Beneath my clenched fingers the alder was wriggling like a small, frightened snake. My father saw that I was about to drop it.
"Hang on to it!"
“The branch is squirming," I repeated. "And I hear something that sounds like a river!"
"Open your eyes," my father ordered.
I was stunned, as though he'd awakened me while I was dreaming.
"What does it mean?" I asked my father.
"It means that underneath us, right here, there's a little freshwater spring. If we dig, we could drink from it. I've just taught you how to find a spring. It's something my own father taught me. It isn't something you learn in school. And it isn't useless: a man can get along without writing andarithmetic, but he can never get along without water."
Much later, I discovered that my father was famous in the region because of what the people called his "gift": before digging a well they always consulted him; they would watch him prospecting the fields or the hills, eyes closed, hands clenched on the fork of an alder bough. Wherever my father stopped, they marked the ground; there they would dig; and there water would gush forth.
Years passed; I went to other schools, saw other countries, I had children, I wrote some books and my poor father is lying in the earth where so many times he had found fresh water.
One day someone began to make a film about my village and its inhabitants, from whom I've stolen so many of the stories that I tell. With the film crew we went to see a farmer to capture the image of a sad man: his children didn't want to receive the inheritance he'd spent his whole life preparing for them—the finest farm in the area. While the technicians were getting cameras and microphones ready the farmer put his arm around my shoulders, saying:
"I knew your father well."
"Ah! I know. Everybody in the village knows each other... No one feels like an outsider."
"You know what's under your feet?"
"Hell?" I asked, laughing.
"Under your feet there's a well. Before I dug I called in specialists from the Department of Agriculture; they did research, they analyzed shovelfuls of dirt; and they made a report where they said there wasn't any water on my land. With the family, the animals, the crops, I need water. When I saw that those specialists hadn't found any. I thought of your father and I asked him to come over. He didn't want to; I think he was prettyfed up with me because I'd asked those specialists instead of him. But finally came; he went and cut off a little branch, then he walked around for a while with his eyes shut; he stopped, he listened to something we couldn't hear and then he said to me: "Dig right here, there's enough water to get your whole flock drunk and drown your specialist besides." We dug and found water. Fine water that's never heard of pollution.
The film people were ready; they called to me to take my place.
"I'm gonna show you something," said the farmer, keeping me back." You wait right here."
He disappeared into a shack which he must have used to store things, then came back with a branch which he held out to me.
"I never throw nothing away; I kept the alder branch your father cut to find my water. I don't understand, it hasn't dried out."
Moved as I touched the branch, kept out of I don't know what sense of piety—and which really wasn't dry—I had the feeling that my father was watching me over my shoulder; I closed my eyes and, standing above the spring my father had discovered, I waited for the branch to writhe, I hoped the sound of gushing water would rise to my ears.
