英文名著精講:The Kite Runner 追風箏的人(5)
12歲的阿富汗富家少爺阿米爾與僕人哈桑情同手足。然而，在一場風箏比賽後，發生了一件悲慘不堪的事，阿米爾爲自己的懦弱感到自責和痛苦，逼走了哈桑，不久，自己也跟隨父親逃往美國。
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。
I'm told no one was really surprised when Sanaubar eloped. People"had"raised their eyebrows when Ali, a man who had memorized the Koran, married Sanaubar, a woman nineteen years younger, a beautiful but notoriously unscrupulous woman who lived up to her dishonorable reputation. Like Ali, she was a Shi'a Muslim and an ethnic Hazara. She was also his first cousin and therefore a natural choice for a spouse. But beyond those similarities, Ali and Sanaubar had little in common, least of all their respective appearances. While Sanaubar's brilliant green eyes and impish face had, rumor has it, tempted countless men into sin, Ali had a congenital paralysis of his lower facial muscles, a condition that rendered him unable to smile and left him perpetually grimfaced. It was an odd thing to see the stone-faced Ali happy, or sad, because only his slanted brown eyes glinted with a smile or welled with sorrow. People say that eyes are windows to the soul. Never was that more true than with Ali, who could only reveal himself through his eyes.
I have heard that Sanaubar's suggestive stride and oscillating hips sent men to reveries of infidelity. But polio had left Ali with a twisted, atrophied right leg that was sallow skin over bone with little in between except a paper-thin layer of muscle. I remember one day, when I was eight, Ali was taking me to the bazaar to buy some "naan". I was walking behind him, humming, trying to imitate his walk. I watched him swing his scraggy leg in a sweeping arc, watched his whole body tilt impossibly to the right every time he planted that foot. It seemed a minor miracle he didn't tip over with each step. When I tried it, I almost fell into the gutter. That got me giggling. Ali turned around, caught me aping him. He didn't say anything. Not then, not ever. He just kept walking.
Ali's face and his walk frightened some of the younger children in the neighborhood. But the real trouble was with the older kids. They chased him on the street, and mocked him when he hobbled by. Some had taken to calling him "Babalu", or Boogeyman.
"Hey, Babalu, who did you eat today?" they barked to a chorus of laughter. "Who did you eat, you flat-nosed Babalu?"
第 1 頁：英文原文第 2 頁：重點精講第 3 頁：中文譯文
重點精講：
notorious adj. 臭名昭著的
He is notorious for his goings-on.
他因行爲不檢點而聲名狼藉。
The district is notorious for its fogs.
那地區以濃霧出名。
unscrupulous adj.肆無忌憚的，不道德的
You always take part with the unscrupulous man.
你總是袒護那些肆無忌憚的人。
Usually in order to reach a certain goal, some use unscrupulous means in doing so.
爲了達成目標，我們肆無忌憚的運用策略和媒介。
live up to 符合，名副其實
My father, too, came to see the work of his now famous son.
我的父親也看了他已負盛名的兒子的勞作。
dishonorable adj. 不光彩的
He is ashamed for his former dishonorable action.
他對他以前不光彩的行爲感到羞愧。
He works for colonialist trading company and slaves the native people in many dishonorable ways.
他爲帝國主義貿易公司工作，用各種不光彩的手段奴役殖民地人民。
ethnic adj. 種族的，民族的
That's why you can find almost every kind of ethnic food in America.
那也就是爲什麼在美國你幾乎可以看到所有不同民族的食物。
spouse n. 配偶
He never mentioned his spouse.
他從來不提自己的妻子。
similarity n. 相似之處，相同點
impish adj. 頑皮的
Impish eyes peered from the doorway.
門口有雙頑皮的眼睛在朝裏張望。
She looks like an impish angel or beauty fairy.
她是頑皮的天使，還是美麗的仙女。
tempt v. 誘惑，慫恿，引誘， 吸引
How can we tempt young people into engineering?
我們怎麼才能吸引年輕人學習工程學呢?
Nothing would tempt me to live here.
什麼也吸引不了我到這裏居住。
congenital adj. 天生的，先天的
The congenital form is spread to the fetus through the bloodstream.
先天的形式是通過血液傳播給胎兒。
paralysis n. 癱瘓，麻痹
render v. 使成爲
His back injury had rendered him unfit for work.
他的背傷使他無法勝任這份工作。
slanted adj. 傾斜的
reveal v. 顯示，透露，展現
Several withered trees on the sides of the road reveal the desolation here.
