雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第3章12:賠錢

The school continued to lose Money. Months would pass and they could not pay the teachers’ wages or the school rent. The goldsmith kept coming and demanding his money for my mother’s wedding bangles. My father would make him good tea and offer him biscuits in the hope that would keep him satisfied. Hidayatullah laughed. ‘You think he will be happy with tea? He wants his money.’

學校持續在賠錢。幾個月過去了，他們付不出老師的薪水，也沒辦法繳學校的房租。金匠還不斷來家裏，討要當初賣給母親的婚禮手鐲的錢。每次，父親就會泡好茶給他喝，招待他吃餅乾，希望能讓他息怒。希達亞圖拉笑父親說：“你以爲喝杯茶他就會高興了嗎？他想要的是他的錢。”

The situation became so dire that my father was forced to sell the gold bangles. In our culture wedding jewellery is a bond between the couple. Often women sell their jewellery to help set up their husbands in business or to pay their fares to go abroad. My mother had already offered her bangles to pay for my father’s nephew to go to college, which my father had rashly promised to fund – fortunately, my father’s cousin Jehan Sher Khan had stepped in – and she did not realise the bangles were only partly paid for. She was then furious when she learned that my father did not get a good price for them.

當時的情況實在太差了，父親終究不得不把金手鐲賣掉。在我們的文化裏，結婚的珠寶是兩個人結合的象徵。婦女常常會變賣首飾，來幫助先生創業，或支付他們出國的費用。在我父親草率答應要幫助侄子支付大學學費時，我母親已經主動拿出手鐲了。不過那次，父親的親戚雅賈汗.舍爾出手幫助。母親也並不知道買手鐲的錢其實只付清了一部分。當她發現父親賣手鐲換來的錢少了的時候，還大發了一場脾氣。

Just when it seemed matters could not get worse, the area was hit by flash floods. There was a day when it did not stop raining and in the late afternoon there was a warning of flooding. Everyone had to leave the district. My mother was away and Hidayatullah needed my father to help him move everything up to the first floor, safe from the fast-rising waters, but he couldn’t find him anywhere. He went outside, shouting ‘Ziauddin, Ziauddin!’ The search almost cost Hidayatullah his life. The narrow street outside the school was totally flooded and he was soon up to his neck in water. There were live electric cables hanging loose and swaying in the wind. He watched paralysed with fear as they almost touched the water. Had they done so, he would have been electrocuted.

正當一切看起來不能再糟的時候，他們遇上了大洪水。當時，下了一整天的暴雨，接近傍晚時刻，發佈了洪水警報，要求所有人撤離。我的母親出門了，希達亞圖拉需要父親幫忙，好把所有的東西搬到樓上，以免被水淹沒。但他到處都找不到我的父親。他跑到屋外，大喊：“齊亞烏丁！齊亞烏丁！”爲了回頭去找父親，希達亞圖拉差點賠上了性命。學校外面的小路已經完全被淹沒了，很快洪水淹到了他的脖子。還通着電的電纜線垂在風中搖搖晃晃，看到電線幾乎要接觸到水面，希達亞圖拉嚇得動彈不得。如果當時電線觸水，他就會觸電了。