福爾摩斯探案集·身份案 第1期:事件的開端(1)
A Case Of Identity
身份案
"My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street,
我同福爾摩斯兩人對坐在貝克街他寓所的壁爐前。他說："老兄，
"life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.
生活比人們所能想象的要奇妙何止千百倍；
We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence.
真正存在的很平常的事情，我們連想也不敢想。
If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city,
假如我們能夠手拉手地飛出那個窗戶，翱翔在這個大城市的上空，
gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on,
輕輕地揭開那些屋頂，窺視里邊正在發(fā)生的不平常的事情：
the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events,
奇怪的巧合、密室的策劃、鬧別扭、以及令人驚奇的一連串的事件，
working through generations, and leading to the most outre results,
它們一代一代地不斷發(fā)生著，導致稀奇古怪的結果，
it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable."
這就會使得一切老一套的、一看開頭就知道結局的小說，變得索然無味而失去銷路。"
"And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered.
我回答說："可是，我并不信。
"The cases which come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and vulgar enough.
報紙上發(fā)表的案件，一般地說，都十分單調，俗不可耐。
We have in our police reports realism pushed to its extreme limits,
在警察的報告里，現實主義到了極點，
and yet the result is, it must be confessed, neither fascinating nor artistic."
必須承認，結果是既不有趣，也無藝術性。"
"A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a realistic effect," remarked Holmes.
福爾摩斯說道："要產生實際的效果必須運用一些選擇和判斷。
"This is wanting in the police report, where more stress is laid,
警察報告里沒有這些，也許重點放到
perhaps, upon the platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details,
地方長官的陳詞濫調上去了，
which to an observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter.
而不是放在觀察者認為是整個事件必不可少的實質的細節(jié)上。
Depend upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace."
毫無疑問，沒有什么象司空見慣的東西那樣不自然的了。"
