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.
桤木树枝在我紧握的手指下扭动，如受惊的蛇一般。父亲看到我想扔掉它。
“抓紧。”
“树枝在蠕动，“我又说一次。”我听到像河流的声音！”
“睁开眼睛，”父亲命令道。
我吃了一惊，好像被他从睡梦中叫醒一样。
“这是怎么回事？”我问父亲。
“这意味着在我们脚下，就在这儿，有个小淡水泉。挖的话，就可以喝到水了。我这是在教你怎么找到泉水。这是我父亲教我的。这些东西你在学校是学不到的。它不是没用的知识：人不用写作和算术都可以生存，但不能没有水。后来，我发现父亲在这里有名的原因是具备人们所说的天赋：每次挖井之前总来咨询他，他们都会看到他勘察田地或山岗，双眼紧闭，双手紧握桤木树杈。父亲每在一个地方停下来，人们就在那里做上记号并在此处挖掘，水流就会从这里涌出。”
很多年过去了，我去了别的学校，看到别的国家。我有了孩子，还出了些书。然而，我可怜的父亲还在地球的一隅，那里他发现了很多淡水。
一次，有人要拍摄关于我们村子和村民的电影，就是从这些村民那里，我听到了自己讲过的很多故事。我们和电影工作者一起去访问一个农民，这是为了拍摄一个悲伤者的形象：他的孩子们不想要他倾注毕生精力为他们准备的遗产--这个地方最好的农场。当技术人员准备好了摄像机和麦克风时，这位农民抓住我的双肩，说：
"我和你父亲很熟。"
"哈，我知道。这个村的人都相互熟悉...没人觉得自己是外人。"
”你知道你脚下是什么吗？“
"地狱？"我笑着问。
"你的脚下是一眼井。挖之前我请来了农业部的专家们，他们进行了研究，分析了一铲土的成分，最后做出的报告是，我的田地里根本没有水。我有一家人要养活，有牲畜要养，
有庄稼要种，我需要水。这时我发现这些专家什么都没有发现。我想到了你父亲，请他过来。他起初不想来，我想他很不高兴，因为我已经请过专家，而没有请他来。但他最后还是来了。他砍了一个小树枝，双眼紧闭地四处走了一会儿，然后停下。他听到了我们听不到的声音，他告诉我："就在这里挖，下面的水足够供你家的牲畜饮用了，也可以淹死你那些专家们。"我们挖了挖，果然挖到了水。很好的根本没被污染的水。"
电影人员准备好了，他们要我开始扮演自己的角色。
"我想跟你说些事，"农民说，"你在这儿等着。"
他走进一个小屋，这应该是他储藏物品的地方，然后，拿着一个树枝出来，并交给我。
“我从来不仍任何东西，一直保存着这个桤木树枝，你父亲用它找到了水。我不明白的是，它一直都没有干。”
我摸着树枝，走动着，心里升起一种难以言喻的虔诚--这种感觉一直没有干枯--我感到父亲的目光越过我的肩头。
我闭上眼睛，站在父亲发现的这眼泉水上，我等着树枝翻腾，希望听到泉水涌出的声音。
手里的树枝一动不动，地下的水也没有欢唱起来。
童年后离开村庄所走过的路的某个地方，我已经忘了父亲教我的知识。
"不要伤心，"他说，无疑地，他在想着自己的农场和童年。“现在的父亲们都不会把知识传给下一代了。”
他把桤木树杈从我手中拿走。
1.Beneath adv. 在下方 prep. 在...之下
例句：
The ship sank beneath the waves.
轮船沉没于波涛下面。
2.wriggle n. 蠕动,蜿蜒 v. 蠕动,蜿蜒前进
例句：
I can't brush your hair if you keep wriggling all the time.
你要是一直扭来扭去, 我就没法给你梳头了.
3.squirm vi. (因不舒适、羞愧或紧张而)蠕动
例句：
He was squirming (around) on the floor in agony.
他躺在地上痛苦地扭动著.
4.arithmetic n. 算术
例句：
I'm good at history but not so hot at arithmetic.
我的.历史成绩不错, 但算术不太好.
5.prospecting n. 勘探
例句：
Great successes were achieved in geological prospecting.
地质调查成果丰硕。
6.bough n. 大树枝
例句：
The bird settled on the topmost bough.
这只鸟儿在最高的权枝上停了下来。
7.gush n. 涌出 v. 使涌出,迸出
例句：
Oil gashed out from the broken pipe.
油从断裂的管道中喷出来。
8.inhabitant n. 居民
例句：
He lives in a city with 100000 inhabitants.
他住在一个有十万居民的城市。
9.inheritance n. 遗传,遗产
例句：
On the maternal side his inheritance was a happy one.
他从母方接受的遗传是良好的。
10.shovelful n. 满铲(一铲的量,一锹的量)
例句：
He put a shovelful of snow in Kate's bed as a practical joke.
他把一铲雪放在凯特的床上，以此来开玩笑。
11.be fed up with 受够了，厌倦
例句：
I am be fed up with this dull life!
我受够了这种枯燥的生活。
12.piety n. 虔诚
例句：
The old man has great piety towards God.
这位老人对上帝非常虔诚。
1.they would watch him prospecting the fields or the hills, eyes closed, hands clenched on the fork of an alder bough.
【参考译文】他们都会看到他勘察田地或山岗，双眼紧闭，双手紧握桤木树杈。
【结构解析】这里用了watch sb. doing sth.意思是“看到某人正在做某事”。“eyes closed, hands clenched...”做“prospecting ”的伴随状语，表示同时发生的动作。
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.
【参考译文】一次，有人要拍摄关于我们村子和村民的电影，就是从这些村民那里，我听到了自己讲过的很多故事。
【结构解析】"its"指的是“my village”。“ from whom I've stolen so many of the stories that I tell”是定语从句，修饰“ inhabitants”。
3.I had the feeling that my father was watching me over my shoulder.
【参考译文】我感到父亲的目光越过我的肩头。
【结构解析】这句话相当于"I feel that my father..."。
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