Long long ago people didn’t
know anything. They didn’t
know how to plant crops, or
how to weave cloth, or how to
make iron tools.
The god Nyame up in the sky
had all the wisdom of the world.
He kept it safe in a clay pot.
很久很久以前，人们什么都不知道。
他们不知道怎么耕田织布，也不知道怎么制造铁器。
天上的尼亚美神把世界所有的智慧都藏在一个砂锅里面。
One day, Nyame decided that
he would give the pot of
wisdom to Anansi.
Every time Anansi looked in the
clay pot, he learned something
new. It was so exciting!
有一天，尼亚美决定把藏有智慧的砂锅交给蜘蛛神阿南西。
每当阿南西揭开砂锅往里看，他就会学到新的东西。他感到很兴奋！
Greedy Anansi thought, “I’ll
keep the pot safe at the top of a
tall tree. Then I can have it all
to myself!”
He spun a long thread, wound it
round the clay pot, and tied it to
his stomach.
He began to climb the tree. But
it was hard climbing the tree
with the pot bumping him in the
knees all the time.
贪心的阿南西跟自己说，
“我把砂锅安放在树顶上，那样所有的智慧就都只属于我了！”
所以，他织出了一条长长的丝线，把砂锅牢牢地拴住，然后把丝线的另一端系在自己的肚子上。
他开始往那棵树上爬，
可是砂锅总是撞到他的腿，爬起来很辛苦。
All the time Anansi’s young son
had been standing at the
bottom of the tree watching. He
said, “Wouldn’t it be easier to
climb if you tied the pot to your
back instead?”
Anansi tried tying the clay pot
full of wisdom to his back, and it
really was a lot easier.
阿南西的儿子在树底下看到了一切。
他跟阿南西说，“把砂锅扛在背上不就容易了吗？”
于是阿南西就试着把砂锅扛在背上，果然容易很多。
In no time he reached the top of
the tree.
But then he stopped and
thought, “I’m supposed to be
the one with all the wisdom,
and here my son was cleverer
than me!”
Anansi was so angry about this
that he threw the clay pot down
out of the tree.
阿南西很快就爬到树顶上。
可是他突然想到一个问题：
“拥有所有智慧的人应该是我，可是刚才我儿子居然比我还聪明！”
阿南西气得差点跳起来了，一气之下竟把砂锅扔到树下。
It smashed into pieces on the
ground. The wisdom was free
for everyone to share.
And that is how people learned
to farm, to weave cloth, to
make iron tools, and all the
other things that people know
how to do.
砂锅一落地就碎成小片。
砂锅碎了，所有的智慧也跑了出来，大家可以自由分享了。
就是这样，世上的人们才学会如何耕田、如何织布，如何打铁做铁器，还有所有现在人会做的一切。
