So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one. But just the one. Don’t either of you ask me for more.
A spectacularly foolish and baseless faith, against enormous odds, that a world you do not control will not take from you the one thing you cannot bear to lose.
Nana said, “Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.
And, just like that, he had thrown at me his own little test. If I was going to toy with him and challenge his loyalty, then he would toy with me, test my integrity.
Tapi tentu saja, memang gampang menjadi pintar kalau kamu punya senjata yang siap dipakai.
Pembelaan diri tidak ada hubungannya dengan kekejaman.
Every sinner must be punished in a manner befitting his sin!
To this day, I find it hard to gaze directly at people like Hassan, people who mean every word they say.
Tuhan telah menganugerahkan bakat istimewa kepadamu. Tugasmu saat ini adalah mengasah bakatmu karena orang yang menyia-nyiakan bakat pemberian Tuhan sama saja dengan seekor keledai.
I dare, I dare allow myself the hope that, after you read this, you will be more charitable to me than I ever was to you. That you might find it in your heart to come and see your father. That you will knock on my door one more time and give me the chance to open it this time, to welcome you, to take you in my arms, my daughter, as I should have done all those years ago. It is a hope as weak as my heart. This I know. But I will be waiting. I will be listening for your knock. I will be hoping.
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.