Fremont, California. 1980s

Baba loved the idea of America.

It was living in America that gave him an ulcer.

I remember the two of us walking through Lake Elizabeth Park in Fremont, a few streets down from our apartment, and watching boys at batting practice, little girls giggling on the swings in the playground. Baba would enlighten me with his politics during those walks with long-winded dissertations. “There are only three real men in this world, Amir,” he’d say. He’d count them off on his fingers: America the brash savior, Britain, and Israel. “The rest of them—” he used to wave his hand and make a phht sound “—they’re like gossiping old women.”

The bit about Israel used to draw the ire of Afghans in Fremont who accused him of being pro-Jewish and, de facto, anti-Islam. Baba would meet them for tea and rowt cake at the park, drive them crazy with his politics. “What they don’t understand,” he’d tell me later, “is that religion has nothing to do with it.” In Baba’s view, Israel was an island of “real men” in a sea of Arabs too busy getting fat off their oil to care for their own. “Israel does this, Israel does that,” Baba would say in a mock-Arabic accent. “Then do something about it! Take action. You’re Arabs, help the Palestinians, then!”(讲述了一些不同中东国家的恩怨情仇，不过我不太明白里面复杂政治关系)

ulcer noun： a break in the skin, or on the surface of an organ inside the body, that does not heal naturally

溃疡

a mouth/stomach ulcer口腔／胃溃疡

dissertation noun：  a long piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one that is done in order to receive a degree at college or university

专题论文；学位论文

Ann did her dissertation on Baudelaire.安的论文写的是波德莱尔。

long-winded adjective： A long-winded speech, letter,article, etc. is too long, or uses too many words.

冗长的，长篇大论的

brash /bræʃ/ adjective：  a brash building, place, or object attracts attention by being very colourful, large, exciting etc

ire noun： anger

愤怒，怒火

Petty restrictions easily raised/aroused the ire of such a creative artist.种种琐碎的约束很容易激怒这样一位如此富有创造力的艺术家。

He loathed Jimmy Carter, whom he called a “big-toothed cretin.” In 1980, when we were still in Kabul, the U.S. announced it would be boycotting the Olympic Games in Moscow. “Wah wah!” Baba exclaimed with disgust. “Brezhnev is massacring Afghans and all that peanut eater can say is I won’t come swim in your pool.” Baba believed Carter had unwittingly done more for communism than Leonid Brezhnev. “He’s not fit to run this country. It’s like putting a boy who can’t ride a bike behind the wheel of a brand new Cadillac.” What America and the world needed was a hard man. A man to be reckoned with, someone who took action instead of wringing his hands. That someone came in the form of Ronald Reagan. And when Reagan went on TV and called the Shorawi “the Evil Empire,” Baba went out and bought a picture of the grinning president giving a thumbs up. He framed the picture and hung it in our hallway, nailing it right next to the old black-and-white of himself in his thin necktie shaking hands with King Zahir Shah. Most of our neighbors in Fremont were bus drivers, policemen, gas station attendants, and unwed mothers collecting welfare, exactly the sort of blue-collar people who would soon suffocate under the pillow Reganomics pressed to their faces. Baba was the lone Republican in our building.

cretin noun： a very stupid person

傻瓜，白痴

massacre verb： to kill many people in a short period of time

大规模屠杀

Hundreds of civilians were massacred in the raid.数百平民在那次袭击中惨遭杀戮。

Cadillac：凯迪拉克

wring verb： to hold something tightly with both hands and twist it by turning your hands in opposite directions

拧；绞

But the Bay Area’s smog stung his eyes, the traffic noise gave him headaches, and the pollen made him cough. The fruit was never sweet enough, the water never clean enough, and where were all the trees and open fields? For two years, I tried to get Baba to enroll in ESL classes to improve his broken English. But he scoffed at the idea. “Maybe I’ll spell ‘cat’ and the teacher will give me a glittery little star so I can run home and show it off to you,” he’d grumble.

scoff verb：  to laugh and speak about a person or idea in a way that shows that you think they a restupid or silly

嘲笑，讥笑

The critics scoffed at his paintings.批评家对他的画作嗤之以鼻。

glittery adjective： producing a lot of small flashes of reflected light

闪烁，闪耀，闪光

glittery eye shadow亮彩眼影膏

One Sunday in the spring of 1983, I walked into a small bookstore that sold used paperbacks, next to the Indian movie theater just west of where Amtrak crossed Fremont Boulevard. I told Baba I’d be out in five minutes and he shrugged. He had been working at a gas station in Fremont and had the day off. I watched him jaywalk across Fremont Boulevard and enter Fast & Easy, a little grocery store run by an elderly Vietnamese couple, Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen. They were gray-haired, friendly people; she had Parkinson’s, he’d had his hip replaced. “He’s like Six Million Dollar Man now,” she always said to me, laughing toothlessly. “Remember Six Million Dollar Man, Amir?” Then Mr. Nguyen would scowl like Lee Majors, pretend he was running in slow motion.

day off： 休假（ 复数：days off）

jaywalk verb： to walk across a street at a place where it is not allowed or without taking care to avoid the traffic

不遵守交通规则乱穿马路

scowl verb： to look at someone or something with a very annoyed expression

阴沉着脸看，怒目而视

The boy scowled at her and reluctantly followed her back into school.男孩对她阴沉着脸，很不情愿地跟着她回了学校。

I was flipping through a worn copy of a Mike Hammer mystery when I heard screaming and glass breaking. I dropped the book and hurried across the street. I found the Nguyens behind the counter, all the way against the wall, faces ashen, Mr. Nguyen’s arms wrapped around his wife. On the floor: oranges, an overturned magazine rack, a broken jar of beef jerky, and shards of glass at Baba’s feet.

