雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第6章4:擴校
The school had expanded a lot by then and had three buildings – the original one in Landikas was a primary school, and then there was a high school for girls on Yahya Street and one for boys with a big garden of roses near the remains of the Buddhist temple. We had about 800 students in total, and although the school was not really making money, my father gave away more than a hundred free places. One of them was to a boy whose father, Sharafat Ali, had helped my father when he was a penniless college student. They were friends from the village. Sharafat Ali worked at the electricity company and he would give my father a few hundred rupees whenever he could spare them. My father was happy to be able to repay his kindness. Another was a girl in my class called Kausar, whose father embroidered clothes and shawls – a trade our region is famous for. When we went on school trips to visit the mountains, I knew she couldn’t afford them so I would pay for her with my pocket money.
那時候，學校已經擴校了，有三棟建築——蘭蒂卡斯的那棟建築現在是小學部，一棟女子高中在亞亞街上，還有一棟給男生唸的學校，有着長滿玫瑰的花園，就在廟宇廢墟的附近。我們總共大概有八百名學生。雖然學校沒有真的賺錢，父親還是讓一百多名學生免費就讀。其中一個免費就讀的男孩的父親夏拉法特·阿里，曾在我父親是個窮困的大學生時幫助過他。他們是村裏認識的朋友。夏拉法特·阿里在電力公司工作，只要他有多餘的錢，就會給我父親幾百盧比。父親很高興能夠回報他當初的善心。還有一個和我同班的女孩卡薩，她的父親在做布料和披肩刺繡生意，這是我們地區很有名的一項工藝品。我們要去山上郊遊時，我知道她沒有錢參加，就會用我的零用錢幫她繳費。
Giving places to poor children didn’t just mean my father lost their fees. Some of the richer parents took their children out of the school when they realised they were sharing classrooms with the sons and daughters of people who cleaned their houses or stitched their clothes. They thought it was shameful for their children to mix with those from poor families. My mother said it was hard for the poor children to learn when they were not getting enough food at home so some of the girls would come to our house for breakfast. My father joked that our home had become a boarding house.
讓窮人家的孩子來念書，不只是會讓我父親收不到學費而已。有些有錢人家的父母發現自己的小孩與家裏的清潔工或補衣工的小孩同班，就不讓自己的孩子繼續來上學了。他們覺得自己的孩子和窮人家的小孩混在一起是很丟臉的事。我的母親說，家裏貧窮的孩子如果沒吃飽，就很難好好學習，所以有些女孩會來我們家吃早餐。父親笑稱我們家已經變成寄宿家庭了。
Having so many people around made it hard to study. I had been delighted to have my own room, and my father had even bought me a dressing table to work on. But now I had two other girls in the room. ‘I want space!’ I’d cry. But then I felt guilty as I knew we were lucky. I thought back to the children working on the rubbish heap. I kept seeing the dirty face of the girl from the dump and continued to pester my father to give them places at our school.
家裏一直都有這麼多人，變得很難專心讀書。我本來很高興有自己的房間，父親甚至買了張梳妝桌給我念書用。但現在我得和另外兩個女孩共享一個房間。“我需要自己的空間！”我會這樣大喊。但我馬上就會覺得很愧疚，因爲我知道我們已經很幸運了。我回想起那些在垃圾山撿垃圾的孩子，垃圾山那個女孩骯髒的臉孔一直出現在我腦海裏，於是我便不斷催促父親去讓他們來學校免費上課。
