雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第3章3:集會點
My uncle was more dutiful. He liked the hilly people and respected their tough lives. So he went to the school most days and actually tried to teach the children. After my father had graduated from school he had nothing to do so he volunteered to help his brother. There his luck changed. Another of my aunts had married a man in that village and they had a relative visiting called Nasir Pacha, who saw my father at work. Nasir Pacha had spent years in Saudi Arabia working in construction, making money to send back to his family. My father told him he had just finished school and had won a college place at Jehanzeb. He did not mention he could not afford to take it as he did not want to embarrass his father.
我大伯就負責任多了。他喜歡山裏的人，並且敬佩他們在艱苦環境中求生的能力。所以他大多數時候都會去學校，並認真地去教育這些孩子。父親畢業後沒有什麼事情做，便自願去學校裏幫助他的哥哥。這時候，父親的好運到了。我的一位姑姑嫁到了學校所在的那個村子。一天，姑丈的一個名叫納西爾.帕恰的親戚來拜訪他。納西爾.帕恰長年在沙特阿拉伯的建築業工作，賺了很多錢寄回來給家裏的人。父親在閒談中提及自己剛畢業，並且被傑哈茲布大學錄取，但他沒有提及自己因無法負擔生活費而不得不放棄學業，因爲他不想丟祖父的臉。
‘Why don’t you come and live with us?’ asked Nasir Pacha.
“你何不來跟我們一起住呢？”納西爾.帕夏問道。
‘Oof, I was so happy, by God, ’ says my father. Pacha and his wife Jajai became his second family. Their home was in Spal Bandi, a beautiful mountain village on the way to the White Palace, and my father describes it as a romantic and inspirational place. He went there by bus, and it seemed so big to him compared to his home village that he thought he’d arrived in a city. As a guest, he was treated exceptionally well. Jajai replaced his late mother as the most important woman in my father’s life. When a villager complained to her that he was flirting with a girl living across the road, she defended him. ‘Ziauddin is as clean as an egg with no hair, ’ she said. ‘Look instead to your own daughter.’
"“噢，天哪，我簡直太高興了！”父親說。帕恰和他的太太潔雅的家成爲父親的第二個家。他們住在絲帕班迪，一座美麗的山村，位於通往白城堡的路上。父親形容那裏是個既浪漫又令人充滿想象力的地方。父親搭公交車到了那裏，發現與自己的村子相比，那裏實在大得不得了。他覺得自己好像來到了都市。帕恰夫婦對待父親非常好。潔雅取代了父親剛剛去世的母親的地位，成爲他生命中最重要的女性。當一位村民抱怨父親跟對街的女孩調情時，潔雅護着父親，她說：“齊亞烏丁單純得像張白紙一樣，你該注意的是你的女兒。”
It was in Spal Bandi that my father came across women who had great freedom and were not hidden away as in his own village. The women of Spal Bandi had a beautiful spot on top of the mountain where only they could congregate to chat about their everyday lives. It was unusual for women to have a special place to meet outside the home. It was also there that my father met his mentor Akbar Khan, who although he had not gone to college himself lent my father money so he could. Like my mother, Akbar Khan may not have had much of a formal education, but he had another kind of wisdom. My father often spoke of the kindness of Akbar Khan and Nasir Pacha to illustrate that if you help someone in need you might also receive unexpected aid.
到了絲帕班迪，父親才認識到女性有權力獲得自由，而在他的家鄉，女人只能被藏在家裏。絲帕班迪的婦女在山頂上有個美麗的集會點，她們會聚在那裏聊日常瑣事。女性在家以外有一個和朋友們會面的特定場所，是非常罕見的事。也就是在那裏，父親遇見了他的導師--阿克巴.汗。雖然他的導師本身沒有念過大學，但他借錢給我父親，幫助他求學。阿克巴.汗沒有接受過正規的教育，卻擁有另一種的智慧。這點和我的母親很像。父親常常提到阿克巴.汗和納西爾.帕恰，向我說明：如果你在別人需要的時候伸出援手，那麼你可能也會得到意料之外的收穫。
My father arrived at college at an important moment in Pakistan’s history. That summer, while he was walking in the mountains, our dictator General Zia was killed in a mysterious plane crash, which many people said was caused by a bomb hidden in a crate of mangoes. During my father’s first term at college national elections were held, which were won by Benazir Bhutto, daughter of the prime minister who had been executed when my father was a boy. Benazir was our first female prime minister and the first in the Islamic world. Suddenly there was a lot of optimism about the future.
父親入讀大學時，正好是巴基斯坦歷史上很重要的一年。那年夏天，當他往返在山間小道上，齊亞.哈克將軍在一次神祕的飛機失事中喪生了。很多人說失事的原因是藏在杧果貨櫃裏的炸彈爆炸所致。父親上大學的第一個學期，國內舉行了選舉，貝.布托贏得了大選。她的父親就是布托總理。貝.布托是巴基斯坦首位女性總理，也是伊斯蘭教世界裏的首位女性總理。突然之間，未來看似一片光明。