It turned out that Baba had had no cash on him for the oranges. He’d written Mr. Nguyen a check and Mr. Nguyen had asked for an ID. “He wants to see my license,” Baba bellowed in Farsi. “Almost two years we’ve bought his damn fruits and put money in his pocket and the son of a dog wants to see my license!”

ashen adjective： without colour, or pale grey incolour

灰色的；苍白的

Julie walked in, ashen-faced with shock.朱莉走了进来，惊魂未定，面如死灰。

jerky noun： meat that has been cut intolong, thin strips and dried

（条状）肉干

beef jerky牛肉干

shard noun： a piece of a broken glass, cup,container, or similar object

（玻璃杯、茶杯、容器或类似物品的）碎片，碴儿

Shards of glass have been cemented into the top of the wall to stop people climbing over.墙头上用水泥粘着玻璃碴儿，以防止人们翻过去。

bellow verb： to shout in a loud voice, or (of a cow or large animal) to make a loud, deep sound

吼叫；（牛等）发出低沉的吼叫声[ + speech ]

 "Keep quiet!" the teacher bellowed across the room.“安静！”校长朝屋子里的人大声吼道。

“Baba, it’s not personal,” I said, smiling at the Nguyens. “They’re supposed to ask for an ID.”

“I don’t want you here,” Mr. Nguyen said, stepping in front of his wife. He was pointing at Baba with his cane. He turned to me. “You’re nice young man but your father, he’s crazy. Not welcome anymore.”

“Does he think I’m a thief?” Baba said, his voice rising. People had gathered outside. They were staring. “What kind of a country is this? No one trusts anybody!”

“I call police,” Mrs. Nguyen said, poking out her face. “You get out or I call police.”

“Please, Mrs. Nguyen, don’t call the police. I’ll take him home. Just don’t call the police, okay? Please?”

“Yes, you take him home. Good idea,” Mr. Nguyen said. His eyes, behind his wire-rimmed bifocals, never left Baba. I led Baba through the doors. He kicked a magazine on his way out. After I’d made him promise he wouldn’t go back in, I returned to the store and apologized to the Nguyens. Told them my father was going through a difficult time. I gave Mrs. Nguyen our telephone number and address, and told her to get an estimate for the damages. “Please call me as soon as you know. I’ll pay for everything, Mrs. Nguyen. I’m so sorry.” Mrs. Nguyen took the sheet of paper from me and nodded. I saw her hands were shaking more than usual, and that made me angry at Baba, his causing an old woman to shake like that.

bifocals noun： glasses with lenses that are divided into two parts. The upper half is for looking at things far away and the lower half is for reading or for looking at things that are near.

双光眼镜

“My father is still adjusting to life in America,” I said, by way of explanation.

I wanted to tell them that, in Kabul, we snapped a tree branch and used it as a credit card. Hassan and I would take the wooden stick to the bread maker. He’d carve notches on our stick with his knife, one notch for each loaf of naan he’d pull for us from the tandoor’s roaring flames. At the end of the month, my father paid him for the number of notches on the stick. That was it. No questions. No ID.

But I didn’t tell them. I thanked Mr. Nguyen for not calling the cops. Took Baba home. He sulked and smoked on the balcony while I made rice with chicken neck stew. A year and a half since we’d stepped off the Boeing from Peshawar, and Baba was still adjusting.

sulk verb： to be silent and refuse tosmile or be pleasant to peoplebecause you are angry about something that they have done

生闷气；愠怒

He's sulking in his room because I wouldn't let him have any more chocolate.因为我不让他吃第二块巧克力，他正在某个角落里生闷气呢。

We ate in silence that night. After two bites, Baba pushed away his plate.

I glanced at him across the table, his nails chipped and black with engine oil, his knuckles scraped, the smells of the gas station—dust, sweat, and gasoline—on his clothes. Baba was like the widower who remarries but can’t let go of his dead wife. He missed the sugarcane fields of Jalalabad and the gardens of Paghman. He missed people milling in and out of his house, missed walking down the bustling aisles of Shor Bazaar and greeting people who knew him and his father, knew his grandfather, people who shared ancestors with him, whose pasts intertwined with his.

For me, America was a place to bury my memories.

For Baba, a place to mourn his.

