【前情提要：回到美国的摩顿森并没有忘记自己对科尔飞村长哈吉·阿里做出的筹建学校的承诺。他写了580封募捐信，寄给那些看起来很有影响力、很受欢迎或是很重要的人物，但收获甚微。不过随后，摩顿森还是遇到了他生命中的“贵人”——美籍瑞士物理学家、拥有剑桥大学学位的吉恩·霍尔尼。霍尔尼给了摩顿森一万两千美元的捐助，带着用霍尔尼捐助的款项购买的材料和自己的承诺，几经辗转，摩顿森回到了科尔飞村。科尔飞小学正式动工。】
Three Cups of Tea (Excerpt II)
I tried to be a tough but fair 1)taskmaster,” Mortenson says. “I spent all day at the construction site, from sunrise to sunset, using my 2)level to make sure the walls were even and my 3)plumb line to check that they were standing straight. I always had my notebook in my hand, and kept my eyes on everyone, anxious to account for every 4)rupee. I didn’t want to disappoint 5)Jean Hoerni, so I drove people hard.”
我努力扮演严格公正的工头角色。”摩顿森说，“我整天待在工地，从早忙到晚，用水平线确定墙砌得够平，用铅垂线量它们够不够直。我手里一直拿着笔记本，眼睛盯着每个人，费心思量，一块卢比也不能浪费。我不想让霍尔尼失望，所以我把大家逼得很紧。”
One clear afternoon at the beginning of August, Haji Ali tapped Mortenson on the shoulder at the construction site and asked him to take a walk. The old man led the former climber uphill for an hour, on legs still strong enough to 6)humble the much younger man. Mortenson felt precious time slipping away, and by the time Haji Ali halted on a narrow ledge high above the village, Mortenson was 7)panting. Haji Ali waited until Mortenson caught his breath, then instructed him to look at the view. The air had the fresh-scrubbed clarity that only comes with altitude. Beyond Korphe K2, the ice peaks of the inner 8)Karakoram 9)knifed 10)relentlessly into a 11)defenseless blue sky. A thousand feet below, Korphe, green with ripening barley fields, looked small and vulnerable, a life raft adrift on a sea of stone.
八月初一个晴朗的午后，哈吉·阿里在工地拍了拍摩顿森的肩头，邀他一起去散步。老人带着摩顿森往上走了一个小时，脚劲好得让比他年轻几十岁的美国人自叹弗如，但摩顿森却觉得宝贵的时间正在一点一滴地流逝。当哈吉·阿里最终在可以俯瞰村子的狭窄岩架上停下来时，摩顿森已经气喘吁吁。哈吉·阿里静待摩顿森喘过气来，让他看看眼前的景色。空气是高山上特有的清新，远在科尔飞乔戈里峰之外，喀喇昆仑山脉内层的冰峰直刺蓝天。千米之下的科尔飞，逐渐成熟的大麦田一片翠绿，但看起来那么渺小脆弱，仿佛漂浮在岩石海洋中的生命之舟。
Haji Ali reached up and laid his hand on Mortenson’s shoulder. “These mountains have been here a long time,” he said. “And so have we.” He reached for his rich brown 12)lambswool topi, the only symbol of authority Korphe’s nurmadhar ever wore, and centered it on his silver hair. “You can’t tell the mountains what to do,” he said, 13)with an air of 14)gravity that 15)transfixed Mortenson as much as the view. “You must learn to listen to them. So now I am asking you to listen to me. You have done much for my people, and we appreciate it. But now you must do one more thing for me.”
哈吉·阿里伸手放在摩顿森的肩上。“这些山在这里已经很久了，”他说，“我们也一样。”说着，他拿出唯一象征科尔飞村长权威的棕色羊毛“托比帽”，戴在银白的发丝上。“你不能指令大山去做什么。”他语调中的严肃把摩顿森震慑住了，一如眼前的景色。“你必须学会聆听它们。所以我也请你听我说。你为我的村民做了很多，我们很感激。但是现在你得再为我做一件事。”
“Anything,” Mortenson said.
“Sit down. And shut your mouth,” Haji Ali said. “You’re making everyone crazy.”
“我愿意做任何事情，”摩顿森说。
“坐下，不要说话。”哈吉·阿里说，“你把大家都快逼疯了。”
“Then he reached out and took my plumb line, and my level and my account book, and he walked back down to Korphe,” Mortenson says. “I followed him all the way to his house, worrying about what he was doing. He took the key he always kept around his neck on a leather 16)thong, opened a cabinet decorated with faded Buddhist wood carvings, and locked my things in there, alongside a 17)shank of 18)curing 19)ibex, his prayer beads, and his old British 20)musket gun. Then he asked Sakina to bring us tea.”
