本文为Sandy老师微信公众号旧文，旧词新讲，喜欢的朋友欢迎关注微信公众号查看更多内容。
Vocabulary
1. cripple v. 使残疾;使成为跛子；
Ali and Baba grew up together as childhood playmates--at least until polio crippled Ali’s leg--just like Hassan and I grew up a generation later.
2. snake v. 蜿蜒而行;曲折而行；
We snaked our way among the merchants and the beggars, wandered through narrow alleys cramped with rows of tiny, tightly packed stalls.
3. lumber v. 缓慢而笨拙地挪动，移动；
During the school year, we had a daily routine. By the time I dragged myself out of bed and lumbered to the bathroom, Hassan had already washed up, prayed the morning ‘namaz’ with Ali, and prepared my breakfast: hot black tea with three sugar cubes and a slice of toasted ‘naan’ topped with my favorite sour cherry marmalade, all neatly placed on the dining table.
加粗部分生动地描写了一个孩子不愿起床时磨磨蹭蹭的状态，可以做写作参考。
4. oblivious adj. 不知道的;未注意的;未觉察的；
Hassan, of course, was oblivious to this. To him, the words on the page were a scramble of codes, indecipherable, mysterious.
5. feign v. 装作;假装;冒充；
Baba nodded and gave a thin smile that conveyed little more than feigned interest.
Excerpt
友谊话题
But in none of his stories did Baba ever refer to Ali as his friend.
The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either. Not in the usual sense, anyhow. Never mind that we taught each other to ride a bicycle with no hands, or to build a fully functional homemade camera out of a cardboard box. Never mind that we spent entire winters flying kites, running kites. Never mind that to me, the face of Afghanistan is that of a boy with a thin-boned frame, a shaved head, and low-set ears, a boy with a Chinese doll face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile.
Never mind any of those things. Because history isn’t easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing.
英文原著中排比句技巧性比较强，大多是保持相同句式，以上就是一例英语排比句，作者使用了“Never mind”结构，供大家欣赏。日常写作时，对英文驾驭能力不够的写作者尽量慎用排比句。
这一段读起来有些心酸，明明一起长大、情同手足的朋友，却受限于等级和信仰的差异，不愿承认彼此的关系。
童年回忆
Sometimes, my entire childhood seems like one long lazy summer day with Hassan, chasing each other between tangles of trees in my father’s yard, playing hide-and-seek, cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, insect torture--with our crowning achievement undeniably the time we plucked the stinger off a bee and tied a string around the poor thing to yank it back every time it took flight.
你的童年时什么样子呢？我想很多人脑海里都会映过一些画面，这并不是童年的全部，却是我们印象最深的瞬间。对于Amir来说，童年就是和Hassan的嬉戏玩闹，日复一日的快乐夏天。
小孩子玩的游戏看来全世界都有相似，比如hide-and-seek（捉迷藏）, cops and robbers（警察抓强盗）, cowboys and Indians（牛仔和印第安人）以及insect torture（折磨昆虫）等。
We chased the ‘Kochi’, the nomads who passed through Kabul on their way to the mountains of the north. We would hear their caravans approaching our neighborhood, the mewling of their sheep, the ‘baa’ing of their goats, the jingle of bells around their camels’ necks.
我本人非常喜欢作者对声音的描述，因为读者在阅读时其实是很难在脑海里构造出丰富的声音细节的。但作者每次都能抓住关键点，非常生动。比如这里提到的mewling，baaing和jingle of bells，既讲到了各种动物，又讲到了声音。于是，游牧民带着牲畜迁徙的场面便栩栩如生。
To him, the words on the page were a scramble of codes, indecipherable, mysterious. Words were secret doorways and I held all the keys. After, I started to ask him if he’d liked the story, a giggle rising in my throat, when Hassan began to clap.
对于哈桑来说，书页上的文字无非是一些线条，神秘而不知所云。文字是扇秘密的门，钥匙在我手里。完了之后，我嘴里咯咯笑着，问他是否喜欢这个故事，哈桑拍手叫好。
这一小段写得太棒了，值得背诵。
景色描写
Seasons of rain and snow had turned the iron gate rusty and left the cemetery’s low white stone walls in decay.
Notes
Ali是Baba的仆人，Hassan是Amir的仆人。在Amir眼中，他和Hassan一直有高低贵贱之别。虽然同住一个屋檐下，共同成长，但正如Baba对待Ali一样，Amir从未将Hassan看做是真正的朋友。然而Amir也确实和Hassan度过了愉快而又漫长的童年时光，他们院子里的树林中追逐嬉戏，捉弄过往的游牧民族，一起看热血的西部电影大声惊呼，在繁忙的街市中吃着开心果仁玫瑰雪糕推推搡搡。
与Hassan的“仆人命运”不同，Amir能在学校学习读书识字，而Hassan只能在家里帮助父亲做家务。放学后，他们会跑上小山丘，在锈迹斑斑的墓园铁门前的石榴树下一起读书。Amir把书中的故事讲给Hassan听，而求知若渴的Hassan总是希望Amir能多讲、多读。一次，Amir突发奇想没有按照故事的章节读故事，却意料之外收获了Hassan的赞扬，从而激发了他写作的渴望和兴趣。于是，Amir开始了人生当中的第一次创作，虽然没有得到父亲的赏识与关注，却得到了Rahim的鼓励和Hassan一如既往的支持。简单而又美好的时光总是如此短暂，一声震天动地的惊雷声打破了平静，战争来临了。