殘忍而美麗的情誼:The Kite Runner 追風箏的人(25)

We crossed the residential street and were trekking through a barren patch of rough land that led to the hill when, suddenly, a rock struck Hassan in the back. We whirled around and my heart dropped. Assef and two of his friends, Wali and Kamal, were approaching us.

我們穿過住宅區，在一片通往山丘的荒蕪空地上跋涉前進。突然間，一塊石頭擊中了哈桑的後背。我們轉過身，我的心一沉。阿塞夫和他的兩個狐朋狗友，瓦里和卡莫，正朝我們走過來。

Assef was the son of one of my father's friends, Mahmood, an airline pilot. His family lived a few streets south of our Home, in a posh, high-walled compound with palm trees. If you were a kid living in the Wazir Akbar Khan section of Kabul, you knew about Assef and his famous stainless-steel brass knuckles, hopefully not through personal experience. Born to a German mother and Afghan father, the blond, blue-eyed Assef towered over the other kids. His well-earned reputation for savagery preceded him on the streets. Flanked by his obeying friends, he walked the neighborhood like a Khan strolling through his land with his eager-to-please entourage. His word was law, and if you needed a little legal education, then those brass knuckles were just the right teaching tool. I saw him use those knuckles once on a kid from the Karteh-Char district. I will never forget how Assef's blue eyes glinted with a light not entirely sane and how he grinned, how he "grinned", as he pummeled that poor kid unconscious. Some of the boys in Wazir Akbar Khan had nicknamed him Assef "Goshkhor", or Assef "the Ear Eater.?Of course, none of them dared utter it to his face unless they wished to suffer the same fate as the poor kid who had unwittingly inspired that nickname when he had fought Assef over a kite and ended up Fishing his right ear from a muddy gutter. Years later, I learned an English word for the creature that Assef was, a word for which a good Farsi equivalent does not exist:"sociopath."

阿塞夫的父親叫馬赫穆德，我爸爸的朋友，是個飛機駕駛員。他家位於一處豪華的住宅區，深院高牆，棕櫚環繞，就在我們家南邊，只隔了幾條街。住在喀布爾瓦茲爾·阿克巴·汗區的小孩，人人都知道阿塞夫和他那臭名昭著的不鏽鋼拳套，誰都不願意嚐嚐它的滋味。由於父親是阿富汗人，母親是德國人，藍眼睛的阿塞夫頭髮金黃，身材比其他孩子都要高大。他兇殘成性，惡名遠播，人們總是避之惟恐不及。他身旁有羣爲虎作倀的黨羽，走在附近的街道上，宛如可汗在阿諛逢迎的部屬陪伴下，視察自己的領地。他說的話就是法律，如果你需要一點法律教育，那麼他那不鏽鋼拳套無疑是最好的教具。我曾見過他用那拳套折磨一個卡德察區的小孩。我永遠都不會忘記阿塞夫藍色的眼睛中閃爍的近乎瘋狂的光芒，還有他那邪惡的笑臉--那可憐的孩子被他痛擊得不省人事，他竟然咧嘴而笑。瓦茲爾·阿克巴·汗區某些兒童給他起了個花名，叫"吃耳朵的阿塞夫"。當然，沒有人膽敢當面這樣稱呼他，除非他們想親身體會那個可憐孩子的下場：他跟阿塞夫爭奪一隻風箏，結果之後在路邊的臭水溝打撈自己的右耳。多年以後，我學到了一個英文單詞，在法爾西語找不到對應的字眼，可以用來形容阿塞夫那樣的人渣：反社會分子。

Of all the neighborhood boys who tortured Ali, Assef was by far the most relentless. He was, in fact, the originator of the Babalu jeer, "Hey, Babalu, who did you eat today? Huh? Come on, Babalu, give us a smile!" And on days when he felt particularly inspired, he spiced up his badgering a little, "Hey, you flat-nosed Babalu, who did you eat today? Tell us, you slant-eyed donkey!"

在那些折磨阿里的男孩中，阿塞夫遠比其他人來得惡毒。實際上，人們用"巴巴魯"來嘲弄阿里，他正是始作俑者。喂，巴巴魯，你今天吃了誰啊?哦?來吧，巴巴魯，朝我們笑一笑。在那些他覺得特別來勁的日子，他會加油添醋：喂，你這個塌鼻子巴巴魯，今天吃了誰啊?告訴我們，你這頭細眼睛的驢子!

Now he was walking toward us, hands on his hips, his sneakers kicking up little puffs of dust.

眼下他正雙手放在背後，用那雙膠底運動鞋踢起塵灰，朝我們走來。