領(lǐng)略原汁原味漢英對照經(jīng)典名作
福爾摩斯謝幕演出
? ? ? It was nine o’clock at night upon the second of August—the most terrible August in the history of the world. One might have thought already that God’s curse hung heavy over a degenerate world, for there was an awesome hush and a feeling of vague expectation in the sultry and stagnant air. The sun had long set, but one bloodred gash like an open wound lay low in the distant west. Above, the stars were shining brightly, and below, the lights of the shipping glimmered in the bay. The two famous Germans stood beside the stone parapet of the garden walk, with the long, low, heavily gabled house behind them, and they looked down upon the broad sweep of the beach at the foot of the great chalk cliff on which Von Bork, like some wandering eagle, had perched himself four years before. They stood with their heads close together, talking in low, confidential tones. From below the two glowing ends of their cigars might have been the smouldering eyes of some malignant fiend looking down in the darkness.
? ? ? A remarkable man this Von Bork—a man who could hardly be matched among all the devoted agents of the Kaiser. It was his talents which had first recommended him for the English mission, the most important mission of all, but since he had taken it over those talents had become more and more manifest to the half-dozen people in the world who were really in touch with the truth. One of these was his present companion, Baron Von Herling, the chief secretary of the legation, whose huge 100-horse-power Benz car was blocking the country lane as it waited to waft its owner back to London.
? ? ? “So far as I can judge the trend of events, you will probably be back in Berlin within the week,” the secretary was saying. “When you get there, my dear Von Bork, I think you will be surprised at the welcome you will receive. I happen to know what is thought in the highest quarters of your work in this country.” He was a huge man, the secretary, deep, broad, and tall, with a slow, heavy fashion of speech which had been his main asset in his political career.
? ? ? Von Bork laughed.
? ? ? “They are not very hard to deceive,” he remarked. “A more docile, simple folk could not be imagined.”
? ? ? “I don’t know about that,” said the other thoughtfully. “They have strange limits and one must learn to observe them. It is that surface simplicity of theirs which makes a trap for the stranger. One’s first impression is that they are entirely soft. Then one comes suddenly upon something very hard, and you know that you have reached the limit and must adapt yourself to the fact. They have, for example, their insular conventions which simply must be observed.”
? ? ? “Meaning, ‘good form’ and that sort of thing?” Von Bork sighed as one who had suffered much.
? ? ? “Meaning British prejudice in all its queer manifestations.
? ? ? As an example I may quote one of my own worst blunders—I can afford to talk of my blunders, for you know my work well enough to be aware of my successes. It was on my first arrival. I was invited to a week-end gathering at the country house of a cabinet minister. The conversation was amazingly indiscreet.”
? ? ? Von Bork nodded. “I’ve been there,” said he dryly.
? ? ? “Exactly. Well, I naturally sent a résumé of the information to Berlin. Unfortunately our good chancellor is a little heavy-handed in these matters, and he transmitted a remark which showed that he was aware of what had been said. This, of course, took the trail straight up to me. You’ve no idea the harm that it did me. There was nothing soft about our British hosts on that occasion, I can assure you. I was two years living it down. Now you, with this sporting pose of yours—”
? ? ? “No, no, don’t call it a pose. A pose is an artificial thing.
? ? ? This is quite natural. I am a born sportsman. I enjoy it.”
? ? ? “Well, that makes it the more effective. You yacht against them, you hunt with them, you play polo, you match them in every game, your four-in-hand takes the prize at Olympia.
? ? ? I have even heard that you go the length of boxing with the young officers. What is the result? Nobody takes you seriously.
? ? ? You are a ‘good old sport,’ ‘quite a decent fellow for a German,’ a hard-drinking, night-club, knock-about-town, devil-may-care young fellow. And all the time this quiet country house of yours is the centre of half the mischief in England, and the sporting squire the most astute secret-service man in Europe. Genius, my dear Von Bork—genius!”
? ? ? “You flatter me, Baron. But certainly I may claim that my four years in this country have not been unproductive. I’ve never shown you my little store. Would you mind stepping in for a moment?”
