双语畅销书《我是马拉拉》第20章:谁是马拉拉?(8)

We were grateful to the army but couldn't understand why they were still everywhere, in machine-gun nests on roofs and manning checkpoints.

我们对军方心存感激，但无法理解为什么军人仍随处可见：他们在屋顶上架设机枪，或置身于检查哨之中。

Even to enter our vAlley people needed official permission.

人们甚至需要官方的许可，才能进入我们的河谷。

The road up the small hill is usually busy as it is a short cut but that day it was strangely quiet.

开上小丘的道路通常是繁忙拥塞的，因为那是条捷径。但是那天，却异常安静。

'Where are all the people?' I asked Moniba.

“人们都到哪儿去了？”我问莫妮巴。

All the girls were singing and chatting and our voices bounced around inside the bus.

所有的女孩都在唱歌、聊天，巴士里充斥着我们的声音。

Around that time my mother was probably just going through the doorway into our school for her first lesson since she had left school at age six.

在那个时间点，我母亲大概刚穿过大门进入学校。这是她自从六岁辍学，第一次再度进入学校上课。

I didn't see the two young men step out into the road and bring the van to a sudden halt.

我没有看见那两名站在马路上、迫使巴士紧急停车的男子，

I didn't get a chance to answer their question, 'Who is Malala?'

也没有机会回答他们的问题：“谁是马拉拉？”

or I would have explained to them why they should let us girls go to school as well as their own sisters and daughters.

因此，我没有机会跟他们解释为什么他们应该让我们这些女孩，以及他们自己的姐妹与女儿去学校接受教育。

The last thing I remember is that I was thinking about the revision I needed to do for the next day.

我记得，当时我脑海中正在想的，是为第二天考试要进行的复习。

The sounds in my head were not the crack, crack, crack of three bullets,

我记忆中最后的声音不是那三颗子弹带来的“砰、砰、砰”，

but the chop, chop, chop, drip, drip, drip of the man severing the heads of chickens, and them dropping into the dirty street, one by one.

而是那斩鸡头的男人所发出的“咚、咚、咚”，“嘀、嘀、嘀”的声音。那些鸡头坠落在肮脏的街道上，一颗，接着一颗。