Back in the old country
原文
Lesson 57
Back in the old country
Did the narrater find his mother's grave?
I stopped to let the car cool off and to study the map.
I had expected to be near my objective by now, but everything still seemed alien to me.
I was only five when my father had taken me abroad, and that was eighteen years ago.
When my mother had died after a tragic accident, he did not quickly recover from the shock and loneliness.
Everything around him was full of her presence, continually reopening the wound.
So he decided to emigrate.
In the new country he became absorbed in making a new life for the two of us, so that he gradually ceased to grieve.
He did not marry again and I was brought up without a woman's care; but I lacked for nothing, for he was both father and mother to me.
He always meant to go back one day, but not to stay.
His roots and mine had become too firmly embedded in the new land.
But he wanted to see the old folk againand to visit my mother's grave.
He became mortally ill a few months before we had planned to go and, when he knew that he was dying, he made me promise to go on my own.
I hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps,
which I found most helpful on the cross-country journey, but which I did not think I should need on the last stage.
It was not that I actually remembered anything at all.
But my father had described over and over again what we should see at every milestone after leaving the nearest town,
so that I was positive I should recognize it as familiar territory.
Well, I had been wrong, for I was now lost.
I looked at the map and then at the milometer.
I had come ten miles since leaving the town and at this point, according to my father,
I should be looking at farms and cottages in a valley,
with the spire of the church of our village showing in the far distance.
I could see no valley, no farms, no cottages and no church spire-only a lake.
I decided that I must have taken a wrong turning somewhere.
So I drove back to the town and began to retrace the route, taking frequent glances at the map.
I landed up at the same corner.
The curious thing was that the lake was not marked on the map.
I felt as if I had stumbled into a nightmare country, as you sometimes do in dreams.
And, as in a nightmare, there was nobody in sight to help me.
Fortunately for me, as I was wondering what to do next,
there appeared on the horizon a man on horseback, riding in my direction.
I waited till he came near, then I asked him the way to our old village.
He said that there was now no village.
I thought he must have misunderstood me, so I repeated its name.
This time he pointed to the lake.
The village no longer existed because it had been submerged, and all the valley too.
The lake was not a natural one, but a man-made reservoir.
译文
第57课
回到故乡
叙述者找到了母亲的坟墓吗？
我停下来，让车子冷却一下，同时仔细研究地图。
我本以为自己应该已经接近目的地了，但周围的一切依然让我感到陌生。
我五岁的时候，父亲把我带到了国外，那已经是十八年前的事了。
母亲在一次悲剧性的事故中去世后，他久久无法从震惊和孤独中走出来。
他身边的每一样东西都让他想起她，那些回忆不断重新揭开他的伤痛。
于是，他决定移民。
在新的国家里，他全身心地投入到为我们俩创造新生活的过程中，渐渐地，他的悲伤也减轻了。
他再也没有再婚，我在没有女性照顾的环境中长大；不过我并不缺乏什么，因为父亲同时扮演着母亲的角色。
他一直说总有一天会回去，但并不是为了定居。
他的根基和我的根基都已经深深地扎根在这片新的土地上。
但他想再见见那些老朋友，也想去看看我母亲的坟墓。
就在我们计划出发的几个月前，他病入膏肓。当他知道自己时日无多时，他让我答应独自完成这次旅程。
我落地后的第二天就租了一辆车，并买了一本内容详尽的地图册。
这在我长途旅行的过程中确实非常有用，不过我觉得在最后一段旅程中应该并不需要它。
其实我根本什么都不记得了。
但我父亲一遍又一遍地描述过，在离开最近的那个小镇之后，我们在每一个重要的里程碑处应该看到什么。
这样我就能肯定自己会认出这片熟悉的地方。
好吧，我错了——因为我现在真的迷路了。
我先看了看地图，然后又看了看里程表。
自从离开小镇后，我已经走了十英里。据我父亲说，
我本应看到山谷里的农场和小屋，
远处，我们村庄教堂的尖顶清晰可见。
我看不到任何山谷、农场、小屋，也没有教堂的尖塔——只有一片湖泊。
我意识到自己肯定在某个地方走错了路（即选择了错误的方向或路径）。
于是我开车回到了镇上，开始沿着原来的路线返回，同时不时地查看地图。
结果我又回到了同一个路口。
奇怪的是，这个湖泊在地图上根本没有标注。
我感觉自己仿佛闯入了一个噩梦般的国度——就像在梦中有时会遇到的那样。
就像在噩梦中一样，周围根本没有人能够帮助我。
幸运的是，就在我思考接下来该做什么的时候……
地平线上出现了一个骑马的人，他正朝我的方向走来。
我等他走近后，便向他打听去我们老村庄的路。
他说，那个村庄现在已经不存在了。
我以为他一定误解了我的意思，于是我又重复了一遍那个名字。
这次他指向了那个湖泊。
那个村庄已经不存在了——因为它被水淹没了，整个山谷也都消失了。
那个湖泊并不是天然的，而是一个人工建造的水库。