雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第5章1:爲什麼我不戴耳環

5 Why I Don’t Wear Earrings and Pashtuns Don’t Say Thank You

5　爲什麼我不戴耳環，爲什麼普什圖人不說“謝謝”

BY THE AGE of seven I was used to being top of my class. I was the one who would help other pupils who had difficulties. ‘Malala is a genius girl, ’ my class fellows would say. I was also known for participating in everything – badminton, drama, cricket, art, even singing, though I wasn’t much good. So when a new girl named Malka-e-Noor joined our class, I didn’t think anything of it. Her name means ‘Queen of Light’ and she said she wanted to be Pakistan’s first female army chief. Her mother was a teacher at a different school, which was unusual as none of our mothers worked. To begin with she didn’t say much in class. The competition was always between me and my best friend Moniba, who had beautiful writing and presentation, which the examiners liked, but I knew I could beat her on content. So when we did the end-of-year exams and Malka-e-Noor came first, I was shocked. At home I cried and cried and had to be comforted by my mother.

我七歲的時候，已經常常是班上的第一名。我會幫助班級裏其他課業有困難的同學。“馬拉拉真是個天才。”同學們常這麼說。我也以踊躍參加所有活動而出名--羽毛球、板球、戲劇、手工，甚至唱歌，雖然我唱得不是很好。所以，當瑪麗克.努爾來到我們班上時，我並沒有太在意。她的名字是“光明女王”的意思，她說她想成爲巴基斯坦第一個女性軍方領導人。她的母親是另一所學校的老師，這很少見，因爲我們其他人的母親都不工作。一開始，她在班上有些沉默寡言。班上總是我和我的好朋友莫妮巴在競爭。莫妮巴很會答題，她的字也很美，這在考試時很吃香，但是我知道我的答題內容可以贏過她。所以當期末考結果是瑪麗克.努爾得到第一名時，我非常震驚。我回家後哭了又哭，連母親都來安慰我。

Around that time we moved away from where we had been living on the same street as Moniba to an area where I didn’t have any friends. On our new road there was a girl called Safina, who was a bit younger than me, and we started to play together. She was a pampered girl who had lots of dolls and a shoebox full of jewellery. But she kept eyeing up the pink plastic pretend mobile phone my father had bought me, which was one of the only toys I had. My father was always talking on his mobile so I loved to copy him and pretend to make calls on mine. One day it disappeared.

大約在那個時候，我們搬離了原來和莫妮巴同住的那條街，來到一個完全陌生的地區，在這我沒有朋友。新家所處的這條街上，有個女孩名叫薩芬娜，年紀比我小一些，我們慢慢地開始玩在一起。她是個集萬千寵愛於一身的女孩，有很多洋娃娃和滿滿一鞋盒的珠寶，但她卻一直很想要父親送我的那支粉紅色塑料玩具手機，那是我唯一的玩具。父親總是在用手機打電話，所以我也很喜歡拿着我的玩具手機學他講電話的模樣。有一天，我的玩具手機不見了。

A few days later I saw Safina playing with a phone exactly the same as mine. ‘Where did you get that?’ I asked. ‘I bought it in the bazaar, ’ she said.

幾天後，我看見薩芬娜拿着一支像極了我的那支玩具手機在玩耍。“你怎麼會有？”我問道。“我在市場買的。”她說。