阿来

Alai (1959-), ethnic Tibetan Chinese writer, awarded Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2000 for his novel 塵埃落定|尘埃落定[Chen2 ai1 luo4 ding4] "Red Poppies"

to come / to arrive / to come round / ever since / next

abbr. for Afghanistan 阿富汗[A1 fu4 han4]

prefix used before monosyllabic names, kinship terms etc to indicate familiarity / used in transliteration / also pr. [a4]

flatter

(literary) to flatter; to curry favor with