“Maybe we should go back to Peshawar,” I said, watching the ice float in my glass of water. We’d spent six months in Peshawar waiting for the INS to issue our visas. Our grimy one-bedroom apartment smelled like dirty socks and cat droppings, but we were surrounded by people we knew—at least people Baba knew. He’d invite the entire corridor of neighbors for dinner, most of them Afghans waiting for visas. Inevitably, someone would bring a set of tabla and someone else a harmonium. Tea would brew, and whoever had a passing singing voice would sing until the sun rose, the mosquitoes stopped buzzing, and clapping hands grew sore.

grimy adjective： dirty

肮脏

The child's face was grimy and streaked with tears.那个孩子脸上满是污垢，还挂着道道泪痕。

droppings noun： solid waste produced byanimals and birds

（动物和鸟类的）粪便

“You were happier there, Baba. It was more like home,” I said.

“Peshawar was good for me. Not good for you.”

“You work so hard here.”

“It’s not so bad now,” he said, meaning since he had become the day manager at the gas station. But I’d seen the way he winced and rubbed his wrists on damp days. The way sweat erupted on his forehead as he reached for his bottle of antacids after meals. “Besides, I didn’t bring us here for me, did I?”

I reached across the table and put my hand on his. My student hand, clean and soft, on his laborer’s hand, grubby and calloused. I thought of all the trucks, train sets, and bikes he’d bought me in Kabul. Now America. One last gift for Amir.

wince verb： to show pain suddenly and for a short time in the face, oftenmoving the head back at the same time

（因疼痛而）脸部肌肉抽搐，皱眉蹙额

Did I hurt you? - I thought I saw you wince.我弄疼你了吗？——好像看到你皱了一下眉。

antacid noun： a substance used to reduce orprevent acid collecting in thebody, especially in thestomach

解酸药，解酸剂；抗酸剂；防酸剂

grubby adjective：  dirty

肮脏的；邋遢的；污秽的

He was wearing some old shorts and a grubby T-shirt.他穿着一条破旧的短裤和一件脏兮兮的T恤衫。

Just one month after we arrived in the U.S., Baba found a job off Washington Boulevard as an assistant at a gas station owned by an Afghan acquaintance—he’d started looking for work the same week we arrived. Six days a week, Baba pulled twelve-hour shifts pumping gas, running the register, changing oil, and washing windshields. I’d bring him lunch sometimes and find him looking for a pack of cigarettes on the shelves, a customer waiting the other side of the oil-stained counter, Baba’s face drawn and pale under the bright fluorescent lights. The electronic bell over the door would ding-dong when I walked in, and Baba would look over his shoulder, wave, and smile, his eyes watering from fatigue.

The same day he was hired, Baba and I went to our eligibility officer(eligibility officer不知道是什么意思) in San Jose, Mrs. Dobbins. She was an overweight black woman with twinkling eyes and a dimpled smile. She’d told me once that she sang in church, and I believed her—she had a voice that made me think of warm milk and honey. Baba dropped the stack of food stamps on her desk. “Thank you but I don’t want,” Baba said. “I work always. In Afghanistan I work, in America I work. Thank you very much, Mrs. Dobbins, but I don’t like it free money.”

eligible adjective：  having the necessary qualities or satisfying the necessary conditions:

twinkle verb： (of light or a shiny surface) toshine repeatedly strongly then weakly, as if flashing on and off very quickly

闪烁，闪耀

The lights of the town twinkled in the distance.城镇的灯火在远处闪烁着。

dimple noun： a small hollow place,especially one that appears on a person's face when they smile:酒窝

Mrs. Dobbins blinked. Picked up the food stamps, looked from me to Baba like we were pulling a prank, or “slipping her a trick” as Hassan used to say. “Fifteen years I been doin’ this job and nobody’s ever done this,” she said. And that was how Baba ended those humiliating food stamp moments at the cash register and alleviated one of his greatest fears: that an Afghan would see him buying food with charity money. Baba walked out of the welfare office like a man cured of a tumor.

That summer of 1983, I graduated from high school at the age of twenty, by far the oldest senior tossing his mortarboard on the football field that day. I remember losing Baba in the swarm of families, flashing cameras, and blue gowns. I found him near the twenty-yard line, hands shoved in his pockets, camera dangling on his chest. He disappeared and reappeared behind the people moving between us: squealing blue-clad girls hugging, crying, boys high-fiving their fathers, each other. Baba’s beard was graying, his hair thinning at the temples, and hadn’t he been taller in Kabul? He was wearing his brown suit—his only suit, the same one he wore to Afghan weddings and funerals—and the red tie I had bought for his fiftieth birthday that year. Then he saw me and waved. Smiled. He motioned for me to wear my mortarboard, and took a picture of me with the school’s clock tower in the background. I smiled for him—in a way, this was his day more than mine. He walked to me, curled his arm around my neck, and gave my brow a single kiss. “I am moftakhir, Amir,” he said. Proud. His eyes gleamed when he said that and I liked being on the receiving end of that look.

prank noun： a trick that is intended to befunny but not to cause harm ordamage

胡闹，玩笑，恶作剧

When I was at school we were always playing pranks on our teachers.我读书时我们总是搞恶作剧捉弄老师。

mortarboard noun： a black hat with a square, flattop, worn for formal occasionsand ceremonies by someteachers and students at acollege or university, and in the past by someschoolteachers

