雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第4章2:出發的前一晚
The night before we hardly slept because we were so excited. The journey usually took about five hours as long as the road had not been washed away by rains or landslides, and the Flying Coach left early in the morning. We struggled to Mingora bus station, our bags laden with gifts for our family – embroidered shawls and boxes of rose and pistachio sweets as well as medicine they could not get in the village. Some people took sacks of sugar and flour, and most of the baggage was tied to the top of the bus in a towering pile. Then we crammed in, fighting over the window seats even though the panes were so encrusted with dirt it was hard to see out of them. The sides of Swat buses are painted with scenes of bright pink and yellow flowers, neon-orange tigers and snowy mountains. My brothers liked it if we got one with F-16 fighter jets or nuclear missiles, though my father said if our politicians hadn’t spent so much money on building an atomic bomb we might have had enough for schools.
出發的前一晚，我們都會興奮得幾乎睡不着覺。這段路途，如果道路沒有被大水沖毀或被山崩掩埋，搭車大概需要五個小時。飛行巴士一大早就上路了。我們一路困難地挪動，來到明戈拉的車站。大小包裹裏塞滿給親戚的禮物--刺繡披肩、一盒盒的玫瑰、甜的開心果，和他們在村裏買不到的藥品。有些人甚至搬來一袋袋的麪粉和糖。大多數的行李都綁在車頂上，堆得像一座小山。然後，我們擠進車裏，想盡辦法搶佔靠窗的位置--雖然那些玻璃覆滿灰塵，難以看到外面。斯瓦特的公交車側面漆着亮粉紅色和黃色的花朵，熒光橘的老虎和覆蓋着白雪的高山圖樣。我的弟弟們特別喜歡搭乘畫着F16戰鬥機和核彈的公交車。但每當此時，父親就會說，如果政客們少花點錢製造原子彈，就有更多的錢撥給學校了。
We drove out of the bazaar, past the grinning red mouth signs for dentists, the carts stacked with wooden cages crammed with beady-eyed white chickens with scarlet beaks, and jewellery stores with windows full of gold wedding bangles. The last few shops as we headed north out of Mingora were wooden shacks that seemed to lean on each other, in front of which were piles of reconditioned tyres for the bad roads ahead. Then we were on the main road built by the last wali, which follows the wide Swat River on the left and hugs the cliffs to the right with their emerald mines. Overlooking the river were tourist restaurants with big glass windows we had never been to. On the road we passed dusty-faced children bent double with huge bundles of grass on their backs and men leading flocks of shaggy goats that wandered hither and thither.
我們駛離市場，經過牙醫廣告牌那張大大的嘴巴；經過裝滿雞籠的推車，籠裏擠滿了白雞，有小小的眼睛和鮮紅的雞冠；經過櫥窗裏擺滿結婚用的黃金手鐲的珠寶店。在我們往北方要駛離明戈拉的路上，最後幾間店是木造的棚屋，歪歪斜斜地倚靠在一起，前面堆着修補過的舊輪胎，是爲前方路況很差的道路做準備的。接下來，我們就開上最後一任瓦利修的公路了。沿路右面是寬闊的斯瓦特河，左面則是富含翡翠礦脈的峭壁。沿着河邊，是一間間爲觀光客而開的餐廳，有着明亮的大玻璃窗--我們從未光顧過其中任何一間。路上，我們還會看見扛着一大捆草，駝着背、灰頭土臉的孩子，還有牧羊人，趕着一羣髒兮兮又愛脫隊的山羊。