? ? ? The door of the study opened straight on to the terrace. Von Bork pushed it back, and, leading the way, he clicked the switch of the electric light. He then closed the door behind the bulky form which followed him and carefully adjusted the heavy curtain over the latticed window. Only when all these precautions had been taken and tested did he turn his sunburned aquiline face to his guest.
? ? ? ?“Some of my papers have gone,” said he. “When my wife and the household left yesterday for Flushing they took the less important with them. I must, of course, claim the protection of the embassy for the others.”
? ? ? ?“Your name has already been filed as one of the personal suite. There will be no difficulties for you or your baggage. Of course, it is just possible that we may not have to go. England may leave France to her fate. We are sure that there is no binding treaty between them.”
? ? ? “And Belgium?”
? ? ? “Yes, and Belgium, too.”
? ? ? Von Bork shook his head. “I don’t see how that could be.There is a definite treaty there. She could never recover from such a humiliation.”

中文翻譯
? ? ? 時間是八月二日，晚上九點。這是世界歷史上最可怕的一個八月，周遭的一切凝神斂息，悶熱凝滯的空氣中彌漫著一種模模糊糊的預(yù)感，讓人油然想到，上帝的詛咒馬上就會降臨這個墮落的世界。
? ? ? 太陽早已落山，遠遠的西方卻低低地橫亙著一抹殷紅的殘霞，宛如一道未愈的傷口。上方是熠熠生輝的群星，下方則是海灣里來往船只的閃爍燈火。兩位著名的德國人佇立在花園小徑的石欄旁邊，身后是一座又長又矮、山墻林立的房屋。他倆正在俯瞰下方的寬廣海灘，所在的地方則是一堵白堊巨崖的頂端，四年之前，馮?博克把自己的家安在了這里，如同一只離群孤棲的老鷹。兩個人把腦袋湊在一起，正在竊竊私語。他倆都在吸雪茄，若是你從下方往上看，兩個紅光閃爍的雪茄煙頭就像是一雙煙焰繚繞的惡魔之眼，正在透過黑暗俯視著你。
這個馮?博克非同小可，堪稱是德國皇帝麾下所有忠誠間諜之中最出色的人物。他的才干讓他獲得了最重要的一項諜報任務(wù)，也就是前來英國刺探情報，不但如此，在那些真正了解內(nèi)情的人看來，自從他接受這項任務(wù)之后，他的才干更有了越來越突出的體現(xiàn)。
? ? ? 世上只有六個人洞悉內(nèi)情，其中之一就是他眼下的同伴、德國公使館首席秘書馮?赫林男爵。此時此刻，男爵那輛形體巨大的一百馬力奔馳轎車停在一旁，把那條鄉(xiāng)間小路堵了個嚴嚴實實，正等著把它的主人送回倫敦。
? ? ? “根據(jù)我對形勢的判斷，十之八九，你本周就得回柏林去，”秘書說道，“回去之后，親愛的馮?博克，我看你一定會為他們給你準備的禮遇感到驚奇。最高當局對你在英國的工作有些什么評價，我也是略有所聞的?！泵貢莻€大塊頭，又高又壯，主要的政治資本則是他那種慢條斯理、一本正經(jīng)的說話方式。