（黑色的）方顶帽，学位帽

swarm noun： a large group ofpeople all moving together

（蜂拥的）一大群（人）

A swarm of/Swarms of photographers followed the star's car.成群结队的记者跟在这位电影明星的车后。

squeal verb： to make a long, very highsound or cry

发出长而尖的声音；尖叫

We could hear the piglets squealing as we entered the farmyard.我们走进农场庭院时，可以听见猪崽在长嚎。

motion verb： to make a signal to someone, usually with your hand orhead

打手势；点（或摇）头示意

I saw him motion to the man at the door, who quietly left.我看到他向门口的人示意，那人便悄然离开了。

He took me to an Afghan kabob house in Hayward that night and ordered far too much food. He told the owner that his son was going to college in the fall. I had debated him briefly about that just before graduation, and told him I wanted to get a job. Help out, save some money, maybe go to college the following year. But he had shot me one of his smoldering Baba looks, and the words had vaporized on my tongue.

After dinner, Baba took me to a bar across the street from the restaurant. The place was dim, and the acrid smell of beer I’d always disliked permeated the walls. Men in baseball caps and tank tops played pool, clouds of cigarette smoke hovering over the green tables, swirling in the fluorescent light. We drew looks, Baba in his brown suit and me in pleated slacks and sports jacket. We took a seat at the bar, next to an old man, his leathery face sickly in the blue glow of the Michelob sign overhead. Baba lit a cigarette and ordered us beers. “Tonight I am too much happy,” he announced to no one and everyone. “Tonight I drinking with my son. And one, please, for my friend,” he said, patting the old man on the back. The old fellow tipped his hat and smiled. He had no upper teeth.

smolder verb（smoulder）： to burn slowly with smoke but without flames

无火焰地慢慢烧，闷燃

a smouldering fire闷燃的火

pleated  /ˈpliːtɪd/ adjective： a pleated skirt, dress etc has a lot of flat narrow folds

slack noun： a pair of trousers, that are not part of a suit

宽松长裤

leathery adjective： with the look and feel ofleather

像皮革的；粗糙坚韧的

leathery skin/hands粗糙的皮肤／双手

Baba finished his beer in three gulps and ordered another. He had three before I forced myself to drink a quarter of mine. By then he had bought the old man a scotch and treated a foursome of pool players to a pitcher of Budweiser. Men shook his hand and clapped him on the back. They drank to him. Someone lit his cigarette. Baba loosened his tie and gave the old man a handful of quarters. He pointed to the jukebox. “Tell him to play his favorite songs,” he said to me. The old man nodded and gave Baba a salute. Soon, country music was blaring, and, just like that, Baba had started a party.

At one point, Baba stood, raised his beer, spilling it on the sawdust floor, and yelled, “Fuck the Russia!” The bar’s laughter, then its full-throated echo followed. Baba bought another round of pitchers for everyone.

foursome noun： a group of four peoplemeeting for a social activity, such as playing a game or having a meal

（聚在一起玩游戏、吃饭等的）四人组

Why don't we invite Caroline and Mark and make up a foursome?我们干吗不邀请卡罗琳和马克来凑成两对？

jukebox noun： a machine in a bar, etc. thatplays recorded music when acoin is put into it

（丢进硬币后播放唱片的）自动唱机

sawdust noun： the dust and small pieces ofwood that are produced when you cut wood with a saw

锯屑，锯末

pitcher noun：  a container forholding liquids that has ahandle and a shaped openingat the top for pouring

（带柄及顶部有开口的）壶，罐

a glass/plastic pitcher玻璃／塑料壶

（在此处指一杯酒）

When we left, everyone was sad to see him go. Kabul, Peshawar, Hayward. Same old Baba, I thought, smiling.

I drove us home in Baba’s old, ochre yellow Buick Century. Baba dozed off on the way, snoring like a jackhammer. I smelled tobacco on him and alcohol, sweet and pungent. But he sat up when I stopped the car and said in a hoarse voice, “Keep driving to the end of the block.”

doze off： If you doze off, you start to sleep, especially during the day.

（尤指在白天）睡着了，入睡了

The office was so hot I nearly dozed off at my desk.办公室里很热，我差点在办公桌上睡着了。

doze verb： to have a short sleep,especially during the day

（尤指白天）小睡，打盹

My cat likes dozing in front of the fire.我的猫喜欢在火炉前打盹。

jackhammer noun： a pneumatic drill

风钻（总之就是声音很大的东西）

“Why, Baba?”

“Just go.” He had me park at the south end of the street. He reached in his coat pocket and handed me a set of keys. “There,” he said, pointing to the car in front of us. It was an old model Ford, long and wide, a dark color I couldn’t discern in the moonlight. “It needs painting, and I’ll have one of the guys at the station put in new shocks, but it runs.”