The alder stayed motionless in my hands and the water beneath the earth refused to sing.
Somewhere along the roads I'd taken since the village of my childhood I had forgotten my father's knowledge.
"Don't feel sorry," said the man, thinking no doubt of his farm and his childhood; "nowadays fathers can't pass on anything to the next generation."
And he took the alder branch from my hands.
榿木樹枝在我緊握的手指下扭動，如受驚的蛇一般。父親看到我想扔掉它。
“抓緊。”
“樹枝在蠕動，“我又說一次。”我聽到像河流的聲音！”
“睜開眼睛，”父親命令道。
我吃了一驚，好像被他從睡夢中叫醒一樣。
“這是怎么回事？”我問父親。
“這意味著在我們腳下，就在這兒，有個小淡水泉。挖的話，就可以喝到水了。我這是在教你怎么找到泉水。這是我父親教我的。這些東西你在學校是學不到的。它不是沒用的知識：人不用寫作和算術都可以生存，但不能沒有水。后來，我發現父親在這里有名的原因是具備人們所說的天賦：每次挖井之前總來咨詢他，他們都會看到他勘察田地或山崗，雙眼緊閉，雙手緊握榿木樹杈。父親每在一個地方停下來，人們就在那里做上記號并在此處挖掘，水流就會從這里涌出。”
很多年過去了，我去了別的學校，看到別的國家。我有了孩子，還出了些書。然而，我可憐的父親還在地球的一隅，那里他發現了很多淡水。
一次，有人要拍攝關于我們村子和村民的電影，就是從這些村民那里，我聽到了自己講過的很多故事。我們和電影工作者一起去訪問一個農民，這是為了拍攝一個悲傷者的形象：他的孩子們不想要他傾注畢生精力為他們準備的遺產--這個地方最好的農場。當技術人員準備好了攝像機和麥克風時，這位農民抓住我的雙肩，說：
"我和你父親很熟。"
"哈，我知道。這個村的人都相互熟悉...沒人覺得自己是外人。"
”你知道你腳下是什么嗎？“
"地獄？"我笑著問。
"你的腳下是一眼井。挖之前我請來了農業部的專家們，他們進行了研究，分析了一鏟土的成分，最后做出的報告是，我的田地里根本沒有水。我有一家人要養活，有牲畜要養，
有莊稼要種，我需要水。這時我發現這些專家什么都沒有發現。我想到了你父親，請他過來。他起初不想來，我想他很不高興，因為我已經請過專家，而沒有請他來。但他最后還是來了。他砍了一個小樹枝，雙眼緊閉地四處走了一會兒，然后停下。他聽到了我們聽不到的聲音，他告訴我："就在這里挖，下面的水足夠供你家的牲畜飲用了，也可以淹死你那些專家們。"我們挖了挖，果然挖到了水。很好的根本沒被污染的水。"
電影人員準備好了，他們要我開始扮演自己的角色。
"我想跟你說些事，"農民說，"你在這兒等著。"
他走進一個小屋，這應該是他儲藏物品的地方，然后，拿著一個樹枝出來，并交給我。
“我從來不仍任何東西，一直保存著這個榿木樹枝，你父親用它找到了水。我不明白的是，它一直都沒有干。”
我摸著樹枝，走動著，心里升起一種難以言喻的虔誠--這種感覺一直沒有干枯--我感到父親的目光越過我的肩頭。
我閉上眼睛，站在父親發現的這眼泉水上，我等著樹枝翻騰，希望聽到泉水涌出的聲音。
手里的樹枝一動不動，地下的水也沒有歡唱起來。
童年后離開村莊所走過的路的某個地方，我已經忘了父親教我的知識。
"不要傷心，"他說，無疑地，他在想著自己的農場和童年。“現在的父親們都不會把知識傳給下一代了。”
他把榿木樹杈從我手中拿走。
1.Beneath adv. 在下方 prep. 在...之下
例句：
The ship sank beneath the waves.
輪船沉沒于波濤下面。
2.wriggle n. 蠕動,蜿蜒 v. 蠕動,蜿蜒前進
例句：
I can't brush your hair if you keep wriggling all the time.
你要是一直扭來扭去, 我就沒法給你梳頭了.
3.squirm vi. (因不舒適、羞愧或緊張而)蠕動
例句：
He was squirming (around) on the floor in agony.
他躺在地上痛苦地扭動著.
4.arithmetic n. 算術
例句：
I'm good at history but not so hot at arithmetic.
我的歷史成績不錯, 但算術不太好.
5.prospecting n. 勘探
例句：
Great successes were achieved in geological prospecting.
地質調查成果豐碩。
6.bough n. 大樹枝
例句：
The bird settled on the topmost bough.
這只鳥兒在最高的權枝上停了下來。
7.gush n. 涌出 v. 使涌出,迸出
例句：
Oil gashed out from the broken pipe.
油從斷裂的管道中噴出來。
8.inhabitant n. 居民
例句：
He lives in a city with 100000 inhabitants.
他住在一個有十萬居民的城市。
9.inheritance n. 遺傳,遺產
例句：
On the maternal side his inheritance was a happy one.
他從母方接受的遺傳是良好的。
10.shovelful n. 滿鏟(一鏟的量,一鍬的量)
例句：
He put a shovelful of snow in Kate's bed as a practical joke.
他把一鏟雪放在凱特的床上，以此來開玩笑。
11.be fed up with 受夠了，厭倦
例句：
I am be fed up with this dull life!
我受夠了這種枯燥的生活。
12.piety n. 虔誠
例句：
The old man has great piety towards God.
這位老人對上帝非常虔誠。
1.they would watch him prospecting the fields or the hills, eyes closed, hands clenched on the fork of an alder bough.
【參考譯文】他們都會看到他勘察田地或山崗，雙眼緊閉，雙手緊握榿木樹杈。
【結構解析】這里用了watch sb. doing sth.意思是“看到某人正在做某事”。“eyes closed, hands clenched...”做“prospecting ”的伴隨狀語，表示同時發生的動作。
2.One day someone began to make a film about my village and its inhabitants, from whom I've stolen so many of the stories that I tell.
【參考譯文】一次，有人要拍攝關于我們村子和村民的電影，就是從這些村民那里，我聽到了自己講過的很多故事。
【結構解析】"its"指的是“my village”。“ from whom I've stolen so many of the stories that I tell”是定語從句，修飾“ inhabitants”。
3.I had the feeling that my father was watching me over my shoulder.
【參考譯文】我感到父親的目光越過我的肩頭。
【結構解析】這句話相當于"I feel that my father..."。
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