As the day went on and the sun climbed higher in the sky, more and more of the White Mountain would be bathed in golden sun. Then as evening came it fell in shadow as the sun moved up the Black Mountain. We timed our prayers by the shadow on the mountains. When the sun hit a certain rock, we used to say our asr or afternoon prayers. Then in the evening, when the white peak of Spin Ghar was even more beautiful than in the morning, we said the makkam or evening prayers. You could see the White Mountain from everywhere, and my father told me he used to think of it as a symbol of peace for our land, a white flag at the end of our valley. When he was a child he thought this small valley was the entire world and that if anyone went beyond the point where either mountain kissed the sky, they would fall off.

时间推移，太阳越升越高，白山沐浴在金色阳光下。到了傍晚，白山没入黑暗中，太阳慢慢往黑山移动。我们通过观察山上的阴影来判定进行祷告的时间。当阳光照到某一块岩石的时候，我们就会进行“雅思耶”，也就是午祷。到了晚上，当白山史宾佳尔比早晨更美的时候，我们就会进行“马坎”，也就是晚祷。从任何方向望去，都能看见白山。父亲告诉我，他曾把这当作是和平生活的象征，白山就是河谷末端的一面白旗。当他还是个孩子时，他曾以为这个小小的河谷就是全世界，如果有人穿越山陵与天空连接的地方，就会掉到世界外头去。

Though I had been born in a city, I shared my father’s love of nature. I loved the rich soil, the greenness of the plants, the crops, the buffaloes and the yellow butterflies that fluttered about me as I walked. The village was very poor, but when we arrived our extended family would lay on a big feast. There would be bowls of chicken, rice, local spinach and spicy mutton, all cooked over the fire by the women, followed by plates of crunchy apples, slices of yellow cake and a big kettle of milky tea. None of the children had toys or books. The boys played cricket in a gully and even the ball was made from plastic bags tied together with elastic bands.

虽然我是在城里出生的，但我跟父亲一样热爱大自然。我喜欢肥沃的土地、绿油油的植物、水牛和总是会在我走路时在身边飞舞的黄色蝴蝶。这个村子虽然很贫困，但每当我们抵达时，我们的大家族都会设宴款待。桌上会有一碗又一碗的鸡肉、米饭、菠菜和辣味羊肉，全都由妇女们亲手烹调而成。饭后还有一盘盘香脆的苹果、一块块黄澄澄的蛋糕，还有一大壶奶茶。孩子们没有玩具或是书籍。男孩们在溪谷里打板球，球有时甚至是用橡皮筋缠着一团塑料袋做成的。

The village was a forgotten place. Water was carried from the spring. The few concrete houses had been built by families whose sons or fathers had gone south to work in the mines or to the Gulf, from where they sent money home. There are forty million of us Pashtuns, of which ten million live outside our homeland. My father said it was sad that they could never return as they needed to keep working to maintain their families’ new lifestyle. There were many families with no men. They would visit only once a year, and usually a new baby would arrive nine months later.

这个村子仿佛是世外桃源。日常用水是从泉眼提回来的，少数几栋水泥房是由家里在南方的矿坑或是海湾地区工作的男子们赚了钱回来建的。普什图大约有四千万人口，其中有一千万人住在外地。父亲说，可悲的是他们可能永远不会回来，因为他们必须不断赚钱，以维持家里较为现代化的生活方式。很多户人家里没有男人，他们只能一年回来一次。然后，通常在九个月后，就会有新生儿诞生。