I took the keys, stunned. I looked from him to the car. “You’ll need it to go to college,” he said. I took his hand in mine. Squeezed it. My eyes were tearing over and I was glad for the shadows that hid our faces. “Thank you, Baba.”（Baba还是爱Amir的）

squeeze verb： to press somethingfirmly, especially from allsides in order to change itsshape, reduce its size, orremove liquid from it

（尤指从各方面）挤压，捏，挤，榨

Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl.把柠檬一切为二，将汁儿挤到碗里。

We got out and sat inside the Ford. It was a Grand Torino. Navy blue, Baba said. I drove it around the block, testing the brakes, the radio, the turn signals. I parked it in the lot of our apartment building and shut off the engine. “Tashakor, Baba jan,”I said. I wanted to say more, tell him how touched I was by his act of kindness, how much I appreciated all that he had done for me, all that he was still doing. But I knew I’d embarrass him. “Tashakor,” I repeated instead.

He smiled and leaned back against the headrest, his forehead almost touching the ceiling. We didn’t say anything. Just sat in the dark, listened to the tink-tink of the engine cooling, the wail of a siren in the distance. Then Baba rolled his head toward me. “I wish Hassan had been with us today,” he said.

headrest noun： the part of a chair thatsupports the head, especiallya support attached to the back of the seat of a car

（椅子或汽车座椅的）头枕，头垫

siren noun：  device for making a loudwarning noise

警报器，汽笛

police sirens警笛

A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan’s name. I rolled down the window. Waited for the steel hands to loosen their grip.

I would enroll in junior college classes in the fall, I told Baba the day after graduation. He was drinking cold black tea and chewing cardamom seeds, his personal trusted antidote for hangover headaches.

cardamom noun： a South Asian plant, the seedsof which are used as a spice

豆蔻（种籽尤用作亚洲食物的调味料）

cardamom seeds豆蔻籽

antidote noun： a way of preventing or actingagainst something bad

矫正方法；缓解办法；对抗手段

Regular exercise is the best antidote to tiredness and depression.经常锻炼是消除疲劳和抑郁的最好方法。

hangover noun： a feeling of illness afterdrinking too much alcohol

（大量饮酒后的）宿醉，不适反应

I had a terrible hangover the next morning.第二天上午我宿醉反应很强烈。

“I think I’ll major in English,” I said. I winced inside, waiting for his reply. “English?” “Creative writing.”

He considered this. Sipped his tea. “Stories, you mean. You’ll make up stories.” I looked down at my feet.

“They pay for that, making up stories?”

“If you’re good,” I said. “And if you get discovered.”

“How likely is that, getting discovered?”

“It happens,” I said.

He nodded. “And what will you do while you wait to get good and get discovered? How will you earn money? If you marry, how will you support your khanum?”

I couldn’t lift my eyes to meet his. “I’ll . . . find a job.”

“Oh,” he said. “Wah wah! So, if I understand, you’ll study several years to earn a degree, then you’ll get a chatti job like mine, one you could just as easily land today, on the small chance that your degree might someday help you get . . . discovered.” He took a deep breath and sipped his tea. Grunted something about medical school, law school, and “real work.”

My cheeks burned and guilt coursed through me, the guilt of indulging myself at the expense of his ulcer, his black fingernails and aching wrists. But I would stand my ground, I decided. I didn’t want to sacrifice for Baba anymore. The last time I had done that, I had damned myself.

chatty adjective：  If a piece of writing is chatty, it is informal.

（文章）很随意的，闲聊式的

a chatty letter/style聊天式的书信／随意的风格

（只查到这个相似的词语有着相似的意思，具体意思其实从上下文也能大概分析出来）

expense noun：  the use of money,time, or effort

花钱；支付；耗费

Buying a bigger car has proved to be well worth the expense.事实证明，买辆大点儿的车还是很值得的。

Baba sighed and, this time, tossed a whole handful of cardamom seeds in his mouth.

Sometimes, I got behind the wheel of my Ford, rolled down the windows, and drove for hours, from the East Bay to the South Bay, up the Peninsula and back. I drove through the grids of cottonwood-lined streets in our Fremont neighborhood, where people who’d never shaken hands with kings lived in shabby, flat one-story houses with barred windows, where old cars like mine dripped oil on blacktop driveways. Pencil gray chain-link fences closed off the backyards in our neighborhood. Toys, bald tires, and beer bottles with peeling labels littered unkempt front lawns. I drove past tree-shaded parks that smelled like bark, past strip malls big enough to hold five simultaneous Buzkashi tournaments. I drove the Torino up the hills of Los Altos, idling past estates with picture windows and silver lions guarding the wrought-iron gates, homes with cherub fountains lining the manicured walkways and no Ford Torinos in the driveways. Homes that made Baba’s house in Wazir Akbar Khan look like a servant’s hut.

blacktop /ˈblæktɒp $ -tɑːp/ noun： a thick black sticky substance that becomes hard as it dries, used to cover roads

peel verb：  to remove the skin offruit and vegetables

除去，剥去（水果、蔬菜的）皮

Peel, core, and chop the apples.把苹果去皮、去核并剁碎。

（第N次出现啦，不过形式各异。记牢咯~）

unkempt adjective： untidy; not cared for

不整洁的；凌乱的；没有打理的

an unkempt lawn一片无人打理的草坪

strip mall noun： a row of stores and small businesses built together along the side of a main road:

cherub noun： an angel that is represented inart as a beautiful, fat, nakedchild with small wings

小天使（艺术作品中表现为长着小翅膀的胖小孩形象）

manicured adjective： If something, such as a garden, is manicured, it is well cared for and looks very tidy.

