双语畅销书《我是马拉拉》第20章:谁是马拉拉?(1)
20 Who is Malala?
One morning in late summer when my father was getting ready to go to school he noticed that the painting of me looking at the sky which we had been given by the school in Karachi had shifted in the night.
夏末的一个清晨，父亲正准备出门去学校时，注意到那幅由卡拉奇的一所学校送给我们的，上面画着我注视天空的画像，不知为何，画像的位置斜了。He loved that painting and had hung it over his bed.
他很喜爱那幅画，所以将它挂在他的床头。
Seeing it crooked disturbed him.
看见画上心爱的女儿在自己的眼中扭曲，使他心生不祥的念头。'Please put it straight,' he asked my mother in an unusually sharp tone.
“请帮我把它挂好。”他请我母亲帮忙，声调异常尖锐。That same week our maths teacher Miss Shazia arrived at school in a hysterical state.
在那同一个星期，一天，我们的数学老师夏息雅小姐来到学校时，显得极度惊慌失措。She told my father that she'd had a nightmare in which I came to school with my leg badly burned and she had tried to protect it.
她告诉父亲，她做了一个噩梦，梦中，我来到学校时腿部严重灼伤，而她尽力想保护我。She begged him to give some cooked rice to the poor, as we believe that if you give rice, even ants and birds will eat the bits that drop to the floor and will pray for us.
她恳求父亲煮一些米饭，分发给穷人。因为我们相信，如果你送别人白米，就连蚂蚁或小鸟都能吃到掉在地上的碎屑，因此都会帮我们祈祷。My father gave money instead and she was distraught, saying that wasn't the same.
父亲用金钱取代白米，她见状心绪更加烦乱，坚持说这两种做法的意义根本不同。We laughed at Miss Shazia's premonition, but then I started having bad dreams too.
对夏息雅小姐口口声声说的“预兆”，我们一笑而过，但我也开始做噩梦。I didn't say anything to my parents but whenever I went out I was afraid that Taliban with guns would leap out at me or throw acid in my face, as they had done to women in Afghanistan.
我没有和父母亲们提起过这些梦。但每次出门，我都担心持枪的塔利班会忽然出现在我面前，或者朝我的脸上泼硫酸，他们对阿富汗的女性就是这么做的。I was particularly scared of the steps leading up to our street where the boys used to hang out.
我特别害怕那些通往大街的阶梯，就是那些男孩们过去常常流连的地方，Sometimes I thought I heard footsteps behind me or imagined figures slipping into the shadows.
有时候，我觉得自己听到身后响起脚步声，或觉得恍惚看见人影潜进附近的阴影中。Unlike my father, I took precautions.
跟父亲不同，我严加防备。At night I would wait until everyone was asleep – my mother, my father, my brothers, the other family in our house and any guests we had from our village – then I'd check every single door and window.
晚上，我会等到家中所有人——母亲、父亲、两个弟弟、住在我家里的其他家族成员，以及留宿我家的故人访客——都睡了，然后起身，检查每一扇门窗是否锁紧。I'd go outside and make sure the front gate was locked.
我会走进院子，确定大门已经上锁，接着逐一检查每一个房间。
