1705001235

1705001236 ● she did not know之宾语是两个“that”clauses。

1705001237

1705001238 ● 末一句照语法惯例，应加引号。Mark my word之my是Catherine自道。them boards…和them nails…之them并非宾格，而等于指示形容词these。boards：木板。年代过久，铁钉已松，触之似能出入自如，犹如小虫，故Catherine担忧木屋将垮。

1705001239

1705001240 ● gonna=going to：将要。bust=burst：打破。皆为美国土话。don’t I know it：我岂不知之哉？我知道得很清楚。（don’t之前，标点原文缺。）

1705001241

1705001242 Storing our provisions in the tree-house, we separated into the woods, each carrying a grain sack to be filled with herbs, leaves, strange roots. No one, not even Catherine, knew altogether what went into the medicine, for it was a secret Dolly kept to herself, and we were never allowed to look at the gatherings in her own sack: she held tight to it, as though inside she had captive a blue-haired child, a bewitched prince.

1705001243

1705001244 ● provisions：食品，即上文所述之煎鸡等等。separated：分头出发。

1705001245

1705001246 ● what went into the medicine：Dolly的药是什么东西配成的。go这一类常见的动词，用法颇多，学者宜随时留意。

1705001247

1705001248 ● Doily kept to herself是定语从句，关系代名词which省掉。

1705001249

1705001250 ● gatherings：搜集所得。tight（副词）=firmly。captive（形容词）=held as a prisoner，此处作objective complement。

1705001251

1705001252 ● blue-haired child：蓝发童，指不常见的怪物。bewitched prince：中了魔法的王子。西洋童话中，常有王子因为魔法作祟变形易体，化作怪物。Dolly的袋里的东西总不让别人看，好像捉住什么怪物似的。

1705001253

1705001254 This was her story: “Once, back yonder when we were children there were gipsies thick as birds in blackberry patch…not like now, maybe you see a few straggling through each year. They came with spring: sudden, like the dogwood pink, there they were—up and down the road and in the woods around. Then one evening, it was April and falling rain, I went out to the cowshed where Fairybell had a new little calf; and there in the cowshed were three gipsy women, two of them old and one of them young, and the young one was lying naked and twisting on the corn-shucks. When they saw that I was not afraid, one of the old women asked would I bring a light. So I went to the house for a candle, and when I came back the woman who had sent me was holding a red hollering baby upside down by its feet, and, the other woman was milking Fairybell. I helped them wash the baby in the warm milk and wrap it in a scarf. Then one of the old women took my hand and said:

1705001255

1705001256 ● 本段乃Dolly自叙秘方之由来。

1705001257

1705001258 ● back yonder：很多年前。yonder本代表空间之“远”，此处代表时间之“远”。thick：因人数多，密集而成“厚”。patch：一块地。种黑莓之地上，鸟雀常群集，当年吉卜赛人（gipsies）人数众多，亦复类彼。straggling：三三两两地走过。maybe是副词，may与be之间不分。

1705001259

1705001260 ● pink：石竹（花名）。dogwood pink恐为pink之一种，入春怒放；而吉卜赛人于春季亦突然大群出现，如石竹花焉。

1705001261

1705001262 ● it was April and falling rain：此从句插入以说明时间，与全句结构无关。cowshed：牛棚。Fairybell：母牛名。had a new little calf：新添一犊。corn-shucks：玉蜀黍外面的包壳，是牛的饲料。twisting：辗转反侧，临盆前阵痛之象。

1705001263

1705001264 ● would I bring a light：照语法书上规定，应作whether I would bring a light。

1705001265

1705001266 ● who had sent me：定语从句，刚才差我走的（那个女人）。hollering：大声叫喊的。red：初生婴儿的颜色。holding upside down by its feet：握着脚，倒提着。milking：挤奶。

1705001267

1705001268 ● wash和wrap都是infinitives，前面的to省略。在help之后，infinitive的to常常省略。warm milk：才挤出来的奶，故温暖。scarf：围巾。

1705001269

1705001270 “Now I am going to give you a gift by teaching you a rhyme. It was a rhyme about evergreen bark, dragonfly fern—and all the other things we come here in the woods to find: Boil till dark and pure if you want a dropsy cure. In the morning they were gone; I looked for them in the fields and on the road; there was nothing left of them but the rhyme in my head.”

1705001271

1705001272 ● rhyme：韵文，口诀。吉卜赛老妪为谢其照料之恩，乃授以药方口诀。第一句是吉卜赛人语，用现在式，第二句又是Dolly本人的口气了，用过去式。

1705001273

1705001274 ● fern：羊齿植物。dragonfly fern为羊齿植物之一种。we come here…to find：定语从句。草药的其他成分，Dolly秘而不宣，即以all the other things概括。

1705001275

1705001276 ● 斜体字为口诀之一部分，注意pure与cure押韵。采得各种药草之后，加水煮沸，煎到色呈乌黑，杂质去尽为止。dropsy：水肿病。cure：特效药。

1705001277

1705001278 Calling to each other, hooting like owls loose in the daytime, we worked all morning in opposite parts of the woods. Towards afternoon, our sack fat with skinned bark, tender, torn roots, we climbed back into the green web of the China tree and spread the food. There was good creek water in a mason jar, or if the weather was cold a thermos of hot coffee, and we wadded leaves to wipe our chicken-stained, fudge-sticky fingers. Afterwards, telling fortunes with flowers, speaking of sleepy things, it was as though we floated through the afternoon on the raft in the tree; we belonged there, as the sunsilvered leaves belonged, the dwelling whippoorwills.

1705001279

1705001280 ● owls：猫头鹰。它们的叫鸣英文称为hoot。loose（形容词）：飞出来了。

1705001281

1705001282 ● skin（动词）：剥皮。skinned bark：剥下的树皮。tender（鲜嫩的）和torn（撕断的）都是形容roots。green web：楝树枝叶繁茂，如绿色之网。

1705001283

1705001284 ● jar：缸。mason jar是玻璃所制，本为贮藏蔬菜鲜果之用，这里盛水（mason是纪念发明人的名字）。creek：溪涧。thermos：暖瓶，即俗称热水瓶。a thermos跟句首there was而来。if the weather was cold是状语从句。wadded：捏成小块。sticky：粘性的。wipe：抹拭。

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