雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第5章8:法蒂瑪
The only practice we’d had was reading out poems at morning assembly, but there was an older girl at school called Fatima who was a very good speaker. She was beautiful and spoke in an animated way. She could speak confidently in front of hundreds of people and they would hang on her every word. Moniba and I longed to be like her and studied her carefully.
我們唯一練習的機會，就是在早禱的時候朗誦詩歌。我們學校裏有個年紀比較大的學生，她叫法蒂瑪，是個很優秀的演講者。法蒂瑪長得漂亮，演講時更是活潑生動，能在數百人面前自信滿滿地講話，聽衆也會仔細聆聽她說的每一個字。莫妮巴和我都很希望自己能像她一樣，所以我們很仔細地觀察她的一舉一動。
In our culture speeches are usually written by our fathers, uncles or Teachers. They tend to be in English or Urdu, not in our native Pashto. We thought speaking in English meant you were more intelligent. We were wrong, of course. It does not matter what language you choose, the important thing is the words you use to express yourself. Moniba’s speech was written by one of her older brothers. She quoted beautiful poems by Allama Iqbal, our national poet. My father wrote my speech. In it he argued that if you want to do good, but do it in a bad way, that’s still bad. In the same way, if you choose a good method to do something bad it’s still bad. He ended it with Lincoln’s words: ‘it is far more honourable to fail than to cheat’.
在我們的文化中，演講稿往往由父親、叔伯或是老師幫你寫好，通常是用英文或烏爾都語，而不會是我們的母語--普什圖語。我和莫妮巴當時覺得用英文演講能顯得自己比較聰明。這樣的想法當然不對。重點不在於你選擇使用哪一種語言，而是你用了什麼樣的內容來表達你的思想。莫妮巴的講稿是由她的一個哥哥幫她寫的，引用了我們國家的詩人阿拉馬.伊克巴爾美麗的詩句。父親幫我寫了稿子。在稿子裏，他強調：如果你想要做一件好事，但卻要通過不好的方式來達成，就仍是件不好的事。同樣，如果你選了一個好方法來做一件壞事，那麼這仍舊是壞事。他用林肯的話作爲結語：“失敗遠比作弊光榮得多。”
On the day only eight or nine boys and girls turned up. Moniba spoke well – she was very composed and her speech was more emotional and poetic than mine, though mine might have had the better message. I was so nervous before the speech, I was trembling with fear. My grandfather had come to watch and I knew he really wanted me to win the competition, which made me even more nervous. I remembered what my father had said about taking a deep breath before starting, but then I saw that all eyes were on me and I rushed through. I kept losing my place as the pages danced in my shaking hands, but as I ended with Lincoln’s words, I looked up at my father. He was smiling.
演講當天只有八九個同學參加。莫妮巴的演講極好。她表現得很沉穩，而且講稿也遠比我的更富有情感、更具詩意--雖然我的講稿在意義上也許更深遠些。上臺前，我緊張極了，怕得全身顫抖。我的祖父也來了，我知道他真的很希望我能贏得比賽，這讓我更加緊張。我記得父親說過，開始演講前要先深呼吸。但當我看見所有人的眼光都聚集在我身上時，就忘掉了。我陣腳大亂，稿子在我顫抖的手上晃個不停，但當我用林肯說的話做了結語後，我擡頭看向父親，發現他的臉上掛着微笑。
When the judges announced the results at the end, Moniba had won. I came second.
評審最後宣佈名次，莫妮巴得了第一，我則是第二。
It didn’t matter. Lincoln also wrote in the letter to his son’s teacher, ‘Teach him how to gracefully lose.’ I was used to coming top of my class. But I realised that, even if you win three or four times, the next victory will not necessarily be yours without trying – and also that sometimes it’s better to tell your own story. I started writing my own speeches and changing the way I delivered them, from my heart rather than from a sheet of paper.
名次並不重要，因爲林肯在給兒子老師的信裏還寫道：“請教導他如何當個有風度的敗將。”我已經習慣當班上的第一名了，但我發現，就算你已經連續贏了三四次，如果不夠努力，下次的冠軍不見得一定還是你。而且有時候，你自己的故事纔是最好的故事。於是我開始自己寫講稿，並改變演講的方式：不再只是讀稿子，而是讓文字從心裏流出來。 果你選了一個好方法來做一件壞事，那麼這仍舊是壞事。他用林肯的話作爲結語：“失敗遠比作弊光榮得多。”