（花园等）受到精心护理的

The hotel is surrounded by perfectly manicured gardens.宾馆四周是精心护理过的花园。

I’d get up early some Saturday mornings and drive south on Highway 17, push the Ford up the winding road through the mountains to Santa Cruz. I would park by the old lighthouse and wait for sunrise, sit in my car and watch the fog rolling in from the sea. In Afghanistan, I had only seen the ocean at the cinema. Sitting in the dark next to Hassan, I had always wondered if it was true what I’d read, that sea air smelled like salt. I used to tell Hassan that someday we’d walk on a strip of seaweed-strewn beach, sink our feet in the sand, and watch the water recede from our toes. The first time I saw the Pacific, I almost cried. It was as vast and blue as the oceans on the movie screens of my childhood.

Sometimes in the early evening, I parked the car and walked up a freeway overpass. My face pressed against the fence, I’d try to count the blinking red taillights inching along, stretching as far as my eyes could see. BMWs. Saabs. Porsches. Cars I’d never seen in Kabul, where most people drove Russian Volgas, old Opels, or Iranian Paikans.

strew verb： to spread things in an untidyway over a surface, or to bespread in an untidy way over asurface

撒，散布；（在…上）布满，撒满

They marked the end of the war by strewing flowers over the graves of 18,000 soldiers.他们在1.8万名士兵的坟墓上撒满鲜花，以此纪念战争的结束。

overpass noun： a bridge that carries a road orrailway over another road

立交桥；跨线桥

Almost two years had passed since we had arrived in the U.S., and I was still marveling at the size of this country, its vastness. Beyond every freeway lay another freeway, beyond every city another city, hills beyond mountains and mountains beyond hills, and, beyond those, more cities and more people.

Long before the Roussi army marched into Afghanistan, long before villages were burned and schools destroyed, long before mines were planted like seeds of death and children buried in rock-piled graves, Kabul had become a city of ghosts for me. A city of harelipped ghosts.

grave noun：  a place in the groundwhere a dead person is buried

坟墓；墓穴；埋葬处

a mass grave万人坑

America was different. America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past. I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.

If for nothing else, for that, I embraced America.

The following summer, the summer of 1984—the summer I turned twenty-one—Baba sold his Buick and bought a dilapidated ’71 Volkswagen bus for $550 from an old Afghan acquaintance who’d been a high-school science teacher in Kabul. The neighbors’ heads turned the afternoon the bus sputtered up the street and farted its way across our lot. Baba killed the engine and let the bus roll silently into our designated spot. We sank in our seats, laughed until tears rolled down our cheeks, and, more important, until we were sure the neighbors weren’t watching anymore. The bus was a sad carcass of rusted metal, shattered windows replaced with black garbage bags, balding tires, and upholstery shredded down to the springs. But the old teacher had reassured Baba that the engine and transmission were sound and, on that account, the man hadn’t lied.

dilapidated adjective： old and in poor condition

年久失修的，破败的，破旧的

The hotel we stayed in was really dilapidated.我们住的那家酒店真是破败不堪。

sputter verb： If an activity sputters, it is weak and varied, and does not make people feel confident about it.

（活动）勉强进行

Russia's presidential campaign sputtered to an uneasy close on Monday.俄罗斯的总统竞选活动磕磕绊绊，于周一勉强结束了。

fart verb： to release gas from thebowels through the bottom

放屁

（这儿应该是排气）

designate verb： to say officially that a place or thing has a particularcharacter or purpose

指定，划定（特征、用途）

This area of the park has been specially designated for children.公园的这个区域被划定为儿童活动区。

upholstery noun： the cloth used for covering aseat and/or the substanceused for filling it

坐椅面料；坐椅填充料

an old sofa with faded greenupholstery面料褪了色的绿色旧沙发

shred verb： to cut or tear somethingroughly into thin strips

把…切（或撕）成细条；切碎；撕碎

Shred the lettuce and arrange it around the edge of the dish.将莴苣切成丝，摆在盘子边缘。

On Saturdays, Baba woke me up at dawn. As he dressed, I

scanned the classifieds in the local papers and circled the garage sale ads. We mapped our route—Fremont, Union City, Newark, and Hayward first, then San Jose, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, and Campbell if time permitted. Baba drove the bus, sipping hot tea from the thermos, and I navigated. We stopped at garage sales and bought knickknacks that people no longer wanted. We haggled over old sewing machines, one-eyed Barbie dolls, wooden tennis rackets, guitars with missing strings, and old Electrolux vacuum cleaners. By midafternoon, we’d filled the back of the VW bus with used goods. Then early Sunday mornings, we drove to the San Jose flea market off Berryessa, rented a spot, and sold the junk for a small profit: a Chicago record that we’d bought for a quarter the day before might go for $1, or $4 for a set of five; a ramshackle Singer sewing machine purchased for $10 might, after some bargaining, bring in $25.

