雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第3章1:在學校里長大

3 Growing up in a School

3　在學校里長大

MY MOTHER STARTED school when she was six and stopped the same term. She was unusual in the village as she had a father and brothers who encouraged her to go to school. She was the only girl in a class of boys. She carried her bag of books proudly into school and claims she was brighter than the boys. But every day she would leave behind her girl cousins playing at home and she envied them. There seemed no point in going to school just to end up cooking, cleaning and bringing up children, so one day she sold her books for nine annas, spent the money on boiled sweets and never went back. Her father said nothing. She says he didn’t even notice, as he would set off early every morning after a breakfast of cornbread and cream, his German pistol strapped under his arm, and spend his days busy with local politics or resolving feuds. Besides he had seven other children to think about.

我的母親六歲開始上學，只讀了一個學期便輟學了。她和村裏其他女孩子不同，她的父親和兄弟們都鼓勵她去上學。當時，她的班上都是男生，她是唯一的女孩。她驕傲地揹着書包走進學校，還自稱比男孩子更聰明。但她每天去上學，而表姐妹們則留在家裏玩耍，她們不得不分開，她羨慕她們。她想，如果最後只是爲了要煮飯、打掃和帶小孩，上學又有什麼意義呢？於是，一天，她將課本賣了九個安那[1]，用那些錢買了糖果，就再也沒有回到學校去。她的父親什麼也沒說。她說，外公根本沒有注意到這件事。他每天一大早吃完麪包和奶酪就出門了，手臂下方懸掛着他的德國制手槍，整天忙着和當地政客往來以及解決衝突。再說，他還有其他七個小孩要操心。

It was only when she met my father that she felt regret. Here was a man who had read so many books, who wrote her poems she could not read, and whose ambition was to have his own school. As his wife, she wanted to help him achieve that. For as long as my father could remember it had been his dream to open a school, but with no family contacts or money it was extremely hard for him to realise this dream. He thought there was nothing more important than knowledge. He remembered how mystified he had been by the river in his village, wondering where the water came from and went to, until he learned about the water cycle from the rain to the sea.

一直到她認識了我的父親，母親纔開始感到後悔。這個男人飽讀詩書，爲她寫下一首首她讀不了的詩，而他的夢想則是開辦學校。身爲他的妻子，她希望能幫助丈夫完成夢想。自父親有記憶以來，他的夢想一直都是開辦學校。但因爲不是出身望族，也沒有雄厚資金，他想實現夢想可說是難上加難。父親認爲知識是世界上最重要的東西。他還記得自己當初被村裏的小河弄得有多困惑，一心思考水從哪裏來，又要往哪裏去？直到他學到了從雨水到大海的水循環過程才茅塞頓開。

His own village school had been just a small building. Many of his classes were taught under a tree on the bare ground. There were no toilets and the pupils went to the fields to answer the call of nature. Yet he says he was actually lucky. His sisters – my aunts – did not go to school at all, just like millions of girls in my country. Education had been a great gift for him. He believed that lack of education was the root of all Pakistan’s problems. Ignorance allowed politicians to fool people and bad administrators to be re-elected. He believed schooling should be available for all, rich and poor, boys and girls. The school that my father dreamed of would have desks and a library, computers, bright posters on the walls and, most important, washrooms.

他們村裏的學校是一棟小小的建築，很多堂課都是在樹下的空地上上的。學校裏沒有廁所，同學們要是內急，也只能去田野裏解決。但他仍說自己很幸運。他的姐妹們，也就是我的姑姑們，像我的國家裏數百萬女性一樣，根本沒有上過學。教育對他來說是個恩典。他認爲巴基斯坦一切問題的根源，就是來自於教育的匱乏，使得政客得以愚弄人民，惡劣的官員得以在選舉中連任。他認爲教育應該向所有人開放，不論貧富，不論性別。父親夢想中的學校除了要有書桌和一間圖書館，還有計算機，牆上掛着學習海報，最重要的是，要有洗手間。