亚美尼亚人善于讲故事,即使威廉·萨洛扬家自祖辈即已移居美国,但家庭里却还保持这一传统,他的祖母便是一位地地道道的民谣寓言家。从摇篮开始,老祖母就给萨洛扬灌注了异乎寻常的诗意梦境。等萨洛扬长大成人,他就开始了他的笔墨生涯。我读萨洛扬的小说,始自四十年代初,那时偶然在重庆西路口一家旧书铺里,见到一本他写的《我的名叫阿兰姆》,信手翻来,见其文字清新,便买了下来。想不到我从此竟与这美籍的亚美尼亚作家结了不解缘,陆续 Armenians are good at telling stories. Even though William Salouyang’s family has emigrated to the United States since the ancestors, but the family still maintains this tradition, his grandmother is an outspoken folklore parable. From the cradle, the old grandmother infuses Sarovin with an exotic poetic dream. When Salou Yang grew up, he began his pen and ink career. I read Salouyang’s novels from the early 1940s when I accidentally saw a copy of his name, Aralam, written by an old bookstore at the junction of Chongqing’s western section. Fresh, they bought it. I can not imagine that I actually became acquainted with this American Armenian writer, one after another