"Good morning, 'kunis'!?Assef exclaimed, waving. "Fag,"that was another of his favorite insults. Hassan retreated behind me as the three older boys closed in. They stood before us, three tall boys dressed in jeans and T-shirts. Towering over us all, Assef crossed his thick arms on his chest, a savage¹ sort of grin on his lips. Not for the first time, it occurred to me that Assef might not be entirely² sane³. It also occurred to me how lucky I was to have Baba as my father, the sole reason, I believe, Assef had mostly refrained from harassing⁴ me too much.

"早上好，苦哈哈!"阿塞夫说，摆摆手。"苦哈哈"是另外一个阿塞夫喜欢用来侮辱人的词语。他们三个都比我们大，看到他们走近，哈桑躲在我后面。他们站在我们面前，三个穿着牛仔裤T恤的高大男生。阿塞夫身材最魁梧，双臂抱胸，脸上露出凶残的笑容。我已经不止一次觉得阿塞夫不太像个正常人。幸运的是，我有爸爸这样的父亲，我相信正是因为这个，阿塞夫对我不敢太过放肆造次。

He tipped his chin to Hassan. "Hey, Flat-Nose,"he said. "How is Babalu?"

他朝哈桑扬起下巴。"喂，塌鼻子，"他说，"巴巴鲁可好吗?"

Hassan said nothing and crept another step behind me.

哈桑一言不发，在我身后又退了一步。

"Have you heard the news, boys?"Assef said, his grin never faltering⁵. "The king is gone. Good riddance. Long live the president! My father knows Daoud Khan, did you know that, Amir?"

"你们听到消息了吗，小子?"阿塞夫说，脸上还是带着那副邪恶的笑容，"国王跑掉了，跑得好!总统万岁!我爸爸跟达乌德汗相熟。你认识他吗，阿米尔?"

"So does my father,"I said. In reality, I had no idea if that was true or not.

"我爸爸跟他也熟。"我说，实际上连我自己都不知道那是不是真的。

"Well, Daoud Khan dined at our house last year,"Assef went on. "How do you like that, Amir?"

"好吧，达乌德汗去年还在我家吃过晚饭。"阿塞夫继续说，"怎么样啊，阿米尔?"

I wondered if anyone would hear us scream in this remote patch of land. Baba's house was a good kilometer away. I wished we'd stayed at the house.

我在想，如果我们在这片荒地高声求救，会不会有人听到?爸爸的房子距这儿足足有一公里。要是我们留在家里就好了!

"Do you know what I will tell Daoud Khan the next time he comes to our house for dinner?"Assef said. "I'm going to have a little chat with him, man to man, 'mard' to 'mard'. Tell him what I told my mother. About Hitler. Now, there was a leader. A great leader. A man with vision. I'll tell Daoud Khan to remember that if they had let Hitler finish what he had started, the world be a better place now."

"你知道下次达乌德汗到我们家里吃晚饭我会对他说什么吗?"阿塞夫说，"我会跟他稍作交谈，男人和男人的交谈。将我跟妈妈说过的那些告诉他，关于希特勒的。现在我们有位伟大的领袖，伟大的领袖，一个志向远大的男人。我会告诉达乌德汗，提醒他记住，要是希特勒完成他那未竟的事业，这个世界会变得比现在更好。"