雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第3章6:猶豫

My father went to see the building after work. It was a perfect night with stars and a full moon just above the trees, which he took to be a sign. ‘I felt so happy, ’ he recalls. ‘My dream was coming true.’

雖然有些猶豫，父親下班後還是決定去看一下那棟建築。那天晚上夜色十分美好，星光璀璨，明亮的滿月掛在樹梢上。父親認爲這是個好兆頭。“我覺得好快樂，”他回憶道，“我的夢想要成真了。”

Naeem and my father invested their entire savings of 60, 000 rupees. They borrowed 30, 000 rupees more to repaint the building, rented a shack across the road to live in and went from door to door trying to find students. Unfortunately the demand for English tuition turned out to be low, and there were unexpected drains on their income. My father’s involvement in political discussions continued after college. Every day his fellow activists came to the shack or the school for lunch. ‘We can’t afford all this entertaining!’ Naeem would complain. It was also becoming clear that while they were best friends, they found it hard to work as business partners.

納伊姆和父親投入了所有積蓄，大概有六萬盧比。他們還借了三萬盧比，將房子重新粉刷，並在對街租了一棟棚屋來住。然後，便開始挨家挨戶地招生。不幸的是，學英文的需求並不高，而且他們有許多預期外的支出，很快便榨乾了他們的收入。從大學畢業後，父親持續投入政治探討活動。每天，他的這些活動夥伴都會來到棚屋裏或是學校裏吃午餐。“我們招待不起這些人！”納伊姆對此抱怨道。漸漸地，他們也發現，即便是最好的朋友，也未必能成爲生意的夥伴。

On top of that, there was a stream of guests from Shangla now that my father had a place for them to stay. We Pashtuns cannot turn away relatives or friends, however inconvenient. We don’t respect privacy and there is no such thing as making an appointment to see someone. Visitors can turn up whenever they wish and can stay as long as they want. It was a nightmare for someone trying to start a business and it drove Naeem to distraction. He joked to my father that if either of them had relatives to stay, they should pay a fine. My father kept trying to persuade Naeem’s friends and family to stay so he could be fined too!

除此之外，因爲父親在這裏有了可以落腳的地方，香拉縣開始不斷有許多朋友來訪。不論有多不方便，我們普什圖人都不能拒絕任何親戚或朋友。我們不在乎隱私，也沒有來訪前事先預約的習慣。訪客可以隨性地不請自來，想待多久就待多久。這對剛開始創業的人來說，簡直是場噩夢，也快把納伊姆逼瘋了。他開玩笑地說，如果他們兩人之中有誰的親戚來過夜，就要交一筆罰款。我父親便一直說服納伊姆的朋友和家人來過夜，好讓他也被罰一筆！