I welcome you to my home as my son, as the husband of my daughter who is the noor of my eye. Your pain will be our pain, your joy our joy. I hope that you will come to see your Khala and Jamila and me as a second set of parents, and I pray for your and our lovely Soraya jan’s happiness. you both have our blessings.
Hadn’t we both yearned for escape, reinvention, new identities? Hadn’t we each, in the end unmoored ourselves by cutting loose the anchors that weighed us down?
Itukan hanya mimpi Amir agha. Dalam mimpi kita bisa melakukan apa saja – Hassan.
Agha, did you hear what Mullah Nasruddin did when his daughter came home and complained that her husband had beaten her?” I could feel him smiling in the dark and a smile of my own formed on my face. There wasn’t an Afghan in the world who didn’t know at least a few jokes about the bumbling mullah. “What?” “He beat her too, then sent her back to tell the husband that Mullah was no fool: If the bastard was going to beat his daughter, then Mullah would beat his wife in return.
Menyakiti seseorang adalah salah, bahkan walau orang itu jahat. Karena mereka tidak tahu jalan yang lebih baik, dan karena orang-orang yang jahat pun bisa menjadi baik.
Di dunia ini, ada orang yang memang jahat, dan kadang-kadang mereka akan tetap jahat.
I watch because of that look of acceptance in the animal’s eyes. Absurdly, I imagine the animal understands. I imagined the animal sees that its imminent demise is for a higher purpose.
He knew I betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time.
I wished I could open my veins and drain his cursed blood from my body.
And if he knew, then what would I see if I did look in his eyes? Blame? Indignation? Or, God forbid, what I feared most: guileless devotion? That, most of all, I couldn’t bear to see.
Hassan and I were stunned. Dazed. John Wayne didn’t really speak Farsi.
They only make you so happy when they are about to take something from you.
She suddenly realizes that she may not know how to live without Masooma. She doesn’t know if she can. How will she bear the days when Masooma’s absence feels like a far heavier burden than her presence ever had? How will she learn to tread around the edges of the big gaping hole where Masooma had once been?
By the time we’re twenty, Hasina used to say, Giti and I, we’ll have pushed out four, five kids each. But you, Laila, you’ll make us two dummies proud. You’re going to be somebody. I know one day I’ll pick up a newspaper and find your picture on the front page.
Infilai la foto dove l’avevo trovata. Mi resi conto che quei pensieri non mi avevano ferito. Chiudendo la porta della stanza mi chiesi se quello fosse il modo in cui sboccia il perdono, non con le fanfare di una epifania, ma con il dolore che, nel cuore della notte, fa i bagagli e si allontana senza nemmeno avvisare.
Untukmu keseribu kalinya – Hassan si pengejar layang-layang berbibir sumbing.
Ke mana pun aku berpaling, aku melihat tanda-tanda kesetiaannya, kesetiaan tanpa syarat keparatnya.
Hanya ada satu macam dosa, hanya satu. Yaitu mencuri. Dosa-dosa yang lain adalah variasi dari dosa itu.
There is only one sin, only one, and that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right of a husband, you rob his children of a father. When you lie you steal someone’s right to truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is no more wretched act than stealing. A man who takes what is not his to take, be it life or a loaf of naan, I spit on such a man. And if I ever cross paths with him, God help him.
She had this laugh. I swear it’s why I married her, Laila, for that laugh! It bulldozed you. You stood no chance against it.