领略原汁原味汉英对照经典名作
红圈会
      “WELL, Mrs. Warren, I cannot see that you have any particular cause for uneasiness, nor do I understand why I, whose time is of some value, should interfere in the matter. I really have other things to engage me.” So spoke Sherlock Holmes and turned back to the great scrapbook in which he was arranging and indexing some of his recent material. But the landlady had the pertinacity and also the cunning of her sex. She held her ground firmly.
      “You arranged an affair for a lodger of mine last year,” she said—“Mr. Fairdale Hobbs.”
      “Ah, yes—a simple matter.”
      “But he would never cease talking of it—your kindness, sir, and the way in which you brought light into the darkness. I remembered his words when I was in doubt and darkness myself. I know you could if you only would.”
      Holmes was accessible upon the side of flattery, and also, to do him justice, upon the side of kindliness. The two forces made him lay down his gum-brush with a sigh of resignation and push back his chair.
      “Well, well, Mrs. Warren, let us hear about it then. You don’t object to tobacco, I take it? Thank
      you, Watson—the matches! You are uneasy, as I understand, because your new lodger remains in his rooms and you cannot see him. Why, bless you, Mrs. Warren, if I were your lodger you often would not see me for weeks on end.”
      “No doubt, sir, but this is different. It frightens me, Mr. Holmes. I can’t sleep for fright. To hear his quick step moving here and moving there from early morning to late at night, and yet never to catch so much as a glimpse of him—it’s more than I can stand. My husband is as nervous over it as I am, but he is out at his work all day, while I get no rest from it. What is he hiding for? What has he done? Except for the girl, I am all alone in the house with him, and it’s more than my nerves can stand.”
      Holmes leaned forward and laid his long, thin fingers upon the woman’s shoulder. He had an almost hypnotic power of soothing when he wished. The scared look faded from her eyes, and her agitated features smoothed into their usual commonplace. She sat down in the chair which he had indicated.
      “If I take it up I must understand every detail,” said he. “Take time to consider. The smallest point may be the most essential.
      You say that the man came ten days ago and paid you for a fortnight’s board and lodging?”
      “He asked my terms, sir. I said fifty shillings a week. There is a small sitting-room and bedroom, and all complete, at the top of the house.”
      “Well?”
      “He said, ‘I’ll pay you five pounds a week if I can have it on my own terms.’ I’m a poor woman, sir, and Mr. Warren earns little, and the money meant much to me. He took out a tenpound note, and he held it out to me then and there. ‘You can have the same every fortnight for a long time to come if you keep the terms,’ he said. ‘If not, I’ll have no more to do with you.’ ”
      “What were the terms?”
      “Well, sir, they were that he was to have a key of the house. That was all right. Lodgers often have them. Also, that he was to be left entirely to himself and never, upon any excuse, to be disturbed.”
      “Nothing wonderful in that, surely?”
      “Not in reason, sir. But this is out of all reason. He has been there for ten days, and neither Mr. Warren, nor I, nor the girl has once set eyes upon him. We can hear that quick step of his pacing up and down, up and down, night, morning, and noon; but except on that first night he has never once gone out of the house.”
      “Oh, he went out the first night, did he?”
      “Yes, sir, and returned very late—after we were all in bed. He told me after he had taken the rooms that he would do so and asked me not to bar the door. I heard him come up the stair after midnight.”
      “But his meals?”
      “It was his particular direction that we should always, when he rang, leave his meal upon a chair, outside his door. Then he rings again when he has finished, and we take it down from the same chair. If he wants anything else he prints it on a slip of paper and leaves it.”
      “Prints it?”
      “Yes, sir, prints it in pencil. Just the word, nothing more. Here’s one I brought to show you—soap. Here’s another— match. This is one he left the first morning— daily gazette. I leave that paper with his breakfast every morning.”
      “Dear me, Watson,” said Holmes, staring with great curiosity at the slips of foolscap which the landlady had handed to him, “this is certainly a little unusual. Seclusion I can understand; but why print? Printing is a clumsy process. Why not write? What would it suggest, Watson?”


