“Your petition to adopt this young fellow. Give it up. That’s my advice to you.”

“你提出的收养这个孩子的请求。放弃吧。那是我给你的建议。”

“Duly noted,” I said. “Now, perhaps you’ll tell me why.”

“知道了。”我说，“现在，也许你可以告诉我原因了。”

“That means you want the long answer,” he said, his voice impassive, not reacting at all to my curt¹ tone. He pressed his hands palm to palm, as if he were kneeling before the Virgin² Mary. “Let’s assume the story you gave me is true, though I’d bet my pension a good deal of it is either fabricated or omitted. Not that I care, mind you. You’re here, he’s here, that’s all that matters. Even so, your petition faces significant obstacles, not the least of which is that this child is not an orphan³.”

“那就是说你想听长的答案了？”他语气冷淡地说，对我不快的语气无动于衷。他合起手掌，似乎他正跪在圣母面前。“让我们假设你告诉我的故事是真的，不过我非常怀疑它是假的，或者省略掉一大部分。告诉你一声，我不关心。你在这里，他在这里，这才是要紧的事情。即使这样，你的请求面临着明显的障碍，更何况这个孩子并非孤儿。”

“Of course he is.”

“他当然是。”

“Not legally he isn’t.”

“从法律上来讲他不是。”

“His parents were executed in the street. The neighbors saw it,” I said, glad we were speaking in English.

“他的父母在街上被处决了，邻居都看到。”我说，为我们用英语交谈而高兴。

“You have death certificates?”

“你有死亡证明吗？”

“Death certificates? This is Afghanistan we’re talking about. Most people there don’t have birth certificates.”His glassy eyes didn’t so much as blink. “I don’t make the laws, sir. Your outrage⁴ notwithstanding, you still need to prove the parents are deceased. The boy has to be declared a legal orphan.”

“死亡证明？我们在说的是阿富汗，很多人甚至连出生证明都没有。”他明亮的眼睛一眨不眨，“先生，法律不是我制定的。你生气也没用，你还是得证明他的父母确实去世了。这个男孩必须让法律承认他是孤儿。”

“But--” “可是……”

“You wanted the long answer and I’m giving it to you. Your next problem is that you need the cooperation of the child’s country of origin. Now, that’s difficult under the best of circumstances, and, to quote you, this is Afghanistan we’re talking about. We don’t have an American embassy in Kabul. That makes things extremely complicated. Just about impossible.”

“你想要长的答案，我现在正给你呢。你的下一个问题是，你需要这个孩子出生国的合作。现在，就算在最好的情况下，这也很难，还有，引用你说过的，我们在谈论的是阿富汗。我们在喀布尔没有大使馆。这使事情极端复杂，几乎是不可能的。”

“What are you saying, that I should throw him back on the streets?” I said.

“你在说什么？我应该将他扔到街头上吗？”我说。

“I didn’t say that.”

“我可没那么说。”