雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第3章14:好運
But not immediately. On Pakistan’s fiftieth anniversary on 14 August 1997 there were parades and commemorations throughout the country. However, my father and his friends said there was nothing to celebrate as Swat had only suffered since it had merged with Pakistan. They wore black armbands to protest, saying the celebrations were for nothing, and were arrested. They had to pay a fine they could not afford.
但好運並沒有即刻降臨。1997年8月14日，巴基斯坦的第五十個國慶節這天，全國上下都舉行了遊行和慶祝活動。然而，父親和他的朋友們卻抗議這種慶祝。他們認爲，斯瓦特自從併入巴基斯坦後，就一直在過苦日子。他們戴上黑色臂章以示抗議，並說慶祝活動根本沒有意義。結果，他們被逮捕，還要付一筆沒人付得起的罰金。
A few months after I was born the three rooms above the school became vacant and we all moved in. The walls were concrete and there was running water so it was an improvement on our muddy shack, but we were still very cramped as we were sharing it with Hidayatullah and we almost always had guests. That first school was a mixed primary school and very small. By the time I was born it had five or six teachers and around a hundred pupils paying a hundred rupees a month.
我出生幾個月後，學校樓上有了三間空房，於是我們搬了進去。房子是水泥牆，也有了自來水，與之前的棚屋相比，環境算是改善了，但因爲我們跟希達亞圖拉一起分租，加上幾乎天天都有訪客，屋裏仍舊非常擁擠。一開始，學校規模很小，是所混合式的小學。到我出生的時候，學校裏有五六位老師，近百位學生，每人每月付一百盧比的學費。
My father was teacher, accountant and principal. He also swept the floors, whitewashed the walls and cleaned the bathrooms. He used to climb up electricity poles to hang banners advertising the school, even though he was so afraid of heights that when he got to the top of the ladder his feet shook. If the water pump stopped working, he would go down the well to repair it himself. When I saw him disappear down there I would cry, thinking he wouldn’t come back. After paying the rent and salaries, there was little money left for food. We drank green tea as we could not afford milk for regular tea. But after a while the school started to break even and my father began to plan a second school, which he wanted to call the Malala Education Academy.
我父親是老師、會計，也是校長。他也擦地、粉刷牆壁和洗廁所。他還會爬上電線杆懸掛爲學校做招生宣傳的布條--雖然他很怕高，每次爬到頂端時總是兩腿發抖。如果抽水機壞了，他也要爬進井裏修好機器。每次我看到他消失在井裏，就會大哭，覺得他不會再回來了。每個月，付了房租、發完薪水，買食物的錢所剩無幾。我們喝不起加了牛奶的茶，所以我們都喝綠茶。一段時間之後，學校終於開始收支平衡，父親開始考慮開辦第二所學校，名字他都取好了，就叫“馬拉拉教育學院”。
