Sitting cross-legged, sunlight and shadows of pomegranate leaves dancing on his face, Hassan absently plucked blades of grass from the ground as I read him stories he couldn't read for himself. That Hassan would grow up illiterate¹ like Ali and most Hazaras had been decided² the minute he had been born, perhaps even the moment he had been conceived in Sanaubar's unwelcoming womb--after all, what use did a servant have for the written word? But despite his illiteracy³, or maybe because of it, Hassan was drawn⁴ to the mystery of words, seduced⁵ by a secret world forbidden to him. I read him poems and stories, sometimes riddles--though I stopped reading those when I saw he was far better at solving them than I was. So I read him unchallenging things, like the misadventures of the bumbling Mullah Nasruddin and his donkey. We sat for hours under that tree, sat there until the sun faded in the west, and still Hassan insisted we had enough daylight for one more story, one more chapter.

哈桑盘腿坐着，阳光和石榴叶的阴影在他脸上翩翩起舞。我念那些他看不懂的故事给他听，他心不在焉地摘着地上杂草的叶片。哈桑长大后，会跟阿里和多数哈扎拉人一样，自出生之日起，甚至自莎娜芭不情不愿地怀上他那天起，就注定要成为文盲--毕竟，仆人要读书识字干吗呢?但尽管他目不识丁，兴许正因为如此，哈桑对那些谜一样的文字十分入迷，那个他无法接触的世界深深吸引了他。我给他念诗歌和故事，有时也念谜语--不过后来我不念了，因为我发现他解谜语的本领远比我高强。所以我念些不那么有挑战性的东西，比如装腔作势的纳斯鲁丁毛拉和他那头驴子出洋相的故事。我们在树下一坐就是几个钟头，直到太阳在西边黯淡下去，哈桑还会说，日光还足够亮堂，我们可以多念一个故事、多读一章。

My favorite part of reading to Hassan was when we came across a big word that he didn't know. I'd tease him, expose his ignorance. One time, I was reading him a Mullah Nasruddin story and he stopped me. "What does that word mean?"

给哈桑念故事的时候，碰到某个他无法理解的字眼，我就十分高兴，我会取笑他，嘲弄他的无知。有一次，我给他念纳斯鲁丁毛拉的故事，他让我停下来。"那个词是什么意思?"

"Which one?"

"哪个?"

"Imbecile."

"昧。"

"You don't know what it means?"I said, grinning.

"你不知道那是什么意思吗?"我一脸坏笑地说着。

"Nay⁶, Amir agha."

"不知道，阿米尔少爷。"

"But it's such a common word!"

"可是这个词很常见啊。"

"Still, I don't know it."If he felt the sting of my tease, his smiling face didn't show it.

"不过我还是不懂。"就算他听到我话中带刺，他也是不露声色地微笑着。

"Well, everyone in my school knows what it means,"I said. "Let's see. ‘Imbecile.'It means smart, intelligent. I'll use it in a sentence for you. ‘When it comes to words, Hassan is an imbecile.'"

"这么说吧，在我们学校，人人都认识这个词。"我说，"让我看看,'昧'，它的意思是聪明、机灵。我可以用它来给你造句。'在读书识字方面，哈桑够昧。'"

"Aaah,"he said, nodding.

"啊哈。"他点头说。

I would always feel guilty about it later. So I'd try to make up for it by giving him one of my old shirts or a broken toy. I would tell myself that was amends⁷ enough for a harmless prank⁸.

后来我总是对此心怀愧疚。所以我试着弥补，把旧衬衣或者破玩具送给他。我会告诉自己，对于一个无关紧要的玩笑来说，这样的补偿就足够了。

Hassan's favorite book by far was the _Shahnamah_, the tenth-century epic⁹ of ancient Persian heroes. He liked all of the chapters, the shahs of old, Feridoun, Zal, and Rudabeh. But his favorite story, and mine, was "Rostam and Sohrab,?the tale of the great warrior¹⁰ Rostam and his fleet-footed horse, Rakhsh. Rostam mortally wounds his valiant¹¹ nemesis¹², Sohrab, in battle, only to discover that Sohrab is his long-lost son. Stricken with grief, Rostam hears his son's dying words:

哈桑最喜欢的书是《沙纳玛》，一部描写古代波斯英雄的10世纪的史诗。他通篇都喜欢，他喜欢那些垂垂老矣的国王：费里敦、扎尔，还有鲁达贝。但他最喜欢的故事，也是我最喜欢的，是"罗斯坦和索拉博"，讲的是神武的战士罗斯坦和他那匹千里马拉克什的故事。罗斯坦在战斗中，给予他的强敌索拉博以致命一击，最终却发现索拉博是他失散多年的儿子。罗斯坦强忍悲恸，听着他儿子的临终遗言：

If thou art indeed my father, then hast thou stained thy sword in the life-blood of thy son. And thou didst it of thine obstinacy¹³. For I sought to turn thee unto love, and I implored¹⁴ of thee thy name, for I thought to behold¹⁵ in thee the tokens recounted of my mother. But I appealed unto thy heart in vain, and now is the time gone for meeting...

若汝果为吾父，血刃亲子，名节有亏矣。此乃汝之专横所致也。汝持先母信物，吾报汝以爱，呼汝之名，然汝心难回，吾徒费唇舌，此刻命赴黄泉……

"Read it again please, Amir agha,"Hassan would say. Sometimes tears pooled in Hassan's eyes as I read him this passage, and I always wondered whom he wept for, the grief-stricken Rostam who tears his clothes and covers his head with ashes, or the dying Sohrab who only longed for his father's love? Personally, I couldn't see the tragedy in Rostam's fate. After all, didn't all fathers in their secret hearts harbor a desire to kill their sons?

"再念一次吧，阿米尔少爷。"哈桑会这么说。有时我给他念这段话的时候，他泪如泉涌，我总是很好奇，他到底为谁哭泣呢，为那个泪满衣襟、埋首尘灰、悲恸难当的罗斯坦，还是为即将断气、渴望得到父爱的索拉博呢?在我看来，罗斯坦的命运并非悲剧。毕竟，难道每个父亲的内心深处，不是都有想把儿子杀掉的欲望吗?