knickknack noun： a small, decorative object, esp. in a house:

ramshackle adjective： badly organized

组织混乱的；组织松散的；行将解体的

We need to reorganize this ramshackle system.我们需要对这个混乱不堪的系统进行重组。

By that summer, Afghan families were working an entire section of the San Jose flea market. Afghan music played in the aisles of the Used Goods section. There was an unspoken code of behavior among Afghans at the flea market: You greeted the guy across the aisle, you invited him for a bite of potato bolani or a little qabuli, and you chatted. You offered tassali, condolences, for the death of a parent, congratulated the birth of children, and shook your head mournfully when the conversation turned to Afghanistan and the Roussis—which it inevitably did. But you avoided the topic of Saturday. Because it might turn out that the fellow across the isle was the guy you’d nearly blindsided at the freeway exit yesterday in order to beat him to a promising garage sale.

The only thing that flowed more than tea in those aisles was Afghan gossip. The flea market was where you sipped green tea with almond kolchas, and learned whose daughter had broken off an engagement and run off with her American boyfriend, who used to be Parchami—a communist—in Kabul, and who had bought a house with under-the-table money while still on welfare. Tea, Politics, and Scandal, the ingredients of an Afghan Sunday at the flea market.

condolence noun： sympathy and sadness for thefamily or close friends of aperson who has recently died, or an expression of this,especially in written form

吊唁（词）；哀悼（词）

a letter of condolence吊唁信

blindside verb： to surprise someone, usually with harmful results

出其不意地袭击

The recession blindsided a lot of lawyers who had previously taken for granted their comfortable income.经济衰退给那些先前想当然地以为自己应获得丰厚收入的律师们以出人意料的打击。

almond noun： an edible oval nut with a hardshell, or the tree that it growson

杏仁；扁桃树

ground/toasted almonds杏仁粉／烤杏仁

I ran the stand sometimes as Baba sauntered down the aisle, hands respectfully pressed to his chest, greeting people he knew from Kabul: mechanics and tailors selling hand-me-down wool coats and scraped bicycle helmets, alongside former ambassadors, out-of-work surgeons, and university professors.

hand-me-down noun： a piece of clothing that someone has given to ayounger person because they no longer want it

（别人穿过的）旧衣服

I got fed up with having to wear my sister's hand-me-downs.我早就受够了穿姐姐的旧衣服。

One early Sunday morning in July 1984, while Baba set up, I bought two cups of coffee from the concession stand and returned to find Baba talking to an older, distinguished-looking man. I put the cups on the rear bumper of the bus, next to the

REAGAN / BUSH FOR  ’84 sticker.

“Amir,” Baba said, motioning me over, “this is General Sahib, Mr. Iqbal Taheri. He was a decorated general in Kabul. He worked for the Ministry of Defense.”

Taheri. Why did the name sound familiar?

The general laughed like a man used to attending formal parties where he’d laughed on cue at the minor jokes of important people. He had wispy silver-gray hair combed back from his smooth, tanned forehead, and tufts of white in his bushy eyebrows. He smelled like cologne and wore an iron-gray three-piece suit, shiny from too many pressings; the gold chain of a pocket watch dangled from his vest.

“Such a lofty introduction,” he said, his voice deep and cultured. “Salaam, bachem.” Hello, my child.

tuft noun： a number of short pieces ofhair, grass, etc. that growclosely together or are heldtogether near the base

（尤指毛发、草等的）一束，一簇，一丛

He had a few tufts of hair on his chin, but you couldn't really call it a beard.他下巴上有几簇毛，但很难称其为胡须。

bushy adjective： Bushy hair or fur is very thick.

（毛发）浓密的；多毛的

a squirrel's bushy tail松鼠毛茸茸的尾巴

cologne noun： a type of perfume (= liquid with a pleasant smell, used on the skin)

科隆香水，古龙香水

lofty adjective：  Lofty ideas, etc. are of a high moral standard.

崇高的，高尚的

lofty sentiments/ideals崇高的情操／理想

“Salaam, General Sahib,” I said, shaking his hand. His thin hands belied a firm grip, as if steel hid beneath the moisturized skin.

“Amir is going to be a great writer,” Baba said. I did a double take at this. “He has finished his first year of college and earned A’s in all of his courses.” “Junior college,” I corrected him.

“Mashallah,” General Taheri said. “Will you be writing about our country, history perhaps? Economics?”

“I write fiction,” I said, thinking of the dozen or so short stories I had written in the leather-bound notebook Rahim Khan had given me, wondering why I was suddenly embarrassed by them in this man’s presence.

“Ah, a storyteller,” the general said. “Well, people need stories to divert them at difficult times like this.” He put his hand on Baba’s shoulder and turned to me. “Speaking of stories, your father and I hunted pheasant together one summer day in Jalalabad,” he said. “It was a marvelous time. If I recall correctly, your father’s eye proved as keen in the hunt as it had in business.”

