英文名著精讲:The Kite Runner 追风筝的人(5)
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。
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 页：英文原文第 2 页：重点精讲第 3 页：中文译文
重点精讲：
notorious adj. 臭名昭著的
He is notorious for his goings-on.
他因行为不检点而声名狼藉。
The district is notorious for its fogs.
那地区以浓雾出名。
unscrupulous adj.肆无忌惮的，不道德的
You always take part with the unscrupulous man.
你总是袒护那些肆无忌惮的人。
Usually in order to reach a certain goal, some use unscrupulous means in doing so.
为了达成目标，我们肆无忌惮的运用策略和媒介。
live up to 符合，名副其实
My father, too, came to see the work of his now famous son.
我的父亲也看了他已负盛名的儿子的劳作。
dishonorable adj. 不光彩的
He is ashamed for his former dishonorable action.
他对他以前不光彩的行为感到羞愧。
He works for colonialist trading company and slaves the native people in many dishonorable ways.
他为帝国主义贸易公司工作，用各种不光彩的手段奴役殖民地人民。
ethnic adj. 种族的，民族的
That's why you can find almost every kind of ethnic food in America.
那也就是为什么在美国你几乎可以看到所有不同民族的食物。
spouse n. 配偶
He never mentioned his spouse.
他从来不提自己的妻子。
similarity n. 相似之处，相同点
impish adj. 顽皮的
Impish eyes peered from the doorway.
门口有双顽皮的眼睛在朝里张望。
She looks like an impish angel or beauty fairy.
她是顽皮的天使，还是美丽的仙女。
tempt v. 诱惑，怂恿，引诱， 吸引
How can we tempt young people into engineering?
我们怎么才能吸引年轻人学习工程学呢?
Nothing would tempt me to live here.
什么也吸引不了我到这里居住。
congenital adj. 天生的，先天的
The congenital form is spread to the fetus through the bloodstream.
先天的形式是通过血液传播给胎儿。
paralysis n. 瘫痪，麻痹
render v. 使成为
His back injury had rendered him unfit for work.
他的背伤使他无法胜任这份工作。
slanted adj. 倾斜的
reveal v. 显示，透露，展现
Several withered trees on the sides of the road reveal the desolation here.
道路两旁的几棵枯木显示出这里的荒凉。
His deed revealed him to be a kind man.
他的行为显示他是个好心的人。
oscillating adj. 振荡的，摇晃的
This oscillating field would accelerate the particles toward the collision point.
这个振荡的电场会把粒子加速推向碰撞点。
infidelity n. 不信神；不忠
She closed her eyes to her husband's infidelities.
她丈夫有不忠行为，她却视而不见。
The photo was final proof of her husband's infidelity.
这张照片最终证明了她丈夫的不忠。
atrophied adj. 萎缩的，衰退的
动词atrophy的过去式和过去分词形式
bazaar n. （中东地区的）集市
imitate v. 模仿
He can imitate his teacher perfectly.
他能维妙维肖地模仿他的老师。
They watched jig on TV and tried to imitate.
他们看着电视里的快步舞并且试图模仿。
His handwriting is difficult to imitate.
他的笔迹很难模仿。
scraggy adj.凹凸不平的，参差不齐的，骨瘦如柴的
ape v. 模仿
We used to ape the teacher's southern accent.
我们过去常模仿老师的南方口音。
He seems trying to ape anybody he thinks great and wonderful.
他似乎想模仿任何一个他认为伟大和了不起的人。
mock v. 嘲笑
hobble v. 蹒跚，跛行
The old man hobbled along (the road) with the aid of his stick.
那老汉拄著拐杖一瘸一拐地走著。
I hurt my foot,and had to hobble home.
我的脚受了伤，只好一拐一拐地走回家。
chorus n. 合唱队，歌舞队
据说莎娜芭抛家弃子的时候，没有人感到奇怪。熟背《可兰经》的阿里娶了比他年轻19岁的莎娜芭，这个女人美貌动人，可是不洁身自爱，向来声名狼藉。人们对这桩婚事大皱眉头。跟阿里一样，她也是什叶派穆斯林伊斯兰教分为逊尼（Sunni）和什叶（Shi a）两大派系。两派的分别主要在于对于穆罕默德继承人的合法性的承认上。按什叶派的观点，只有阿里及其直系后裔才是合法的继承人，而逊尼派承认艾布·伯克尔、欧麦尔、奥斯曼、阿里四大哈里发的合法性，也是哈扎拉（Hazara，阿富汗民族，主要分布在该国中部省份）族人。她还是他的第一个堂妹，因而他们天生就应该是一对。但除了这些，至少在他们的外表上，阿里和莎娜芭毫无共同之处。风传莎娜芭那善睐的绿眼珠和俏皮的脸蛋曾诱得无数男人自甘堕落，阿里的半边脸罹患先天麻痹，因此他无法微笑，总是一副阴骘的脸色。要判断石头脸的阿里究竟高兴还是难过可不是容易的事情，因为只有从他眯斜的棕色眼睛，才能判断其中是欢乐的闪烁，还是哀伤的涌动。人们说眼睛是心灵的窗口，用在阿里身上再贴切不过，他只能在眼神中透露自己。
我听说莎娜芭步履款款，双臀摇摆，那诱人的身姿令众多男人跟他们的爱人同床异梦。但阿里得过小儿麻痹症，右腿萎缩，菜色的皮肤包着骨头，夹着一层薄如纸的肌肉。我记得八岁那年，有一天阿里带我到市场去买馕饼（Naan，阿富汗日常主食，将面团抹在烤炉上烘焙而成）。我走在他后面，嘴里念念有词，学着他走路的样子。我看见他提起那条嶙峋的右腿，摇晃着划出一道弧形；看见他那条腿每次踏下，身体不由自主地往右边倾低。他这样蹒跚前进而又能不摔倒，不能不说是个小小的奇迹。我学着他走路，差点摔进水沟，忍不住咯咯笑起来。阿里转过身，看到我正学着他。他什么也没说。当时没说，以后也一直没说，他只是继续走。
阿里的脸庞和步伐吓坏了某些邻居的小孩。但真正麻烦的是那些较大的少年。每逢他走过，他们总在街道上追逐他，作弄他。有些管他叫“巴巴鲁”，也就是专吃小孩的恶魔。“喂，巴巴鲁，今天你吃了谁啊？”他们一起欢乐地叫喊，“你吃了谁啊，塌鼻子巴巴鲁？”
