫的;难为情的;尴尬的；

“You like it?” Baba said, leaning in the doorway to my room. I gave him a sheepish grin and a quick “Thank you.” I wished I could have mustered more.

Baba stood up, a sheen of grief across his face.

raspy adj. 声音刺耳的，粗嘎的，嘶哑的；

Her voice was raspy with nicotine and whiskey.

denominator n. (分数中的)分母；

Forgive? But theft was the one unforgivable sin, the common denominator of all sins.

sheen n. 光泽;光辉;光彩；

Baba stood up, a sheen of grief across his face.

Excerpt

爱与牺牲——哈桑

Baba came right out and asked. “Did you steal that money? Did you steal Amir’s watch, Hassan?”

Hassan’s reply was a single word, delivered in a thin, raspy voice: “Yes.”

I flinched, like I’d been slapped. My heart sank and I almost blurted out the truth. Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me.

flinch v .退缩，畏缩，躲避

blurt v. 脱口而出，说漏嘴

小小的从不撒谎哈桑承认了自己并没有犯过的罪行。Amir的心一下子沉了下去，他想说出事实，但终究没有走出这一步。

爱与牺牲——阿里

“Life here is impossible for us now, Agha sahib. We’re leaving.” Ali drew Hassan to him, curled his arm around his son’s shoulder. It was a protective gesture and I knew whom Ali was protecting him from. Ali glanced my way and in his cold, unforgiving look, I saw that Hassan had told him. He had told him everything, about what Assef and his friends had done to him, about the kite, about me.

curled his arm around his son’s shoulder 是一个保护性非常强的动作，看到这里心理稍有安慰。哈桑也是有人守护的，虽然阿里并不如父亲富有强壮，但却一心一意爱着哈桑，从未改变。

That was when I understood the depth of the pain I had caused, the blackness of the grief I had brought onto everyone, that not even Ali’s paralyzed face could mask his sorrow. I forced myself to look at Hassan, but his head was downcast, his shoulders slumped, his finger twirling a loose string on the hem of his shirt.

对于阿米尔的行为，阿里非常愤怒，但他隐忍着，眼睛流露着他的情感。本书前面读的时候就一直在思考阿里的设定为什么是面瘫，难道小儿麻痹已经不足以表达他的可怜了吗？现在重读这一段，我突然想到，也许作者就是为了这一段而给了阿里这样的人设。他只有眼睛能表达情感，面目上看不出愤怒和哀伤，看似“隐忍”，实则“无奈”。也正因为如此，所以爸爸才会一无所知，而他目光所触及的阿米尔却心知肚明。

景色描写

IN KABUL, it rarely rained in the summer. Blue skies stood tall and far, the sun like a branding iron searing the back of your neck. Creeks where Hassan and I skipped stones all spring turned dry, and rickshaws stirred dust when they sputtered by. People went to mosques for their ten raka’ts of noontime prayer and then retreated to whatever shade they could find to nap in, waiting for the cool of early evening. Summer meant long school days sweating in tightly packed,poorly ventilated classrooms learning to recite ayats from the Koran, struggling with those tongue-twisting, exotic Arabic words. It meant catching flies in your palm while the mullah droned on and a hot breeze brought with it the smell of shit from the outhouse across the schoolyard, churning dust around the lone rickety basketball hoop.

branding iron 烙铁

rickshaw 黄包车，人力车

But it rained the afternoon Baba took Ali and Hassan to the bus station. Thunderhead srolled in, painted the sky iron gray. Within minutes, sheets of rain were sweeping in, the steady hiss of falling water swelling in my ears.

小说无法避免的桥段就是雨。

Slithering beads of rain sluiced down my window.I saw Baba slam the trunk shut. Already drenched, he walked to the driver’s side. Leaned in and said something to Ali in the backseat, perhaps one last-ditch effort to change his mind. They talked that way awhile, Baba getting soaked, stooping, one arm on the roof of the car. But when he straightened, I saw in his slumping shoulders that the life I had known since I’d been born was over. Baba slid in. The headlights came on and cut twin funnels of light in the rain. If this were one of the Hindi movies Hassan and I used to watch, this was the part where I’d run outside, my bare feet splashing rainwater. I’d chase the car, screaming for it to stop. I’d pull Hassan out of the backseat and tell him I was sorry, so sorry, my tears mixing with rainwater. We’d hug in the downpour. But this was no Hindi movie. I was sorry, but I didn’t cry and I didn’t chase the car. I watched Baba’s car pull away from the curb, taking with it the person whose first spoken word had been my name. I caught one final blurry glimpse of Hassan slumped in the back seat before Baba turned left at the street corner where we’d played marbles so many times.

这里摘录的原因主要是我个人非常习惯中部加粗描述印度电影的这一段。在小说中描述电影桥段，会增加画面感和戏剧感。作者在《灿烂千阳》中也有多处使用了电影中奇幻的场景才形容主人公的情感和心情。

I stepped back and all I saw was rain through window panes that looked like melting silver.

Notes

Amir把钱和手表放在了Hassan的床垫下。

他告诉爸爸哈桑偷了他的钱和手表。

而此时，屋角Hassan精心挑选的礼物，有着精美插图的，他最爱的故事——《Shahnamah》，已经被Amir塞在了礼物堆底层。

Hassan最终向Ali坦白了一切，从不撒谎的他，承认了自己偷了Amir的手表。这是他最后一次最Amir牺牲自己，这是他最后一次向Amir表示他无比纯洁高尚的忠诚。虽然Baba表示一点都不介意，但Ali还是带着Hassan走了，毅然决然，毫无犹豫，默默无语。Amir逼走了自己最忠诚善良的好朋友，生命中说出的第一个字是他的名字的伙伴，也逼走了Baba几十年的忠仆，即便承受万般委屈也并不愿给Baba平添忧愁的好兄弟，Hassan和Ali。