美国小学英语教材5:第266课 沙漠男孩——阿卜杜勒. 阿齐兹(9)（在线收听）

His mother, Kadijah, was like another person out here under the sky, in the freedom of the orchard. She laughed and sang, and she was in a good humor from morning till night. This year Abdul Aziz noticed it, and one afternoon when they were resting a little, standing looking out across the red earth, under the rustling trees, to the sea which lay like a deep blue carpet in the distance, he asked her about it.

他的母亲卡迪亚就像天空下的另一个人，在果园里自由自在。她又笑又唱，从早到晚心情都很好。今年，阿卜杜勒·阿齐兹注意到了这一点。一天下午，他们休息了一会儿，站在沙沙作响的树下，望着远处铺着深蓝色地毯的大海。

At first his mother would not answer, saying only: “Your father does not like me to talk of it.” But Abdul Aziz begged, and presently she told him.

起初，他母亲不回答，只是说：“你父亲不喜欢我谈这个。”但是阿卜杜勒·阿齐兹苦苦哀求，不一会儿她就告诉了他。

“I was not born in the village, like the other women here. I am a Bedouin, and I was born in a tent, far I away on the great desert to the south. The Bedouins, my people, live a free, roving life, under the stars, and I under the hot sun of the desert. I was free, too. My face was not veiled. I was free to come and go as I liked in the hills and the wide air.

“我不像这里的其他妇女那样是本村人。我是一个贝都因人，出生在一个帐篷里，在遥远的南方大沙漠。我的人民，贝都因人，在星空下过着自由自在的生活，而我，在沙漠的烈日下。我也自由了。我的脸没有蒙着面纱。我可以自由地在群山和广阔的天空中来去。