3 Growing up in a School

3　在学校里长大

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.

我的母亲六岁开始上学，只读了一个学期便辍学了。她和村里其他女孩子不同，她的父亲和兄弟们都鼓励她去上学。当时，她的班上都是男生，她是唯一的女孩。她骄傲地背着书包走进学校，还自称比男孩子更聪明。但她每天去上学，而表姐妹们则留在家里玩耍，她们不得不分开，她羡慕她们。她想，如果最后只是为了要煮饭、打扫和带小孩，上学又有什么意义呢？于是，一天，她将课本卖了九个安那[1]，用那些钱买了糖果，就再也没有回到学校去。她的父亲什么也没说。她说，外公根本没有注意到这件事。他每天一大早吃完面包和奶酪就出门了，手臂下方悬挂着他的德国制手枪，整天忙着和当地政客往来以及解决冲突。再说，他还有其他七个小孩要操心。

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.

一直到她认识了我的父亲，母亲才开始感到后悔。这个男人饱读诗书，为她写下一首首她读不了的诗，而他的梦想则是开办学校。身为他的妻子，她希望能帮助丈夫完成梦想。自父亲有记忆以来，他的梦想一直都是开办学校。但因为不是出身望族，也没有雄厚资金，他想实现梦想可说是难上加难。父亲认为知识是世界上最重要的东西。他还记得自己当初被村里的小河弄得有多困惑，一心思考水从哪里来，又要往哪里去？直到他学到了从雨水到大海的水循环过程才茅塞顿开。

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.

他们村里的学校是一栋小小的建筑，很多堂课都是在树下的空地上上的。学校里没有厕所，同学们要是内急，也只能去田野里解决。但他仍说自己很幸运。他的姐妹们，也就是我的姑姑们，像我的国家里数百万女性一样，根本没有上过学。教育对他来说是个恩典。他认为巴基斯坦一切问题的根源，就是来自于教育的匮乏，使得政客得以愚弄人民，恶劣的官员得以在选举中连任。他认为教育应该向所有人开放，不论贫富，不论性别。父亲梦想中的学校除了要有书桌和一间图书馆，还有计算机，墙上挂着学习海报，最重要的是，要有洗手间。