美国国家公共电台 NPR Khaled Hosseini Says A Succinct 'Sea Prayer' For A Refugee's Journey

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

You know our next guest for his books about Afghanistan - "The Kite Runner," "A Thousand Splendid Suns," "And The Mountains Echoed." But Khaled Hosseini's latest writing, "Sea Prayer," is a departure from those best-selling novels. This is a short, illustrated¹ work of fiction that captures the trauma² and heartbreak of the Syrian refugee crisis. It is told in the form of a letter from father to son. When I spoke³ with Hosseini, I asked him to read an opening passage in which the father is describing how their home city, Homs, in western Syria used to be.

KHALED HOSSEINI: (Reading) I wish you remembered Homs as I do, Marwan - in its bustling⁴ old city, a mosque⁵ for us Muslims, a church for our Christian⁶ neighbors and a grand souk for us all to haggle⁷ over gold pendants and fresh produce and bridal dresses. I wish you remembered the crowded lanes smelling of fried kibbeh and the evening walks we took with your mother around Clock Tower Square.

MARTIN: It is clear that the child to whom the father is speaking never got to see that.

HOSSEINI: Yeah. And it speaks to the experience of so many refugee children, whether we're talking about Syria or Afghanistan, an entire generation of children who are being raised amid turmoil⁸ and violence and war and have no personal connection to the beauty and the richness of their country before all the turmoil began. And that's an experience that I've encountered when speaking to refugees all over the world.

MARTIN: I imagine you've spoken with Syrian refugees about their own experiences as part of your work with the U.N.?

HOSSEINI: Yes. I was in Lebanon this past June, and I met with Syrian refugees. And it is a hard, strange and punishing life to be a Syrian refugee in Lebanon - 1 out of 6 people on the streets is a Syrian refugee. Most live on less than $4 a day in makeshift improvised⁹ housing structures like abandoned garages and warehouses¹⁰, and memorably¹¹, even a shopping mall that's unfinished and that smells like an open sewer¹² and has no sanitation¹³. Over a thousand people are living there.

So it's a hard life. And when I was speaking to these refugees, I could imagine how I too as a father who would not be able to provide for his children might choose also to pay smugglers and try one of these desperate crossing across the Mediterranean¹⁴ Sea to reach European shores and try to secure a better life for my family.

MARTIN: Was there a particular child or story or image that helped you create the tale that you tell in these pages?

HOSSEINI: Yes. You know, three years ago, we all around the world were shocked to see the photograph of a young Alan Kurdi, a little over 2-year-old Syrian boy who drowned on a Turkish beach after his family tried to cross the sea to Europe. And when I saw that photograph of Alan's body on the beach, and I was just bludgeoned, you know. As a father myself, I kept trying to imagine the emotional, psychological nightmare that his dad had to endure every time he saw the photographs of his son and a stranger lifting his child's body, a stranger who didn't know Alan's voice or his laughter or his favorite toy.

And so I hope that this book, "Sea Prayer," is a small tribute not only to his family, but also on a broader level, I hope it highlights the unthinkable despair that thousands of other ordinary people face everyday to abandon home and community and take a chance on this brutal¹⁵ and often lethal¹⁶ journey, you know, across the sea.

MARTIN: I'd like to ask you to read another excerpt¹⁷. This is the bit of the poem that begins, first came the protests.

HOSSEINI: (Reading) First came the protests, then the siege, the sky spitting bombs, starvation, burials. These are the things you know. You know a bomb crater¹⁸ can be made into a swimming hole. You have learned that dark blood is better news than bright. You have learned that mothers and sisters and classmates can be found in narrow gaps between concrete, bricks and exposed beams, little patches of sunlit skin shining in the dark.

MARTIN: This is not just a letter to a son. It is a prayer. Clearly, a connection to the tens of thousands of people who have taken that life-threatening journey by boat across the Mediterranean. Why did you decide to make it a plea to God?

