A Lean Little Spring 泉水潺潺

约翰·斯坦贝克(John Steinbeck)

High in the gray stone mountains, under a frowning peak, a little spring bubbled out of a rupture in the stone. It was fed by shade-preserved snow in the summer, and now and then it died completely and bare rocks and dry algae were on its bottom. But nearly always it gushed out, cold and clean and lovely. In the times when the quick rains fell, it might become a freshet and send its column of white water crashing down the mountain cleft, but nearly always it was a lean little spring. It bubbled out into a pool and then fell a hundred feet to another pool, and this one, overflowing, dropped again, so that it continued, down and down, until it came to the rubble of the upland, and there it disappeared altogether. There wasn't much left of it then anyway, for every time it fell over an escarpment the thirsty air drank it, and it splashed from the pools to the dry vegetation .

- frown [fraʊn] v. 皱眉;(事物)显得险恶

- rupture [ˈrʌptʃə] n. 破裂，裂开

- freshet [ˈfreʃɪt] n. 小溪；山洪(积雪、大雨形成)

- escarpment [ɪˈskɑːpmənt] n. 陡斜坡，悬崖

- vegetation [ˌvedʒɪˈteɪʃn] n. 植物，草木

在高高的灰色石山之中，在凹凸的山顶之下，一股小山泉从石缝中潺潺冒出。泉水来自夏日阴影保存下来的积雪，它偶尔完全干涸，现出光秃秃的岩石和长了藻类的泉底。不过泉水几乎总是汩汩涌出，凉丝丝，清澈澈，很可爱。在急雨猛降的时候，它变成一股洪水，把白色的水柱沿着山间石缝哗哗地冲刷下去，但是几乎总是一眼瘦小的小山泉。它漂着水花流入一个小水池，接着直泄而下，达上百英尺，流进另一个水池，这个水池满了再往外溢，再落下，不停地往下流呀，流呀，一直流到一片高地上的碎石堤坝，在那里消失得无影无踪。反正那里没有什么泉水留下了，因为山泉在高地上流过一个斜坡，干渴的空气就吸去水分，也从水池中溅落在干燥的植物上被吸收。

约翰·斯坦贝克(1902—1968)，美国小说家，在加利福尼亚州出生长大，1962年诺贝尔文学奖得主。作品有《金杯》(Cup of Gold ，1929)，《天堂牧场》(The Pastures of Heaven ，1932)，《献给一位不知名的神》(To a God Unknown ，1933)，这些早期作品未引起注意。《煎饼房》(Tortilla Flat ，1935)获成功，此外还有《人鼠之间》(Of Mice and Men ，1937)，《愤怒的葡萄》(The Graps of Wrath ，1939，获普利策奖)，这些是他的杰作。