雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第11章:聰明的班級(15)

The destruction of schools continued.

對學校的破壞行動仍在繼續。

On the night of 7 October 2008 we heard a series of faraway blasts.

2008年10月7日晚上，我們聽見爆炸聲陸續從遠方傳來。

The next morning we learned that masked militants had entered the Sangota Convent School for girls and the Excelsior College for boys and blown them up using improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

直到第二天早上，我們才知道蒙面的武裝分子入侵了桑戈塔女子修道學院和伊克塞爾希爾學院，並利用土製炸彈炸燬了這兩所學校。

The teachers had already been evacuated as they had received threats earlier.

老師們稍早即收到警告，因此事發當時已全部撤離。

These were famous schools, particularly Sangota, which dated from the time of the last wali and was well known for academic excellence.

這兩所都是名校，尤其是桑戈塔，它的歷史可追溯至末代瓦利當政時期，並以其學術上的卓越而著稱。

They were also big – Excelsior had over 2,000 pupils and Sangota had 1,000.

它們的規模也很大——伊克塞爾希爾學院有兩千名學生，桑戈塔則是一千名。

My father went there after the bombings and found the buildings completely razed to the ground.

爆炸案發生後，我父親前往探訪，發現兩所學校的建築物都被徹底夷爲平地。

He gave interviews to TV reporters amid broken bricks and burned books and returned home horrified.

他在斷瓦焦礫中接受電視記者的訪問，回到家時恐懼萬分。

‘It’s all just rubble,’ he said.

那裏只剩下廢墟。他說。

Yet my father remained hopeful and believed there would be a day when there was an end to the destruction.

不過，父親仍滿懷希望，並相信終有一天，這些破壞行動將會停止。