雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第11章:聰明的班級(19)
One of the worst times was the fasting month of Ramadan in 2008.
2008年的齋月是我記憶中最悽慘的日子。
During Ramadan no food or drink can pass a Muslim’s lips in daylight hours.
齋月期間，穆斯林白天不能吃也不能喝。
The Taliban bombed the power station so we had no electricity, then a few days later they blasted the pipeline so we had no gas either.
塔利班炸掉了發電廠，所以我們斷了電力；沒過幾天，他們又炸燬了輸氣管道，於是我們又沒了燃氣。
The price of the gas cylinders we used to buy from the market doubled so my mother had to cook on a fire like we did in the village.
市場的燃氣桶價格翻了一番，母親只好像我們還住在鄉下時那樣生火燒飯。
She didn’t complain – food needed to be cooked and she cooked it, and there were others worse off than us.
她沒有半句怨言——需要人煮飯她就去煮，還有很多人的日子過得比我們更糟。
But there was no clean water and people started dying from cholera.
由於缺乏乾淨的飲水，人們開始死於霍亂。
The hospital could not cope with all the patients and had to erect big tents outside to treat people.
醫院無法收容所有病人，只好在醫院外搭起大帳篷爲患者治療。
Though we had no generator at home, my father bought one to install at the school, and fresh water was pumped from a bore-hole, which all the children in the neighbourhood went to collect.
父親買了一臺水泵安裝在學校，水泵從地底打出乾淨的清水，附近鄰居的孩子們都來這裏取水。
Every day there would be lines of people waiting to fill jugs, bottles and drums.
每一天，等着用水壺、瓶子或鐵桶打水的人們都會排起長龍。
One of the neighbours got frightened.
對此，有一名鄰居感到很害怕。
‘What are you doing?’ he asked.
你在做什麼？他問，
‘If the Taliban find out you’re giving water in the month of Ramadan they will bomb us!’
如果塔利班發現你在齋月爲大家提供飲水，他們會來把我們都炸死！