? ? ? 馮?博克笑了起來。
? ? ? “要騙他們并不難，”他如是說道，“比他們還要馴良單純的民族，你連想都想不出來?！?br> ? ? ? “我倒不這么覺得，”對方若有所思地說道，“他們有一些古怪的規(guī)矩，你必須得學(xué)會遵守。外鄉(xiāng)人往往會著他們的道，就是因為他們這種表面上的單純。乍一看，你會覺得他們溫和之極。接下來，你卻會突然撞上某種十分堅硬的東西，這時你才會恍然大悟，你已經(jīng)觸到了他們的底線，只能設(shè)法適應(yīng)頭破血流的現(xiàn)實。舉例說吧，他們有一些坐井觀天的島民習(xí)俗，不遵守是絕對不行的?！?br> “您指的是‘舉止得體’之類的東西嗎？”馮?博克嘆了一口氣，似乎是在這些方面吃過不少苦頭。
? ? ? “我指的是所有那些千奇百怪的英國式偏見。為了說明這一點，我打算拿我自己栽的一個大跟頭來做例子——我并不害怕談?wù)撟约涸缘母^，因為你非常了解我的工作，看得到我的成就。事情發(fā)生在我剛來英國的時候，一位內(nèi)閣大臣請我去他的鄉(xiāng)間別墅參加周末聚會，聚會期間的談話隨意得叫人吃驚?！?br> ? ? ? 馮?博克點了點頭。“我也去過那里，”他干巴巴地說了一句。
? ? ? “沒錯。呃，聚會結(jié)束之后，我自然就把席間搜集到的情報整理成一份摘要，發(fā)給了柏林方面。不巧的是，我們那位可敬的總理在這些事情上有點兒毛手毛腳，不小心說漏了嘴，表明他知道聚會期間的談話內(nèi)容。當然嘍，他的話直接把火引到了我的身上。
? ? ? 你根本想象不到，那件事情對我造成了多么大的傷害。我可以跟你打包票，那一次，我們那些英國主人的態(tài)度一點兒都不溫和。我花了兩年的時間才擺脫那件事情的影響。你倒好，端著你這副運動員的姿態(tài)——”
? ? ? “不，不對，您不能把這叫做‘姿態(tài)’。姿態(tài)是裝出來的，我這可是天性的流露。我生來就擅長運動，而且樂在其中?！?br> ? ? ? “是啊，這樣一來，效果就更好啦。你跟他們賽艇，跟他們一起打獵、打馬球，哪一項運動都不落在他們后面，你的四駕馬車也在奧林匹亞奪得了大獎。我甚至聽人說過，你居然跟那些年青的軍官打起了拳擊賽。結(jié)果呢？誰也不把你當回事，都覺得你是個‘運動行家’、‘德國人當中的君子’，還是個酗酒成性、夜夜笙歌、滿城亂竄、沒心沒肺的小伙子。與此同時，你這座寧靜的鄉(xiāng)間別墅一直是英格蘭半數(shù)破壞活動的中心，而你這個愛好運動的鄉(xiāng)紳也一直是全歐洲最精明的秘密特工。天才啊，親愛的馮?博克——真是天才！”
? ? ? “您過獎了，男爵。不過，我確實可以說一句，我在英國的四年并不是一事無成。我還沒領(lǐng)您參觀過我那個小小的倉庫呢，您愿意進屋待會兒嗎？”
書房的門正對著露臺。馮?博克推開房門，率先走進房間，“咔嗒”一聲摁亮電燈，把身后的大塊頭秘書讓了進去，然后就關(guān)上房門，把格子窗上的厚重簾帷拉得嚴嚴實實。他做好了所有這些預(yù)防措施，跟著又檢查了一遍，這才把他那張鷹隼一般的黝黑臉龐轉(zhuǎn)向了客人。
? ? ? “我的一部分文件已經(jīng)不在這兒了，”他說道，“昨天，我妻子和家里的其他人一起去了弗盧辛，帶走了不太重要的一些文件。當然嘍，我必須要求使館為剩下的這些文件提供保護?！?br> ? ? ? “我們已經(jīng)把你列入了隨員名單，你和你的行李都不會遇上什么麻煩。當然，趕巧了的話，咱們興許也不是非走不可。英國沒準兒會讓法國自生自滅，因為我們確切地知道，英法兩國并沒有簽訂什么有約束力的條約?！?br> ? ? ? “比利時也是這樣嗎？”
? ? ? “沒錯，比利時也是這樣?！?br> ? ? ? 馮?博克搖了搖頭?！拔矣X得這怎么也不可能。有一個明明白白的條約擺在那里，英國要是在這樣的羞辱面前忍氣吞聲，那就永遠也抬不起頭啦?！?/p>

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