双语畅销书《我是马拉拉》第6章4:扩校
日期:2016-08-05 14:17

(单词翻译:单击)

The school had expanded a lot by then and had three buildings – the original one in Landikas was a primary school, and then there was a high school for girls on Yahya Street and one for boys with a big garden of roses near the remains of the Buddhist temple. We had about 800 students in total, and although the school was not really making money, my father gave away more than a hundred free places. One of them was to a boy whose father, Sharafat Ali, had helped my father when he was a penniless college student. They were friends from the village. Sharafat Ali worked at the electricity company and he would give my father a few hundred rupees whenever he could spare them. My father was happy to be able to repay his kindness. Another was a girl in my class called Kausar, whose father embroidered clothes and shawls – a trade our region is famous for. When we went on school trips to visit the mountains, I knew she couldn’t afford them so I would pay for her with my pocket money.

那时候,学校已经扩校了,有三栋建筑——兰蒂卡斯的那栋建筑现在是小学部,一栋女子高中在亚亚街上,还有一栋给男生念的学校,有着长满玫瑰的花园,就在庙宇废墟的附近。我们总共大概有八百名学生。虽然学校没有真的赚钱,父亲还是让一百多名学生免费就读。其中一个免费就读的男孩的父亲夏拉法特·阿里,曾在我父亲是个穷困的大学生时帮助过他。他们是村里认识的朋友。夏拉法特·阿里在电力公司工作,只要他有多余的钱,就会给我父亲几百卢比。父亲很高兴能够回报他当初的善心。还有一个和我同班的女孩卡萨,她的父亲在做布料和披肩刺绣生意,这是我们地区很有名的一项工艺品。我们要去山上郊游时,我知道她没有钱参加,就会用我的零用钱帮她缴费。

Giving places to poor children didn’t just mean my father lost their fees. Some of the richer parents took their children out of the school when they realised they were sharing classrooms with the sons and daughters of people who cleaned their houses or stitched their clothes. They thought it was shameful for their children to mix with those from poor families. My mother said it was hard for the poor children to learn when they were not getting enough food at home so some of the girls would come to our house for breakfast. My father joked that our home had become a boarding house.

让穷人家的孩子来念书,不只是会让我父亲收不到学费而已。有些有钱人家的父母发现自己的小孩与家里的清洁工或补衣工的小孩同班,就不让自己的孩子继续来上学了。他们觉得自己的孩子和穷人家的小孩混在一起是很丢脸的事。我的母亲说,家里贫穷的孩子如果没吃饱,就很难好好学习,所以有些女孩会来我们家吃早餐。父亲笑称我们家已经变成寄宿家庭了。

Having so many people around made it hard to study. I had been delighted to have my own room, and my father had even bought me a dressing table to work on. But now I had two other girls in the room. ‘I want space!’ I’d cry. But then I felt guilty as I knew we were lucky. I thought back to the children working on the rubbish heap. I kept seeing the dirty face of the girl from the dump and continued to pester my father to give them places at our school.

家里一直都有这么多人,变得很难专心读书。我本来很高兴有自己的房间,父亲甚至买了张梳妆桌给我念书用。但现在我得和另外两个女孩共享一个房间。“我需要自己的空间!”我会这样大喊。但我马上就会觉得很愧疚,因为我知道我们已经很幸运了。我回想起那些在垃圾山捡垃圾的孩子,垃圾山那个女孩肮脏的脸孔一直出现在我脑海里,于是我便不断催促父亲去让他们来学校免费上课。

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