雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第16章:悲傷之谷(2)
It was 24 July 2009, a week after our prime minister had announced that the Taliban had been cleared out.
He promised that the gas supply had been restored and that the banks were reopening, and called on the people of Swat to return.
他保證燃氣供給已經恢復，銀行已重新運營，呼籲民衆返回斯瓦特。In the end as many as half of its 1.8 million population had left our valley.
斯瓦特擁有180萬人口，有一半離開了我們的河谷。
From what we could see, most of them weren't convinced it was safe to return.
就我們所知，多數人都不認爲這裏已經安全到可以返回。As we drew close to home we all fell silent, even my little brother, Atal the chatterbox.
離家越近，我們變得愈加沉默，就連總是喋喋不休的小弟弟阿塔爾也一言不發。Our home was near Circuit House, the army headquarters, so we were worried it might have been destroyed in the shelling.
我們家鄰近環形屋——軍方的總部，所以我們很擔心家已經在炮火的攻擊下被摧毀。We'd also heard that many homes had been looted.
我們也聽說很多房屋都被洗劫一空。We held our breath as my father unlocked the gate.
當父親卸下大門的門鎖時，我們都屏息以待。The first thing we saw was that in the three months we'd been away the garden had become a jungle.
我們第一眼看到的，就是離開三個月之後，我們的花園變成了叢林。My brothers immediately rushed off to check on their pet chickens. They came back crying.
我的弟弟們馬上衝去查看他們的寵物雞，回來時滿臉淚痕。All that remained of the chickens was a pile of feathers and the bones of their small bodies entangled as if they had died in an embrace.
兩隻雞留下的只有一堆羽毛和纏繞在一起的小小屍骨，彷彿它們是相擁而死的。They had starved to death.
它們是被餓死的。I felt so sad for my brothers but I had to check on something of my own.
我爲弟弟們感到很難過，但我有自己的東西要確認。To my joy I found my school bag still packed with my books, and I gave thanks that my prayers had been answered and that they were safe.
我的書包和裏面的書本都還在，我很開心。我感謝上天應允了我的請求，讓它們完好無缺。I took out my books one by one and just stared at them.
我把書一本一本拿出來，凝視着它們：Maths, physics, Urdu, English, Pashto, chemistry, biology, Islamiyat, Pakistan studies.
數學、物理、烏爾都語、英語、普什圖語、化學、生物、伊斯蘭米亞特（Islamiyat，伊斯蘭宗教研習。），以及巴基斯坦研究。Finally I would be able to return to school without fear.
我終於能夠無所畏懼地回學校去了。Then I went and sat on my bed. I was overwhelmed.
然後，我走過去坐在自己的牀上，百感交集。