道路兩旁的幾棵枯木顯示出這裏的荒涼。
His deed revealed him to be a kind man.
他的行爲顯示他是個好心的人。
oscillating adj. 振盪的，搖晃的
This oscillating field would accelerate the particles toward the collision point.
這個振盪的電場會把粒子加速推向碰撞點。
infidelity n. 不信神；不忠
She closed her eyes to her husband's infidelities.
她丈夫有不忠行爲，她卻視而不見。
The photo was final proof of her husband's infidelity.
這張照片最終證明了她丈夫的不忠。
atrophied adj. 萎縮的，衰退的
動詞atrophy的過去式和過去分詞形式
bazaar n. （中東地區的）集市
imitate v. 模仿
He can imitate his teacher perfectly.
他能維妙維肖地模仿他的老師。
They watched jig on TV and tried to imitate.
他們看着電視裏的快步舞並且試圖模仿。
His handwriting is difficult to imitate.
他的筆跡很難模仿。
scraggy adj.凹凸不平的，參差不齊的，骨瘦如柴的
ape v. 模仿
We used to ape the teacher's southern accent.
我們過去常模仿老師的南方口音。
He seems trying to ape anybody he thinks great and wonderful.
他似乎想模仿任何一個他認爲偉大和了不起的人。
mock v. 嘲笑
hobble v. 蹣跚，跛行
The old man hobbled along (the road) with the aid of his stick.
那老漢拄著柺杖一瘸一拐地走著。
I hurt my foot,and had to hobble home.
我的腳受了傷，只好一拐一拐地走回家。
chorus n. 合唱隊，歌舞隊
據說莎娜芭拋家棄子的時候，沒有人感到奇怪。熟背《可蘭經》的阿里娶了比他年輕19歲的莎娜芭，這個女人美貌動人，可是不潔身自愛，向來聲名狼藉。人們對這樁婚事大皺眉頭。跟阿里一樣，她也是什葉派穆斯林伊斯蘭教分爲遜尼（Sunni）和什葉（Shi a）兩大派系。兩派的分別主要在於對於穆罕默德繼承人的合法性的承認上。按什葉派的觀點，只有阿里及其直系後裔纔是合法的繼承人，而遜尼派承認艾布·伯克爾、歐麥爾、奧斯曼、阿里四大哈里發的合法性，也是哈扎拉（Hazara，阿富汗民族，主要分佈在該國中部省份）族人。她還是他的第一個堂妹，因而他們天生就應該是一對。但除了這些，至少在他們的外表上，阿里和莎娜芭毫無共同之處。風傳莎娜芭那善睞的綠眼珠和俏皮的臉蛋曾誘得無數男人自甘墮落，阿里的半邊臉罹患先天麻痹，因此他無法微笑，總是一副陰騭的臉色。要判斷石頭臉的阿里究竟高興還是難過可不是容易的事情，因爲只有從他眯斜的棕色眼睛，才能判斷其中是歡樂的閃爍，還是哀傷的涌動。人們說眼睛是心靈的窗口，用在阿里身上再貼切不過，他只能在眼神中透露自己。
我聽說莎娜芭步履款款，雙臀搖擺，那誘人的身姿令衆多男人跟他們的愛人同牀異夢。但阿里得過小兒麻痹症，右腿萎縮，菜色的皮膚包着骨頭，夾着一層薄如紙的肌肉。我記得八歲那年，有一天阿里帶我到市場去買饢餅（Naan，阿富汗日常主食，將麪糰抹在烤爐上烘焙而成）。我走在他後面，嘴裏唸唸有詞，學着他走路的樣子。我看見他提起那條嶙峋的右腿，搖晃着劃出一道弧形；看見他那條腿每次踏下，身體不由自主地往右邊傾低。他這樣蹣跚前進而又能不摔倒，不能不說是個小小的奇蹟。我學着他走路，差點摔進水溝，忍不住咯咯笑起來。阿里轉過身，看到我正學着他。他什麼也沒說。當時沒說，以後也一直沒說，他只是繼續走。
阿里的臉龐和步伐嚇壞了某些鄰居的小孩。但真正麻煩的是那些較大的少年。每逢他走過，他們總在街道上追逐他，作弄他。有些管他叫“巴巴魯”，也就是專吃小孩的惡魔。“喂，巴巴魯，今天你吃了誰啊？”他們一起歡樂地叫喊，“你吃了誰啊，塌鼻子巴巴魯？”
