I knew Mohamed Tahlil as a gentle pirate who oversaw(监督，管理) a team of guards during the first months of my life as a hostage in 2012. I had travelled to Somalia to report on the outbreak(爆发，突然发生) of modern piracy off the coast(在沿海，在近海). On the 10th day, along a dusty road near Galkayo, in the centre of the country, I was kidnapped by pirates. For the next two and a half years, I was a hostage.
我认识的穆罕默德·塔赫利尔是个温和的海盗，2012年我最初成为人质的那几个月里，他负责管理一队看守。我当时去索马里，是为了报道沿海现代海盗活动的爆发。第10天，在该国中部加勒卡约附近一条尘土飞扬的路上，我被海盗绑架。接下来的两年半里，我成了一名人质。
I spent most of my time on a thin, sweat-soaked(被汗水浸透的) foam mattress on the floor of a dusty room. The dim concrete prison houses changed, but the filth(污秽，肮脏) and the circumstances didn’t. Sometimes my captors moved me into the Somali savannah(热带草原) – where we camped in the open(在露天，在户外) and slept on the ground – and for a six-month stretch(连续六个月), I was held on a hijacked(被劫持的) tuna vessel, where I joined 28 fishers from east Asia who had been captured about three weeks before I was placed on board. (They had captured me on land, but they were a pirate gang, organised to capture ships at sea.) In each location, pirate guards would sit around with AK-47s and listen to the radio, or else chew khat(卡特（一种麻醉植物）), a narcotic plant.
我大部分时间都躺在一间尘土飞扬的房间里，地板上铺着一张薄薄的、被汗水浸透的泡沫床垫。昏暗的混凝土囚室换了一处又一处，但污秽和处境始终没变。有时看守会把我转移到索马里大草原——我们在露天扎营，睡在地上——还有连续六个月，我被关在一艘被劫持的金枪鱼船上，和28名东亚渔民关在一起，他们是在我被带上船大约三周前被抓的。（他们是在陆地上抓的我，但他们是一个海盗团伙，专门在海上劫船。）每到一个地方，海盗看守都会拿着AK-47围坐在一起听收音机，或者嚼卡特——一种有麻醉作用的植物。
Tahlil was a skinny(瘦削的), almost cheerful man who spoke little English and swept the junk-littered(堆满垃圾的) yard of his unfinished prison house with a grandmotherly calm. When he came into my room, he would give me his snaggletoothed(牙齿参差不齐的) smile and teach me a few Somali words (for “sun”, “cloud” and so on). He carried rifles but never threatened to shoot me. Tahlil did not seem particularly tough – he would cook and wash dishes alongside lower-ranking guards – but he commanded respect(赢得尊重). I thought of him as a low-ranking guard leader in the vast school of clan pirates(庞大的部落海盗群体) in central Somalia, who ranged from foot soldiers to a handful of top bosses, warlords(军阀) who travelled with armed escorts. Tahlil said the men who had captured me were the “bad group”, while he and his guards were the good group. He promised to keep me safe in “his” house until the real pirates negotiated the ransom(谈判赎金). I heard this kind of thing all the time in Somalia.
塔赫利尔是个瘦削、几乎称得上开朗的人，英语说得很少，打扫他那座未完工的囚室院子里堆满垃圾的场地时，带着祖母般的平静。他进我房间时，会露出参差不齐的牙齿冲我笑，教我几个索马里语单词（比如“太阳”“云”之类）。他背着步枪，但从未威胁要开枪打我。塔赫利尔看起来并不特别强悍——他会和级别较低的看守一起做饭、洗碗——但他很受尊敬。我把他看作索马里中部庞大部落海盗群体中的一名低级看守头目，这个群体从普通士兵到少数几个顶级头目都有，那些军阀出行时带着武装护卫。塔赫利尔说抓我的人是“坏团伙”，而他和他的看守是“好团伙”。他保证在“他的”房子里保护我安全，直到真正的海盗谈妥赎金。在索马里，这类话我听得太多了。