Vocabulary

jag adj. 凹凸不平的；锯齿状的

And then I turned a corner and, right in the middle of that barren land, I saw a cluster of mud houses, beyond them nothing but broad sky and mountains like jagged teeth.

stillborn adj. 死产的；出生时已夭折的

It was a miracle that she survived the birth of her stillborn baby.

完全无效的; 完全失败的；

The ceasefire itself could prove stillborn if rebel units in the bush keep on fighting.

Expression

She was visibly expecting.

她有孕在身。

Excerpt

I did not want them to, but the two of them did all the cooking, all the cleaning. Hassan tended to the flowers in the garden, soaked the roots, picked off yellowing leaves, and planted rosebushes. He painted the walls. In the house, he swept rooms no one had slept in for years, and cleaned bathrooms no one had bathed in. Like he was preparing the house for someone’s return.

动作一气呵成。

Outside the walls of that house, there was a war raging. But the three of us, in your father's house, we made our own little haven from it. My vision started going by the late 1980s, so I had Hassan read me your mother's books. We would sit in the foyer, by the stove, and Hassan would read me from 'Masnawi' or 'Khayyám', as Farzana cooked in the kitchen.And every morning, Hassan placed a flower on the little mound by the sweetbrier bushes.

…

On those days when the rocket fire eased up a bit and the gun fighting was light, Hassan would take Sohrab to the zoo to see Marjan the lion, or to the cinema. Hassan taught him how to shoot the slingshot, and, later, by the time he was eight, Sohrab had become deadly with that thing: He could stand on the terrace and hit a pinecone propped on a pail halfway across the yard. Hassan taught him to read and write--his son was not going to grow up illiterate like he had. I grew very attached to that little boy--I had seen him take his first step, heard him utter his first word.I bought children's books for Sohrab from the bookstore by Cinema Park--they have destroyed that too now--and Sohrab read them as quickly as I could get them to him.He reminded me of you, how you loved to read when you were little, Amir jan. Sometimes, I read to him at night, played riddles with him, taught him card tricks. I miss him terribly.

场景感十足

In the wintertime, Hassan took his son kite running. There were not nearly as many kite tournaments as in the old days--no one felt safe outside for too long--but there were still a few scattered tournaments. Hassan would prop Sohrab on his shoulders and they would go trotting through the streets, running kites, climbing trees where kites had dropped. You remember, Amir Jan, what a good kite runner Hassan was? He was still just as good. At the end of winter, Hassan and Sohrab would hang the kites they had run all winter on the walls of the main hallway. They would put them up like paintings.

这几段很平实，描述的都是一些生活中很细腻的亲情，朴实无华却十分动人，让人对Hassan的经历和生活感动，暗自唏嘘，战争中的美好令人动容、欣慰，摘录共赏。

Thought

有时我会想，这一切是不是轮回，曾经犯下的罪过，都会造成恶果。正是因为Baba犯下了罪，有了Hassan这个不可言明的儿子，才会使他觉得对Hassan有亏欠，不重视Amir。也正是如此，Amir才会更加渴求父亲的爱，才会形成扭曲敏感的人格，最终伤害了Hassan。而反过来，Hassan只觉得自己是仆人的儿子，他觉得Baba所给予的爱实在是太厚重，他生下来便拥有了两位父亲的爱，虽然没有母亲，但是Ali父亲教他独立，Baba父亲叫他爱与温暖。所以Hassan形成了健全的人格，善良而正直，乐观而勇敢，渴望为对自己好的人付出而不求回报。

Hassan是幸福的，他一直都拥有美满的家庭，他的家庭因他的付出而熠熠生辉。从和父亲一起住小破屋，有自己最好的朋友每日陪伴；到和父亲相依为命，遇到深爱自己的妻子；到重回故土，和妻子生下自己可爱聪慧的儿子。他的心一直富足，并无怨恨。这与财富无关，与社会地位无关，与生活窘境无关。生活的不可抗力不足以改变Hassan纯洁的心，之凭此一点，Hassan的生命就比Amir要光辉得多。

Summary

After Baba left and died, as with Rahim's other friends and relatives, loneliness and emptiness finally gave him the courage to find Hassan. He did find him. Hassan was taller and darker but was as warm and kind as he used to be. He married a shy and beautiful woman who looked up to him a lot. Hassan was reluctant to move to Kabul at first, but after hearing the news of Baba's death, he changed his mind and decided to face any potential danger. Hassan and his wife took great care of the house day and night, as if someone would return the day after. In that house, they buried their first child, a poor stillborn baby girl, and raised their second, Sohrab, a smart and lovely boy. Hassan's mother returned, after so many years, weak but alive. The whole family had a chance to live together, though momentarily, happily. The war didn't influence their love and hope, hopefully.