中文翻译  

      “呃，沃伦太太，我看您并没有什么非担心不可的理由，而我也看不出来，我这么个
时间也算宝贵的人干吗要掺和这件事情。不瞒您说，我真的还有其他事情要办。”说到这里，歇洛克·福尔摩斯回过头去，继续整理他那本硕大的剪贴簿，为他新近收集的各种材料编制索引。不过，这位女房东不光是性子执拗，而且不欠缺女性特有的巧妙手腕。她顽强地坚守着自己的阵地。
      “去年的时候，您还帮我的一个房客办过事呢，”她说道——“我是说费尔戴尔·霍布斯先生。”
      “是的，没错——小事而已。”
      “可他总把那件事情挂在嘴上——说您的心肠多么多么的好，先生，又说您扫清迷雾的本领多么多么的高超。所以啊，等到我自个儿陷进迷雾的时候，我就想起了他的话。我知道您肯定有办法帮我，只要您愿意就成。”
福尔摩斯架不住恭维，还有呢，替他说句公道话，也架不住别人劝他行善的恳求。两种力量合在一起，他无可奈何地叹了一声，放下手里的胶水刷子，把自个儿的椅子往后挪了挪。
      “好啦，好啦，沃伦太太，把您的事情说来听听吧。
按我看，您应该不反对我抽烟吧？麻烦你，华生——火柴！我没理解错的话，您之所以担心，是因为您的新房客一直待在自己的房间里，您看不见他。咳，上帝保佑您，沃伦太太，您那个房客要是跟我一样的话，一连几个星期不露面也是常事。”
      “那是当然，先生，不过，这一回的情形可不一样。这事情把我吓得够戗，福尔摩斯先生，吓得我夜里睡不着觉。我光是听见他在房里急急忙忙地走来走去，从清早走到深夜，但却连他的影子也瞧不见——这样的情形真让我受不了。我丈夫跟我一样，也被这件事情弄得非常紧张，可他白天好歹要去外面上班，我却得一刻不停地遭受折磨。他到底在躲什么？他干过些什么事情？除了那个帮忙的小姑娘之外，整座屋子里就只有他跟我，这样的情形真让我吃不消啦。”
      福尔摩斯探身向前，把瘦长的手指搭在了这个女人的肩头。只要他想，他总是能够施放几近催眠的安抚力量。这么着，女人眼里的惊恐神色渐渐消失，紧张的面容也放松下来，恢复了素日里的平凡模样。紧接着，她在福尔摩斯指给她的那把椅子上坐了下来。
      “既然接下了这件事情，我就得知道所有的细节，”福尔摩斯说道，“您不用着急，想好了再说。最细小的事情兴许就是最关键的地方。您刚才说，这个人是十天之前来的，预付了两个星期的食宿费，对吗？”
      “他问我房钱怎么算，先生，于是我跟他说，每周五十先令，出租的是顶楼的一间卧房，带一个小小的起居室，所有东西都齐。”
      “然后呢？”
      “他说，‘我可以给你每周五镑，可你得按我的规矩来办。’我是个穷苦女人，先生，沃伦先生挣得也很少，这笔租金对我来说很重要。紧接着，他掏出一张十镑的票子，当场递到了我的面前。‘只要你遵守我的规矩，接下来的很长一段时间里面，你每两个星期就能有这么一张，’他说，‘不行的话，咱们就不用打交道了。’”
      “他的规矩是什么呢？”“呃，先生，规矩就是他要有屋子大门的钥匙，这倒是没什么，别的房客也经常这样。除此之外，他要求绝对的清静，我们不能在任何时候以任何理由去打搅他。”
      “这也没什么古怪啊，不是吗？”
      “按常理说，确实是没什么古怪，先生。只不过，接下来的事情完全不合常理。他已经在我们那儿住了十天，与此同时，不管是我、沃伦先生，还是那个小姑娘，都没有瞧见过他，一次都没有。
      光听见他急急忙忙地走来走去，走来走去，晚上走，早上走，中午也走。可是，除了第一天晚上之外，他从来没有离开过屋子。”
      “噢，第一天晚上他出去过，对吗？”
      “是的，先生，而且很晚才回来，回来的时候我们都已经睡了。租下房间之后，他跟我说他要出去，还叫我不要闩上屋门。过了十二点，我才听见了他上楼的脚步声。”
      “他怎么吃饭呢？”
      “他特意交代过，听到他拉铃才能送饭，还得把饭摆在他门外的一把椅子上。吃完之后，他会把杯盘放在椅子上，拉铃叫我们去取。需要其他东西的时候，他会用印刷体写在纸片上，然后就把纸片放在门外。”
      “印刷体？”
      “是的，先生，用铅笔写的印刷体。纸片上没有别的内容，只有物品的名称。喏，我带了一张来给您看——‘soap’（肥皂）。这又是一张——‘match’（火柴）。这儿还有一张，是他刚搬来的第一天早上放在门外的——‘daily gazette’（《每日公报》）。每天早上，我都会把他要的那份报纸跟早餐一起送上去。”
       “天哪，华生，”福尔摩斯说道，惊奇不已地盯着女房东递给他的那几张纸条，“这确实有点儿不同寻常。闭门谢客我还可以理解，可他干吗要用印刷体呢？印刷体写起来很费工夫啊。为什么不用手写体呢？这会是什么意思呢，华生？”

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