英文名著精讲:The Kite Runner 追风筝的人(8)

12岁的阿富汗富家少爷阿米尔与仆人哈桑情同手足。然而，在一场风筝比赛后，发生了一件悲惨不堪的事，阿米尔为自己的懦弱感到自责和痛苦，逼走了哈桑，不久，自己也跟随父亲逃往美国。

成年后的阿米尔始终无法原谅自己当年对哈桑的背叛。为了赎罪，阿米尔再度踏上暌违二十多年的故乡，希望能为不幸的好友尽最后一点心力，却发现一个惊天谎言，儿时的噩梦再度重演，阿米尔该如何抉择？小说如此残忍而又美丽，作者以温暖细腻的笔法勾勒人性的本质与救赎，读来令人荡气回肠。

It took three years to build the orphanage. I was eight by then. I remember the day before the orphanage opened, Baba took me to Ghargha Lake, a few miles north of Kabul. He asked me to fetch Hassan too, but I lied and told him Hassan had the runs. I wanted Baba all to myself. And besides, one time at Ghargha Lake, Hassan and I were skimming stones and Hassan made his stone skip eight times. The most I managed was five. Baba was there, watching, and he patted Hassan on the back. Even put his arm around his shoulder.
We sat at a picnic table on the banks of the lake, just Baba and me, eating boiled eggs with "kofta" sandwiches--meatballs and pickles wrapped in "naan". The water was a deep blue and sunlight glittered on its looking glass-clear surface. On Fridays, the lake was bustling with families out for a day in the sun. But it was midweek and there was only Baba and me, us and a couple of longhaired, bearded tourists--"hippies," I'd heard them called. They were sitting on the dock, feet dangling in the water, Fishing poles in hand. I asked Baba why they grew their hair long, but Baba grunted, didn't answer. He was preparing his speech for the next day, flipping through a havoc of handwritten pages, making notes here and there with a pencil. I bit into my egg and asked Baba if it was true what a boy in school had told me, that if you ate a piece of eggshell, you'd have to pee it out. Baba grunted again.
I took a bite of my sandwich. One of the yellow-haired tourists laughed and slapped the other one on the back. In the distance, across the lake, a truck lumbered around a corner on the hill. Sunlight twinkled in its side-view mirror.
"I think I have 'saratan', " I said. Cancer. Baba lifted his head from the pages flapping in the breeze. Told me I could get the soda myself, all I had to do was look in the trunk of the car.

重点精讲：

skim v. 掠过
A seagull skims the water.
海鸥掠过水面。

pat v. 轻拍
He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
He gave me a light pat on the shoulder.
他在我肩上轻轻一拍。

wrap v. 包
You should wrap up the gift in a paper.
你应该把礼物用纸包好。
I wrapped the rug around the sick man's legs to keep him warm.
我用毯子把病人的腿包了起来，让他暖和一点儿。
裹
Wrap the meat in foil before you cook it.
把肉用锡箔裹起来后再烧。

glitter v. 闪烁
In these cities what remains of the old China is hidden by the glitter.
在这些城市里，旧中国所遗留下来的东西都被闪烁的灯光掩埋了。
He stared at me with a cruel glitter in his eyes.
他眼露凶光地瞪着我。

dangle v. 悬垂
The children sat on the high wall, with their legs dangling.
小孩子们坐在高墙上，脚悬垂着。

grunt v. 咕哝
The inspector gave a grunt of approval.
督学咕哝着表示赞同。

flip v. 翻转
He flipped to a fresh page and began to write.
他翻到另外一页,开始写了起来。

slap v. 拍击
He slapped me on the back on my way home.
在我回家的路上，他在我背上拍了一下。

lumber v. 缓慢地移动

flap v. 拍打
I flap the flies away but soon they fly back.
我把苍蝇赶走，但一会儿又飞回来了。
The curtains were flapping at the open window.
窗帘在敞开的窗户前摆动。

恤孤院工程耗时三年，盖好的那年我八岁。我记得恤孤院落成前一天，爸爸带我去喀布尔以北几英里远的喀尔卡湖。他让我叫上哈桑，但我撒谎，说哈桑有事情要做。我要爸爸全属我一人。再说，有一次哈桑和我在喀尔卡湖畔打水漂，他的石头跳了八下，我用尽力气，也只能跳五下。爸爸在旁边看着我们，他伸手拍拍哈桑的后背，甚至还用手臂搂住他的肩膀。

我们在湖边的野餐桌旁边坐下来，只有爸爸跟我，吃着水煮蛋和肉丸夹饼--就是馕饼夹着肉丸和腌黄瓜。湖水澄蓝，波平如镜，阳光照在湖上熠熠生辉。每逢周五，总有很多家庭到湖边，在阳光下度过假期。但那天不是周末，那儿只有我们--爸爸和我，还有几个留着胡子和长发的游客，我听说他们叫"嬉皮士"。他们坐在码头上，手里拿着钓鱼竿，脚板在水里晃荡。我问爸爸，为什么那些人留着长头发，但爸爸没有回答，只哼了一声。他正准备翌日的演讲，翻阅着一叠手稿，不时用铅笔做些记号。我吃一口鸡蛋，告诉爸爸，学校里面有个男孩说，要是吃下鸡蛋壳，就得将它尿出来。我问爸爸这是不是真的，爸爸又哼了一声。

我咬一口夹饼。有个黄头发的游客放声大笑，用手拍拍另外一人的后背。远处，在湖那边，一辆卡车蹒跚着转过山路的拐角处，它的观后镜反射出闪闪的阳光。

“我想我得了癌症。”我说。和风吹拂着那些手稿，爸爸抬头，告诉我可以自行去拿些苏打水，我所能做的，便只有去搜寻那轿车的行李箱。