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混血女儿用“脸书”找到失踪快四十年的爸爸

发布者: Candy_hao | 发布时间: 2016-8-25 15:06| 查看数: 1107| 评论数: 0|

•Farhiya was separated from(与...分离) her father when she was a baby

Farhiya在她还是小孩时就与父亲分离

•She didn't see him for nearly 40 years

她已经快40年没有见到她父亲了

•They were reunited thanks to a stranger on social media

他们最终在社交媒体上重聚了

"Congratulations! We found your dad!" read an email in Farhiya's inbox(n.收件箱).

“祝贺,我们找到你爸爸了!”Farhiya在她的收件箱上看到。

"I couldn't believe it when I first got the news." she says. "It was a dream come true(实现). But I always kept faith(n.信念) this moment would one day arrive."

"一开始看到这个消息,我简直不敢相信。“她说,“我的梦想终于实现了,我一直坚信有一天我的愿望会得到实现的。”

When she was growing up, Farhiya used to ask her mother what her dad was like.

当Farhiya慢慢长大,她就经常问她妈妈他的爸爸长什么样子。

"She would tell me to look in the mirror," says Farhiya. "You talk like him, you walk like him, you even argue like him," her mother would reply.

“她经常让我镜子里看看我自己。”Farhiya说,“你说话像他,走路姿势也像,甚至你争吵的方式也像他。”Farhiya的妈妈经常重复着这几句话。

But apart from a few black and white photos, that was all she had to go on.

但除了几张黑白照片,她没有任何线索,这也是她为什么要寻找她父亲的原因。

Thirty-nine-year-old Farhiya was born in Leningrad(俄罗斯的一座城市) - now St Petersburg(俄罗斯的第二大城市) - in 1976 to a Russian mother and a Somali father.

39年前Farhiya 出生于列宁格勒---现在的圣彼得堡--母亲是俄罗斯人,父亲是索马里人。

Siid Ahmed Sharif was one of many young Somali officers invited to study in the Soviet Union as the USSR(苏联的缩写) sought to expand its influence in Africa.

Siid Ahmed Sharif是众多受邀留学在苏联的年轻官员,只因苏联要扩展在非洲的势力。

He and Farhiya's mother planned to marry, but a year after Farhiya was born, Somalia went to war with its neighbour, Ethiopia - and the Kremlin sided with Ethiopia.

他和Farhiya的妈妈打算结婚,但在Farhiya出生后的一年,索马里和它的邻居,埃塞俄比亚,发生了战争-但克林姆林宫却支持埃塞俄比亚。

So very soon Somalia expelled Soviet advisers from the country and all Somali students in the USSR, including Farhiya's father, were told to go home.

很快索马里驱逐苏联的顾问,并告知在苏联的留学生返回国,这其中就包括了Farhiya的父亲

"My mum and I were visiting my grandma in Western Siberia when we first heard on radio about the war," she says.

“当我们听到这个战争的消息时,我和我妈妈正在西伯利亚西部看望我的祖母。”她说。

"I remember her telling me later that she immediately knew what this meant for our family, what this meant for my father."

“我还记得后来我母亲告诉我,她说它知道这对我们的家庭意味着什么,同时也对我父亲来说也意味着什么。”

Sharif had 24 hours to pack his bags. With his loved ones away, he couldn't even say goodbye but he left a note with his parents' address in Mogadishu.

Sharif有一天的时间来收拾行李。他甚至不能和他所爱的人说再见,但他在摩加迪沙留下了他父母的地址。

"I knew he did not walk out on us, he had not left us or abandoned us," says Farhiya. "He only left us because of the circumstances."

“我知道他并没有丢下我们,他没有离开我们或者抛弃我们,” Farhiya说。“他只是因为环境而离开我们而已。”

But those circumstances also made it impossible to stay in touch.

但这种战争情况下也很难保持联系。

The family was separated for nearly four decades.

所以这个家庭失去联系将近四十年。

Despite this, Farhiya's childhood was a happy one.

除了这个以外,,Farhiya的童年是快乐的。

"I was surrounded by unconditional love from my mum. Her relatives gave me so much love and care, I felt very special," she says.

“我从小就被妈妈无条件的爱着,她的亲戚们也给了我很多爱和关心,我觉得我很幸运,”她说。

"I was proud of my heritage, was proud of looking different… My classmates, my teachers at school and the university always told me I was special."

“我很自豪我的经历,也很骄傲我是个混血儿,我的同学和老师们也经常告诉我,我是特别的。“

Farhiya always wondered where her father was and what he was like, though.

Farhiya很想知道她父亲在哪里以及他长什么样子。

"The desire to find my dad was always there but it was when I was about 12, I thought to myself I had to do something to find him," she says.

这个找到爸爸的愿望一直跟随着我,在我12岁的时候,我觉得我得为找到爸爸做些什么。”她说。

By this time the political climate had changed - Mikhail Gorbachev's(苏联时期的一位领袖) policy of glasnost(openness) was under way and Farhiya saw nothing to stop her writing to her father.

但这个时候的政治氛围正在改变--米哈伊尔•戈尔巴乔夫的公开性政策正在进行中,Farhiya并不理会而继续写信给她父亲。

But when she sent letters to the address he had left they always bounced back unopened. She didn't know if they even reached Somalia.

但每次她寄过去他父亲留下的地址的信总是没有开封的寄回来。她不知道信件是否到达过索马里。

She contacted organisations in the USSR that helped children find their African fathers and got in touch with the Red Cross, which provided a similar service. But her attempts were fruitless.