HOSSEINI: I imagined myself as one of those fathers who's abandoned home, land, community, who's been forced to walk across miles and mile sometimes for weeks, occasionally for months with his children, knowing that along the way he may be detained, that he might be beaten, that his children might be sold into forced labor¹⁹. And then to reach the sea and put your life savings²⁰ in the hands of smugglers and set out in the open sea knowing that thousands have died before you attempting this very same journey with nothing there to protect you.

The sea - pitch black. You can't tell the sky from the sea. Nothing to protect you and your life at the hands of smugglers who have no regard for human life. And this whole business pivots²¹ on your suffering. Who would choose this for their family? If I was a father on a moonlit beach about to take one of these journeys, you can bet that I would turn inward and say a prayer for my son too.

MARTIN: It is revealed that part of the father's motivation is that he just wants to make his son feel OK and that he wants to believe that the prayer will be heard. He's afraid that it rings hollow. May I ask you to read the close of the poem?

HOSSEINI: (Reading) These are only words, a father's tricks. It slays²² your father, your faith in him, because all I can think tonight is how deep the sea and how vast, how indifferent, how powerless I am to protect you from it. All I can do is pray, pray God steers²³ the vessel²⁴ true when the shores slip out of eyeshot and we are a fly speck²⁵ in the heaving waters, pitching and tilting²⁶, easily swallowed. Because you, you are precious cargo²⁷, Marwan, the most precious that ever was. I pray the sea knows this, inshallah, how I pray the sea knows this.

MARTIN: Novelist Khaled Hosseini. His latest book is called "Sea Prayer." Thank you so much for talking with us.

HOSSEINI: It was my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF DHAFER YOUSSEF'S "BIRDS CANTICUM 'BIRDS REQUIEM' SUITE")

1 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

2 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 bustling   

adj.喧闹的

参考例句：

• The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
• This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。

5 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 haggle   

vi.讨价还价，争论不休

参考例句：

• In many countries you have to haggle before you buy anything.在许多国家里买东西之前都得讨价还价。
• If you haggle over the price,they might give you discount.你讲讲价，他们可能会把价钱降低。

8 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

9 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

10 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

11 memorably   

难忘的

参考例句：

• The book includes some memorably seedy characters and scabrous description. 这本书包含了一些难忘下流的角色及有伤风化的描述。 来自互联网
• Horowitz could play Chopin memorably. 霍洛维茨可以把肖邦的作品演奏得出神入化。 来自互联网

12 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

13 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

14 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

15 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

16 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

17 excerpt   

n.摘录，选录，节录

参考例句：

• This is an excerpt from a novel.这是一部小说的摘录。
• Can you excerpt something from the newspaper? 你能从报纸上选录些东西吗？

18 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

19 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

20 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

21 pivots   

n.枢( pivot的名词复数 )；最重要的人（或事物）；中心；核心v.（似）在枢轴上转动( pivot的第三人称单数 )；把…放在枢轴上；以…为核心，围绕（主旨）展开

参考例句：

• The success of the project pivots on investment from abroad. 这个工程的成功主要依靠外来投资。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The novel pivots around a long conversation between two characters. 这部小说是以两个人物的对话为中心展开的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 slays   

杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• No other infection so quickly slays. 再没有别的疾病会造成如此迅速的死亡。
• That clown just slays me. 那小丑真叫我笑死了。

23 steers   

n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导

参考例句：

• This car steers easily. 这部车子易于驾驶。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Good fodder fleshed the steers up. 优质饲料使菜牛长肉。 来自辞典例句

24 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

25 speck   

n.微粒，小污点，小斑点

参考例句：

• I have not a speck of interest in it.我对它没有任何兴趣。
• The sky is clear and bright without a speck of cloud.天空晴朗，一星星云彩也没有。

26 tilting   

倾斜，倾卸

参考例句：

• For some reason he thinks everyone is out to get him, but he's really just tilting at windmills. 不知为什么他觉得每个人都想害他，但其实他不过是在庸人自扰。
• So let us stop bickering within our ranks.Stop tilting at windmills. 所以，让我们结束内部间的争吵吧！再也不要去做同风车作战的蠢事了。

27 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。