After all, life is not a Hindi movie. Zendagi migzara, Afghans like to say: Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end, kamyab, nah-kam, crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan¹ of kochis.I wouldn’t know how to answer that question. Despite the matter of last Sunday’s tiny miracle.WE ARRIVED HOME about seven months ago, on a warm day in August 2001. Soraya picked us up at the airport. I had never been away from Soraya for so long, and when she locked her arms around my neck, when I smelled apples in her hair, I realized how much I had missed her. “You’re still the morning sun to my yelda,” I whispered.

毕竟，生活并非印度电影。阿富汗人总喜欢说：生活总会继续。他们不关心开始或结束、成功或失败、危在旦夕或柳暗花明，只顾像游牧部落那样风尘仆仆地缓慢前进。我不知道如何回答那个问题。尽管上个星期天出现了小小的奇迹。7个月前，也就是 2001年 8月某个温暖的日子，我们回到家里。索拉雅到机场接我们。我从未离开这么长时间，当她双臂环住我脖子的时候，我闻到她头发上的苹果香味，意识到我有多么想念她。“你仍是我的雅尔达的朝阳。”我低声说。

“What?”

“什么？”

“Never mind.” I kissed her ear.

“没什么。”我亲吻她的耳朵。

After, she knelt to eye level with Sohrab. She took his hand and smiled at him. “Sataam, Sohrab jan, I’m your Khala Soraya. We’ve all been waiting for you.”Looking at her smiling at Sohrab, her eyes tearing over a little, I had a glimpse of the mother she might have been, had her own womb not betrayed her.Sohrab shifted on his feet and looked away.

随后，她将身子蹲到跟索拉博一样高，拉起他的手，笑着对他说：“你好，亲爱的索拉博，我是你的索拉雅阿姨，我们大家一直在等你。”我看到她朝索拉博微笑，眼噙泪水的模样，也看到假如她的子宫没有背叛主人，她该会是什么样的母亲。

SORAYA HAD TURNED THE STUDY upstairs into a bedroom for Sohrab. She led him in and he sat on the edge of the bed. The sheets showed brightly colored kites flying in indigo² blue skies. She had made inscriptions³ on the wall by the closet, feet and inches to measure a child’s growing height. At the foot of the bed, I saw a wicker basket stuffed with books, a locomotive, a water color set.Sohrab was wearing the plain white T-shirt and new denims I had bought him in Islamabad just before we’d left--the shirt hung loosely over his bony, slumping⁴ shoulders. The color still hadn’t seeped⁵ back into his face, save for the halo of dark circles around his eyes. He was looking at us now in the impassive way he looked at the plates of boiled rice the hospital orderly placed before him.Soraya asked if he liked his room and I noticed that she was trying to avoid looking at his wrists and that her eyes kept swaying back to those jagged pink lines. Sohrab lowered his head. Hid his hands under his thighs⁶ and said nothing. Then he simply lay his head on the pillow. Less than five minutes later, Soraya and I watching from the doorway, he was snoring.

索拉博双脚原地挪动，眼睛望向别处。索拉雅已经把楼上的书房收拾成索拉博的卧房。她领他进去，他坐在床沿。床单绣着风筝在靛蓝的天空中飞翔的图案。她在衣橱旁边的墙上做了刻度尺，标记英尺和英寸，用来测量孩子日益长高的身材。我看到床脚有个装满图书的柳条篮子，一个玩具火车头，还有一盒水彩笔。索拉博穿着纯白色衬衣，和我们离开之前我在伊斯兰堡给他新买的斜纹粗棉裤，衬衣松松垮垮地挂在他胛骨毕现的瘦削肩膀上ｗωｗ奇Qìsuu書com网。除了黑色的眼圈，他的面庞仍是苍白得没有其他颜色。现在他看着我们，神情冷淡，一如看着医院那些整齐地摆放在他面前的装着白米饭的盘子。索拉雅问他喜不喜欢他的房间，我注意到她竭力避免去看他的手腕，但眼光总是瞟向那些弯曲的粉红伤痕。索拉博低下头，把手藏在大腿之间，什么也没说。接着他自顾把头倒在枕上，我和索拉雅站在门口看着他，不消五分钟，他就呼呼入睡。