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A Study in Scarlet begins with a man invalidated home
血字的研究，开始讲的是因负伤从阿富汗战场上
from the Afghans wars, Dr. Watson,
回家的华生医生
striking up an acquaintance with a brilliant eccentric
结识了一位杰出的怪人，他是一位挑剔的单身汉
who is a fussy bachelor with uncanny detecting skills,
有着不可思议的侦查能力
Sherlock Holmes.
他就是夏洛克·福尔摩斯
The Mysterious Affair at Styles opens with
斯泰尔斯庄园奇案，开始讲的是
a man invalidated home from the First World War, Colonel Hastings,
因负伤从一战中回家的黑斯廷斯上校
becoming friendly with a brilliant eccentric who is a fussy bachelor
同一位杰出的的怪人结交，一个挑剔的单身汉
with uncanny detecting skills called Hercule Poirot.
他就是有着出色侦查能力的赫丘勒·白罗
You don't have to be a great sleuth to spot the borrowing there.
你不用做大量调查就能发现这些借用
The one unusual aspect of Poirot
白罗与之不同的地方是
is the fact that he is not English he is Belgian.
他并非英国人，而是比利时人
And that comes actually from the fact that Agatha Christie
原因是阿加莎·克里斯蒂
was living in Turkey where she'd been brought up
开始创作犯罪小说时，她在土耳其生活
at the time she started her career as crime writer.
那是她长大的地方
Turkey during the First World War had a colony of Belgian refugees.
一战期间，土耳其生活着一群比利时难民
And Agatha Christie was aware of this.
阿加莎·克里斯蒂想到了这一点
And she thought it would be quite a nice idea, a good idea.
她认为这是一个好想法
It would give her detective something distinctive
如果把她的侦探设定为比利时人
if she made him Belgian.
他就会与众不同
She came to bitterly regret this decision
她一度对这个决定感到后悔
as she sat down to write the 25th Poirot novel
当她坐下来写第25篇白罗系列小说
or something like that.
或类似的小说时
Because one thing she realized is
她意识到自己对
that she knew virtually nothing of Belgium.
比利时事实上一无所知
And in fact if you are fan of Agatha Christie,
如果你是阿加莎·克里斯蒂的忠实读者
you can see her working out this frustration.
你会知道她是如何走出挫折的
I mean some of her books feature a female detective
她的一些作品涉及到一个女性侦探
called Ariadne Oliver who is actually very like Agatha Christie.
叫阿里亚登·奥利弗，很像阿加莎·克里斯蒂本人
And the bane of her life is the fact that
她人生真正的败笔是
she has decided to write crime books with a Finnish detective.
决定去写关于芬兰侦探的犯罪小说
And apart from Helsinki and Sebelius,
除了赫尔辛基和西贝利厄斯
she hasn't a great deal to contribute to it in this line.
她在这方面没什么特别贡献
I think that another decision that Agatha Christie
我认为随后另一个
would have subsequently regret it was
让阿加莎·克里斯蒂后悔的决定是
having made Poirot about 67 years old in his first novel.
在第一部小说中将白罗的年龄设定为67岁
When you are modeling Poirot prowess in the later novel
你在后期的小说中想象白罗的智勇形象时
you must bear in mind that is wherever 100.
心里肯定会想他怎么着也得有百岁了吧
But by the time, he is snipping around solving these crimes.
但当时，他正在到处奔走破案
I noticed that some people said:
我注意到有人说:
Poirot he is a bit torpid, he doesn't move very much.
白罗有点行动迟缓，不爱走动
Of course, he doesn't, you know.
他当然不喜欢，你们清楚原因
It's amazing he is still amongst us really.
他能和我们一样活着就已经很不可思议了
I said that Agatha Christie started writing her stories in Turkey.
我刚才讲到阿加莎·克里斯蒂在土耳其开始写小说
Turkey was of course in war particularly
土耳其在她写作期间
when Agatha Christie was writing.
正处于战争中
A gentile place very sedate and stayed
阿加莎·克里斯蒂出身于
That was kind of background that Agatha Christie came from.
安静稳定的非犹太区
It was an upper-middle class family;
一个上流社会家庭
it was a life very comfortable very affluent.
生活富裕舒适
A life of croquet parties, fancy dress balls
槌球聚会，高档化妆舞会
and tea on the lawns and so on.
草地品茶等，是主要的生活内容
And I think that gave her an awareness of
我想这些让她认识到
what an effective background this kind of setting would be
在犯罪小说中，这样的设定
for purposes contrasting and so on in crime fiction.
有助于形成巨大反差和一些其他效果
