"Baba says Hitler was crazy, that he ordered a lot of innocent people killed,"I heard myself say before I could clamp a hand on my mouth.

"我爸爸说希特勒是个疯子，他下令杀害了很多无辜的人。"我来不及用手捂住嘴巴，这话已经脱口而出。

Assef snickered. "He sounds like my mother, and she's German; she should know better. But then they want you to believe that, don't they? They don't want you to know the truth."

阿塞夫不屑地说:"他说的跟我妈妈一样。她是德国人，她本来应该更清楚。不过他们要你这么认为，是吗?他们不想让你知道真相。"

I didn't know who "they"were, or what truth they were hiding, and I didn't want to find out. I wished I hadn't said anything. I wished again I'd look up and see Baba coming up the hill.

我不知道"他们"是谁，也不知道他们隐瞒了什么真相，我也根本不想去知道。我希望我什么也没说，我又希望我抬起头就能看见爸爸朝山上走来。

"But you have to read books they don't give out in school,"Assef said. "I have. And my eyes have been opened. Now I have a vision, and I'm going to share it with our new president. Do you know what it is?"

"但是你得读读那些学校里面看不到的书。"阿塞夫说，"我读了，令我茅塞顿开。现在我有个抱负，我要将它告诉我们的总统。你想知道那是什么吗?"

I shook my head. He'd tell me anyway; Assef always answered his own questions.

我摇摇头。他终究还是说了，阿塞夫总是自问自答。

His blue eyes flicked¹ to Hassan. "Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our Homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood."He made a sweeping², grandiose³ gesture with his hands. "Afghanistan for Pashtuns, I say. That's my vision."

他那双蓝眼睛望着哈桑:"阿富汗是普什图人的地盘，过去一直是，将来也永远是。我们是真正的阿富汗人，纯种的阿富汗人，这个塌鼻子不是。他们这种人污染了我们的土地、我们的国家，他们弄脏我们的血脉。"他挥舞双手，做了个夸张的姿势，"普什图人的阿富汗，我说，这就是我的抱负。"

Assef shifted his gaze to me again. He looked like someone coming out of a good dream. "Too late for Hitler,"he said. "But not for us."

阿塞夫又看着我，他看起来像是刚从美梦中醒来。"希特勒生不逢时，"他说，"但我们还来得及。"

He reached for something from the back pocket of his jeans. "I'll ask the president to do what the king didn't have the quwat to do. To rid Afghanistan of all the dirty, kasseef Hazaras."

他伸手去牛仔裤的后兜摸索某样东西，"我要恳求总统完成从前国王没做的事情，派军队清除所有这些垃圾，这些肮脏的哈扎拉人。"