她联系了苏联的一个帮助孩子找到非洲父亲的组织,以及提供相同帮助的红十字会。但她的努力总是徒劳的。

"Other Russian children were able to find their parents in other African countries because it was easier. Those countries had diplomatic relationships, embassies and people working in Russia who were going back and forth to African countries. As for Somalia, access was extremely limited," she says.

“一些俄罗斯的孩子很容易就找到了他们在非洲的父亲,因为这些国家有外交关系,大使馆和在俄罗斯工作的人并来回于两国之间的人。但访问索马里却十分受限。”她说。

From time to time she stopped actively searching but she never fully let go of the idea of finding her father.

有时候她会停止积极的寻找他父亲的线索,但在她心里这个想法却从没放弃过。

"It was like trying and failing and then giving up for few years then going back to the search once again and failing again," she says.

“这就像你尝试了后失败了,然后放弃几年后有开始尝试,又再失败一样。”她说。

When Somalia descended into civil war in 1991, that was a huge setback.

当1991年索马里陷入内战,这是一个巨大的挫折。

The war continued for nearly two decades, but as it drew to an end, social networks were beginning to emerge and this gave Farhiya fresh hope.

这场战争持续了将近20年,但是当它结束的时候,社交网络开始出现,这给Farhiya新的希望。

On one Russian social media site, Vkontakte, she came across a woman helping reunite people with parents living abroad, but it turned out to be another dead end.

在俄罗斯的一个叫Vkontakte的社交网页上,她看到有一个女人帮助人们和他们在海外的亲人团聚,但这却变成了死胡同没有结果。

"I wrote to her but she said that if my father was in Somalia she would not be able to help," Farhiya says.

“我告诉那位女士我的经历,但那个女士却表示如果是在索马里的话,她无法提供帮助。”Farhiya说。

Then she started to browse pictures of Somalia on Instagram.

然后开始在INS上浏览索马里的照片。



A lot of the photos she liked were posted by a young Somali man called Deeq who seemed well connected, so she messaged him to see if he could help.

她很喜欢一位叫Deeq的索马里男人所发的照片,所以它联系了那位男士,询问他是否可以提供帮助。

Deeq had cultivated a range of Somali contacts during his years travelling in North America, Europe and the Horn of Africa(索马里也称非洲之角). He also had good contacts in the Somali government from his work at the country's embassy in Dubai.

当Deeq去北美、欧洲和索马里旅游时,他同时也结交了一群在索马里的好朋友。在他工作的迪拜大使馆,他也有认识到索马里的一些朋友。

On 16 March he posted Farhiya's plea(n.请求) on his Facebook page.

在三月16号他将Farhiya的请求放在脸书上。



Comments soon started flooding in, and one from Norway stood out.

评论如狂潮涌来,有一个来自挪威的评论引起注意。

"That's our sister Farhiya," it read.

“这是我的姐姐 Farhiya”写道。

It was written by one of Farhiya's half siblings, living in Oslo(n. 奥斯陆(挪威首都) and her father was staying with her at the time.

这条评论是来自奥斯陆的一个 Farhiya的兄弟姐妹写的。当时 Farhiya的父亲正和她在一起。

A few weeks later, after several Skype calls, Farhiya, her mother and Farhiya's husband travelled to Norway to meet her father.

几周过后,通过几次网络视频电话,Farhiya、她妈妈以及Farhiya的丈夫一起去挪威见他的爸爸。

"He was exactly like I expected him to be," she says. "We walked exactly in the same manner. We talked exactly in the same voice. It was unbelievable - the two of us were together after all this time!"

“他跟我想象的一样”她说,“我们走路的姿势一样,我们说话的声音一样,这简直难以置信--这感觉就像我们一直在一起一样。

She met three of her half-sisters, and a half-brother arrived from Sweden, where her father lives most of the time. A half-uncle also flew to Oslo for the family gathering.

她遇到了她的三个同母异父的妹妹,和一个同父异母的兄弟来自瑞典,她的父亲生活的大部分时间住在瑞典,一位叔叔也飞往奥斯陆的家庭聚会。

Farhiya discovered that her father had been looking for her too.

Farhiya发现他的父亲也在寻找她们母女。

"When we spoke on Skype for the very first time, he told me about his attempts to reach us," she says.

“当我们第一次视频电话,他告诉我他也在试图寻找我们。”她说。

But she and her mother had moved when her mother had married, and Sharif didn't have their new address. And like his daughter, he had run up against problems caused by the breakdown in relations between their two countries.

但当她妈妈再婚时,她们搬到其他地方,所以Sharif 没有她们的新地址。就像他女儿一样,他也遇到过一些由于两国关系造成的寻找失败的问题。

These days Farhiya and her mother talk regularly with Sharif on Skype and another meeting is planned. Next time he may visit St Petersburg.

这些天Farhiya和她妈妈定期的跟Sharif 视频聊天,于此同时另外个见面计划正在进行,下次Sharif 将会来圣彼得堡见她们。

There are many things about her father's life Farhiya has yet to find out, and many things she and her mother want to tell him about the last four decades.

关于她父亲的生活的许多事情Farhiya尚未得知,但她和她妈妈很想告诉她父亲在过去四十年发生的事情。

Fortunately Sharif still remembers the Russian he learned many years ago.

幸运的是,Sharif仍然记得他在俄罗斯留学的事情。

Farhiya is delighted to have discovered an extended family in Scandinavia and Somalia, but sometimes it's hard to take in that her search is finally over.

Farhiya很高兴在斯堪的纳维亚和索马里有一个大家庭,但有时候还是很难相信她已经不用在搜索她父亲的消息了。




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