Baba kicked a wooden tennis racket on our tarpaulin spread with the toe of his boot. “Some business.”

keen adjective：  very interested, eager, orwanting (to do) something very much

热衷的；热心的；渴望的

They were very keen to start work as soon as possible.他们渴望尽早开始工作。

tarpaulin noun： (a large piece of) heavywaterproof cloth used as acovering

柏油帆布，（防水）油布；篷帆布

General Taheri managed a simultaneously sad and polite smile, heaved a sigh, and gently patted Baba’s shoulder. “Zendagi migzara,” he said. Life goes on. He turned his eyes to me. “We Afghans are prone to a considerable degree of exaggeration, bachem, and I have heard many men foolishly labeled great. But your father has the distinction of belonging to the minority who truly deserves the label.” This little speech sounded to me the way his suit looked: often used and unnaturally shiny.

“You’re flattering me,” Baba said.

“I am not,” the general said, tilting his head sideways and pressing his hand to his chest to convey humility. “Boys and girls must know the legacy of their fathers.” He turned to me. “Do you appreciate your father, bachem? Do you really appreciate him?”

“Balay, General Sahib, I do,” I said, wishing he’d not call me “my child.”

“Then congratulations, you are already halfway to being a man,” he said with no trace of humor, no irony, the compliment of the casually arrogant.

“Padar jan, you forgot your tea.” A young woman’s voice. She was standing behind us, a slim-hipped beauty with velvety coal black hair, an open thermos and Styrofoam cup in her hand. I blinked, my heart quickening. She had thick black eyebrows that touched in the middle like the arched wings of a flying bird, and the gracefully hooked nose of a princess from old Persia—maybe that of Tahmineh, Rostam’s wife and Sohrab’s mother from the Shahnamah. Her eyes, walnut brown and shaded by fanned lashes, met mine. Held for a moment. Flew away.

velvet adjective： made of velvet

天鹅绒制的；天鹅绒的

a velvet dress丝绒长裙

arched adjective： having a shape or structurewith an curve at the top, like an arch

弓形的，拱形的

The entrance to the cathedral is through an arched door.大教堂入口处是座拱形门。

walnut noun： a nut with a slightly bittertaste and a series of folds in it and a hard shell, or (theexpensive, light brown woodfrom) the tree that producesthese nuts

胡桃，核桃；胡桃树，核桃树；胡桃木，核桃木

“You are so kind, my dear,” General Taheri said. He took the cup from her. Before she turned to go, I saw she had a brown, sickle-shaped birthmark on the smooth skin just above her left jawline. She walked to a dull gray van two aisles away and put the thermos inside. Her hair spilled to one side when she kneeled amid boxes of old records and paperbacks.

“My daughter, Soraya jan,” General Taheri said. He took a deep breath like a man eager to change the subject and checked his gold pocket watch. “Well, time to go and set up.” He and Baba kissed on the cheek and he shook my hand with both of his. “Best of luck with the writing,” he said, looking me in the eye. His pale blue eyes revealed nothing of the thoughts behind them.

For the rest of that day, I fought the urge to look toward the gray van.

It came to me on our way home. Taheri. I knew I’d heard that name before.

“Wasn’t there some story floating around about Taheri’s daughter?” I said to Baba, trying to sound casual.

“You know me,” Baba said, inching the bus along the queue exiting the flea market. “Talk turns to gossip and I walk away.”

“But there was, wasn’t there?” I said.

“Why do you ask?” He was looking at me coyly.

I shrugged and fought back a smile. “Just curious, Baba.”

“Really? Is that all?” he said, his eyes playful, lingering on mine. “Has she made an impression on you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Please, Baba.”

He smiled, and swung the bus out of the flea market. We headed for Highway 680. We drove in silence for a while. “All I’ve heard is that there was a man once and things ...didn’t go well.” He said this gravely, like he’d disclosed to me that she had breast cancer.

coy adjective：  intentionally keeping something secret:

grave adjective： urgent and very bad; serious

“Oh.”

“I hear she is a decent girl, hardworking and kind. But no khastegars, no suitors, have knocked on the general’s door since.” Baba sighed. “It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime, Amir,” he said.

suitor noun：  a man who wants tomarry a particular woman

（女子的）求婚者，追求者

It's the story of a young woman who can't make up her mind which of her many suitors she should marry.这个故事说的是一位年轻女子拿不定主意该嫁给众多追求者中的哪一个。

Lying awake in bed that night, I thought of Soraya Taheri’s sickle-shaped birthmark, her gently hooked nose, and the way her luminous eyes had fleetingly held mine. My heart stuttered at the thought of her. Soraya Taheri. My Swap Meet Princess.

stutter verb： to work or happen in a way that is not smooth or regular

断断续续地运转（或进行）

Suddenly the engine stuttered and then it stopped completely.发动机突然突突响了两声，接着便完全停住了。

Summary

Well, Baba did love his son. No matter how Amir felt that he had disappointed his father. The book reveals many details that not only are related to the friendship between Amir and Hassan, but disclose many real life situations. Like Chinese environment, the flea market for them floats with all kinds of gossip. His father, adjusting his new life in a entirely different atomsphere, chosed to do so mostly for his son. Some believed this book is talking about Amir and Hassan, but in fact it has a greater ambition: to illustrate a mournful era in Afganistan filled with sad stories.