“然后他伸手把我的铅垂线、水平仪、账簿全都拿走了，快步走回科尔飞。”摩顿森回忆道，“我跟着他走回屋里，不知道他到底想做什么。他脖子上一直戴着一个皮串，上头挂了一把钥匙。他用钥匙打开一个褪了色的佛像木雕柜子，把我的东西锁在里头。里面放的都是重要的东西，有一只腌野山羊腿、他的念珠，还有他那把旧式英国滑膛枪。然后他叫莎奇娜给我们备茶。”
Mortenson waited nervously for half an hour while Sakina 21)brewed the paiyu cha. Haji Ali ran his fingers along the text of the 22)Koran that he cherished above all his belongings, turning pages randomly and mouthing almost silent Arabic prayer as he stared out into inward space. When the porcelain bowls of 23)scalding butter tea steamed in their hands, Haji Ali spoke. “If you want to thrive in 24)Baltistan, you must respect our ways,” Haji Ali said, 25)blowing on his bowl. “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die,” he said, laying his hand warmly on Mortenson’s own. “Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time.”
在莎奇娜煮“白玉茶”的半个小时里，摩顿森坐立不安地等待着，哈吉·阿里则手捧着他最宝贝的《古兰经》，随意翻动着，专心沉浸在内心世界里，默念着祷词。装着滚烫酥油奶茶的瓷碗在他们手中冒着热气，哈吉·阿里终于开了口。“如果你想在巴尔蒂斯坦如鱼得水，你就得尊重我们的方式。”哈吉·阿里边说边吹着他碗中的茶，“当你第一次跟巴尔蒂人喝茶的时候，你是一个陌生人；第二次，你就是我们的贵客；第三次你再和我们一起喝茶，就已经是我们的家人了，而为了我们的家人，我们会无怨无悔地做任何事，甚至是死。”他把温暖的手搭在摩顿森的手上。“葛瑞格医生，你必须花时间去喝这三杯茶。我们或许没受过什么教育，但是我们并不笨，我们已经在这里生存居住了很久。”
“That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I’ve ever learned in my life,” Mortenson says. “We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We’re the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills. Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them.”
“那一天，哈吉·阿里教了我这一生中最重要的一堂课。”摩顿森说，“我们美国人认为必须尽快把事情做完，我们是个三十分钟解决午餐、两分钟完成橄榄球训练的国家。哈吉·阿里教我要花时间喝完三杯茶，把速度放慢，像重视盖学校一样，重视和大家之间的关系。他给我上了宝贵的一课，让我知道从跟我一起工作的人身上，我还有太多东西要学，而不应该自以为是，总想着教给他们什么。”
Three weeks later, with Mortenson 26)demoted from 27)foreman to spectator, the walls of the school had risen higher than the American’s head and all that remained was putting on the roof.
摩顿森从工头降级为旁观者，三个星期后，学校的墙已经砌得比他的头还高，只差把屋顶盖上去。
…
【历尽艰辛，1997年8月初，科尔飞学校竣工。葛瑞格·摩顿森带着妻子塔拉和不满一岁的女儿阿蜜拉·摩顿森重返科尔飞参加开学典礼。随行的人还有中亚协会（Central Asia Institute，简称CAI）理事珍妮弗·威尔森和茱莉亚·柏格曼等。珍妮弗和茱莉亚花了好几个月的时间收集书籍，准备帮科尔飞建一所图书馆。学校的每间教室里都放了几十张全新的桌椅，地上还铺了地毯，免得冬天时孩子们的脚受冻。有史以来头一次，科尔飞的孩子们可以坐在坚固的教室里，开始每天固定的学习……】
Jahan and her classmate Tahira, the Korphe School’s first two female graduates, had come to Skardu together, as two of the CAI’s first harvest of scholarship students. And on his last day in Skardu, when Mortenson stopped by with Jahan’s father, Twaha, to inquire about the girls’ progress, Jahan took pride in preparing tea for him herself, as her grandmother Sakina had so often done. While Mortenson sipped the Lipton Tea, brewed, not from handfuls of torn leaves and 28)rancid 29)yak milk, but from tap water and bags bought in Skardu’s 30)bazaar, he wondered what Sakina would have made of it. He imagined she would prefer her paiyu cha. Of her granddaughter, he was certain, she would be very proud. 31)Courtesy of the CAI, both Jahan and Tahira were taking a full complement of classes at the private Girls’ Model High School, including English grammar, formal 32)Urdu, Arabic, physics, economics, and history.
嘉涵和她的同学泰希拉是科尔飞学校毕业的首批女学生，也是第一批拿到中亚协会奖学金前往斯卡都进修的学生。摩顿森离开斯卡都的前一天，他和嘉涵的父亲塔瓦哈一起去探望两个女孩，嘉涵开心地帮他泡茶，就像祖母莎奇娜生前经常做的那样。喝着立顿茶包冲的茶，不是用茶叶煮的茶，也没有带酸味儿的牦牛奶，而是用自来水和从斯卡都集市上买来的茶包冲泡出来的茶，摩顿森忍不住想，不知莎奇娜会怎么说，或许她还是比较喜欢“白玉茶”。不过可以肯定的是，她一定会以孙女为荣。在中亚协会的资助下，嘉涵和泰希拉在斯卡都私立女子模范高中读完了所有课程，包括英语语法、规范的乌尔都语、阿拉伯语、物理、经济学和历史。
Tahira told Mortenson that once she graduated, she planned to return to Korphe and teach alongside her father, Hussein. “I’ve had this chance,” she said. “I think every girl of the Braldu deserves the chance to come downside at least once. Then their life will change. I think the greatest service I can perform is to go back and insure that this happens for all of them.” Jahan, who had come to Skardu planning to become a simple health worker and return to Korphe, was in the process of revising her goals upward. “Before I met you, Dr. Greg, I had no idea what education was,” Jahan said, refilling his teacup. “But now I think it is like water. It is important for everything in life.”
