殘忍而美麗的情誼:The Kite Runner 追風箏的人(9)
成年後的阿米爾始終無法原諒自己當年對哈桑的背叛。爲了贖罪，阿米爾再度踏上暌違二十多年的故鄉，希望能爲不幸的好友盡最後一點心力，卻發現一個驚天謊言，兒時的噩夢再度重演，阿米爾該如何抉擇？小說如此殘忍而又美麗，作者以溫暖細膩的筆法勾勒人性的本質與救贖，讀來令人蕩氣迴腸。
Outside the orphanage, the next day, they ran out of chairs. A lot of people had to stand to watch the openingceremony. It was a windy day, and I sat behind Baba on the littlepodiumjust outside the main entrance of the new building. Baba was wearing a green suit and a caracul hat. Midway through the speech, the wind knocked his hat off and everyone laughed. Hemotionedto me to hold his hat for him and I was glad to, because then everyone would see that he was my father, my Baba. He turned back to the microphone and said he hoped the building wassturdierthan his hat, and everyone laughed again. When Baba ended his speech, people stood up and cheered. Theyclappedfor a long time. Afterward, people shook his hand. Some of them tousled my hair and shook my hand too. I was so proud of Baba, of us.
But despite Baba's successes, people were always doubting him. They told Baba that running a business wasn't in his blood and he should study law like his father. So Baba proved them all wrong by not only running his own business but becoming one of the richest merchants in Kabul. Baba and Rahim Khan built a wildly successful carpet-exporting Business, two pharmacies, and a restaurant.
When peoplescoffedthat Baba would never marry well--after all, he was not of royal blood--he wedded my mother, Sofia Akrami, a highly educated woman universally regarded as one of Kabul's most respected, beautiful, andvirtuousladies. And not only did she teach classic Farsi literature at the university she was a descendant of the royal family, a fact that my father playfully rubbed in the skeptics faces by referring to her as "my princess."
With me as theglaringexception, my father molded the world around him to his liking. The problem, of course, was that Baba saw the world in black and white. And he got to decide what was black and what was white. You can't love a person who lives that way without fearing him too. Maybe even hating him a little.
ceremonyn. 典禮
What the old headmaster said at the graduation ceremony dwells in my mind.
老校長在畢業典禮上講的話一直留在我的腦海裏。
podiumn. 舞臺，講臺，指揮台
motionn./v. 示意
He made a motion with his hand to make me sit down.
他招手示意要我坐下。
He opened the door and motioned me to come in.
他打開了門，招手讓我進去。
sturdyadj. 堅固的
That chair doesn't look very sturdy.
椅子看上其不堅固。
Have you any sturdy hiking boots?
有沒有耐用的健行靴？
clapv. 拍手，鼓掌
scoffv. 嘲笑
You should not scoff at others'belief.
你不能嘲笑別人的信仰。
I told them my ideas but they scoffed at them.
我把自己的想法告訴他們，但他們嗤之以鼻。
virtuousadj. 有品德的
She always tried to lead a virtuous life.
她一直想要過一種高潔的生活。
glaringadj. 明顯的
The report is full of glaring errors.
那份報告滿是顯而易見的錯誤。
The most glaring omission is economic liberalisation.
最明顯的忽略是在經濟開放方面。
翌日，在恤孤院外面，椅子沒有來客多。很多人只好站着觀看落成慶典。那天颳風，新建築的大門外面搭了個禮臺，爸爸坐在上面，我坐在他後面。爸爸身穿綠色套裝，頭戴羔羊皮帽。演講當中，風把他的帽子吹落，人們開懷大笑。他示意我替他把帽子撿回來，我很高興，因爲當時人人可以看到他是我的父親，我的爸爸。他轉過身，對着麥克風說，他希望這座房子比他的皮帽來得牢靠，人們又大笑起來。爸爸演講結束的時候，大家站起來，歡呼致意，掌聲經久不息。接着，來賓與他握手。有些人摸摸我的頭髮，也跟我握手。我爲爸爸自豪，爲我們驕傲。
雖說爸爸事業興旺，人們總是說三道四。他們說爸爸沒有經商的天分，應該像爺爺那樣專研法律。所以爸爸證明他們統統錯了：他不僅經營着自己的生意，還成了喀布爾屈指可數的巨賈。爸爸和拉辛汗創辦了一家日進斗金的地毯出口公司，兩家藥房，還有一家餐廳。
當時人們嘲弄爸爸，說他不可能有樁好婚事--畢竟他沒有皇族血統，他娶了我媽媽，索菲亞·阿卡拉米。媽媽受過良好教育，無論人品還是外貌，都被公認是喀布爾數得上的淑女。她在大學教授古典法爾西語Farsi，現代波斯語。文學，祖上是皇親貴胄。這讓爸爸十分高興，總在那些對他有所懷疑的人面前稱呼她"我的公主"。
父親隨心所欲地打造他身邊的世界，除了我這個明顯的例外。當然，問題在於，爸爸眼裏的世界只有黑和白。至於什麼是黑，什麼是白，全然由他說了算。他就是這麼一個人，你若愛他，也必定會怕他，甚或對他有些恨意。
