双语畅销书《我是马拉拉》第9章:电台毛拉(14)

He began building a vast red-brick headquarters in Imam Deri complete with a madrasa, a mosque and walls and levees to protect it from the Swat River.

法兹鲁拉开始在伊满德里以红砖兴建一栋巨大的总部，完工时会有一所伊斯兰学校、一座清真寺、一堵高墙，和防止斯瓦特河泛滥的防洪堤。

No one knew where he got the cement and iron bars from but the workforce was local.

没有人知道他是怎样搞到水泥和钢筋的，但工作都落到当地人的头上。

Every village had to take turns sending their men for a day to help build it.

每一个村落都要轮流送他们的男丁去工地一天，帮忙建造。

One day one of our Urdu teachers, Nawab Ali, told my father, ‘I won’t be coming to school tomorrow.’ When my father asked why, he explained it was his village’s turn to work on Fazlullah’s buildings.

有一天，我们的乌尔都语老师纳瓦.阿里告诉父亲：我明天没办法来学校。父亲问他为什么，他解释说这次轮到他的村落要去帮法兹鲁拉盖房子。

‘Your prime responsibility is to teach the students,’ replied my father.

你最重要的责任是教导这些学生。父亲这么回答他。

‘No, I have to do this,’ said Nawab Ali.

不行，这件事我一定得去做。纳瓦.阿里这样回答。

My father came home fuming.

父亲回到家，气得七窍生烟。

‘If people volunteered in the same way to construct schools or roads or even clear the river of plastic wrappers, by God, Pakistan would become a paradise within a year,’ he said.

如果人民愿意用同样的态度自动自发去盖学校、铺道路，或清理河中的塑料袋，老天啊，巴基斯坦在一年之内会变成天堂，

‘The only charity they know is to give to mosque and madrasa.’

他说，他们唯一知道的善行就是捐款给清真寺和伊斯兰学校。