泰希拉告诉摩顿森，毕业后她打算回科尔飞陪父亲侯赛因一起教书。“能有这样的学习机会我很幸运。”她说，“我想布劳渡河谷的每个女孩儿都应至少有一次出来的机会，这样，她们的生活会发生改变。我想我能做的最伟大的事就是回到山上去，确保每个女孩子都有这样的机会。”原本计划在斯卡都接受基本的医护培训后就回科尔飞工作的嘉涵，现在有了更远大的目标。“葛瑞格医生，在遇到你之前，我对教育一点儿概念都没有，”嘉涵边说边帮摩顿森加茶，“但现在我认为教育就像水一样，对生命中的所有事物都很重要。”
“What about marriage?” Mortenson asked, knowing that a nurmadhar’s daughter would always be 33)in demand, especially a pretty girl of seventeen, and a Balti husband might not support his 34)brash young wife’s ambitions.
“那么嫁人的事呢?”摩顿森问，他知道村长的女儿永远都是君子好逑，特别是一位漂亮的17岁女孩儿。不过，一位巴尔蒂丈夫可能不会支持年轻妻子野心勃勃的求学大计。
“Don’t worry, Dr. Greg,” Twaha said, laughing in the 35)rasping fashion that he’d inherited from Haji Ali. “The girl has learned your lesson too well. She has already made it clear she must finish her studies before we can even discuss marrying her to a suitable boy. And I agree. I will sell all my land if necessary so she can complete her education. I owe that to the memory of my father.”
“别担心，葛瑞格医生，”塔瓦哈用他遗传自哈吉·阿里的尖利声音笑着说，“这女孩儿跟你学到家了，她已经说得很明白，一定要在她完成学业之后，我们才能讨论她该嫁给哪个适合的男孩儿。我也同意了，就算卖地也会让她完成学业，以纪念我的父亲。”
“So what will you do?” Mortenson asked Jahan.
“You won’t laugh?” she said.
“I might,” Mortenson teased.
“将来你打算做什么?”摩顿森问嘉涵。
“你答应不要笑话我。”她说。
“还真不好说。”摩顿森开起了玩笑。
Jahan took a breath and 36)composed herself. “When I was a little sort of girl and I would see a gentleman or a lady with good, clean clothes I would run away and hide my face. But after I graduated from the Korphe School, I felt a big change in my life. I felt I was clear and clean and could go before anybody and discuss anything. And now that I am already in Skardu, I feel that anything is possible. I don’t want to be just a health worker. I want to be such a woman that I can start a hospital and be an executive, and look over all the health problems of all the women in the Braldu. I want to become a very famous woman of this area,” Jahan said, 37)twirling the 38)hem of her 39)maroon silk headscarf around her finger as she peered out the window, searching for the exact word with which to 40)envision her future. “I want to be a…‘Superlady,’ ” she said, grinning 41)defiantly, daring anyone, any man, to tell her she couldn’t.
嘉涵吸了一口气，整理着思绪。“小时候，我看到穿着光鲜干净衣服的先生或女士就会跑开，把自己的脸藏起来。但从科尔飞学校毕业后，我感到自己的生活有了很大的改变。我觉得自己头脑清楚，外表也很整洁，可以走到任何人面前跟他们讨论任何事情。现在我已经在斯卡都，我觉得生活充满了各种可能性。我不想只做一名医护人员。我想成为这样一位女性，盖一所医院，成为一名主管，照看整个布劳渡河谷妇女的健康。我想成为这个地区一位非常有名的女性。”嘉涵说道，一边用手指缠着暗紫红丝织头巾的一角，一边望着窗外思索着用哪些合适的词语来展望自己的未来。“我想成为一名……‘女强人’，”她叛逆地笑着说道，仿佛在挑战任何一个说她不行的人。
Mortenson didn’t laugh after all. Instead, he beamed at the bold granddaughter of Haji Ali and imagined the contented look that would have been on the old nurmadhar’s face if he had lived long enough to see this day, to see the seed they planted together 42)bear such splendid fruit. Five hundred and eighty letters, and ten years of work was a small price to pay, Mortenson thought, for such a moment.
摩顿森没有笑话她。相反，他对着哈吉·阿里那勇敢的孙女微笑，想象着老村长如果能活到今日，脸上一定会露出满意的笑容。当初他们一起种下的种子，如今已结出丰硕的果实。五百八十封信，十年的努力，这些辛苦都微不足道。摩顿森想着，就为了眼前这一刻。
