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"I'll be back," the boy said.
“我一定会回来。”男孩又说了一遍。
"Before this, I always looked to the desert with longing," said Fatima.
“过去，我是抱着幻想看沙漠，”法蒂玛说道。
"Now it will be with hope.
“现在我是抱着期望看沙漠。
My father went away one day, but he returned to my mother, and he has always come back since then."
我父亲曾经离开过，但是有一天他又回到了母亲身边，而且以后从未再离开。”
They said nothing else. They walked a bit farther among the palms, and then the boy left her at the entrance to her tent.
他们没再多说什么。两个人在椰枣树林里又走了一会儿，然后，男孩把法蒂玛送到帐篷门口。
"I'll return, just as your father came back to your mother," he said.
“我会像你父亲回到你母亲身边那样回来。”男孩说。
He saw that Fatima's eyes were filled with tears.
他发现法蒂玛的眼里噙满了泪水。
"You're crying?" "I'm a woman of the desert," she said, averting her face. "But above all, I'm a woman."
“你哭了？”“我是沙漠中的女人。”她说，将脸扭到一边，“但我毕竟是个女人。”
Fatima went back to her tent, and, when daylight came, she went out to do the chores she had done for years.
法蒂玛走进了帐篷，白天到来时，她将走出帐篷，去做多年来她一直做的事。
But everything had changed.
然而一切都已改变。
The boy was no longer at the oasis, and the oasis would never again have the same meaning it had had only yesterday.
男孩已经不在绿洲了，绿洲也不再有以前具有的意义。
It would no longer be a place with fifty thousand palm trees and three hundred wells, where the pilgrims arrived, relieved at the end of their long journeys.
它不再是拥有五万棵椰枣树和三百眼水井，令长途跋涉到达这里的朝圣者们兴高采烈的地方。
From that day on, the oasis would be an empty place for her.
从这一天起，在法蒂玛眼中，绿洲成为一块不毛之地。
From that day on, it was the desert that would be important.
从这一天起，沙漠变得更加重要。
She would look to it every day, and would try to guess which star the boy was following in search of his treasure.
她将一直观望着它，努力弄清男孩在寻宝路上追随的是哪颗星星。
She would have to send her kisses on the wind, hoping that the wind would touch the boy's face, and would tell him that she was alive.
她将委托风儿捎去她的亲吻，期待着风儿吹拂男孩的脸庞，并告诉男孩她还活着。
That she was waiting for him, a woman awaiting a courageous man in search of his treasure.
她正等待着他归来，就像任何一个正等待着勇敢地去寻找梦想和财宝的男人的女子一样。
From that day on, the desert would represent only one thing to her: the hope for his return.
从这一天开始，沙漠只意味着：男孩归来的希望。
