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A Study in Scarlet begins with a man invalidated home
血字的研究，開始講的是因負傷從阿富汗戰場上
from the Afghans wars, Dr. Watson,
回家的華生醫生
striking up an acquaintance with a brilliant eccentric
結識了一位杰出的怪人，他是一位挑剔的單身漢
who is a fussy bachelor with uncanny detecting skills,
有著不可思議的偵查能力
Sherlock Holmes.
他就是夏洛克·福爾摩斯
The Mysterious Affair at Styles opens with
斯泰爾斯莊園奇案，開始講的是
a man invalidated home from the First World War, Colonel Hastings,
因負傷從一戰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結交，一個挑剔的單身漢
with uncanny detecting skills called Hercule Poirot.
他就是有著出色偵查能力的赫丘勒·白羅
You don't have to be a great sleuth to spot the borrowing there.
你不用做大量調查就能發現這些借用
The one unusual aspect of Poirot
白羅與之不同的地方是
is the fact that he is not English he is Belgian.
他并非英國人，而是比利時人
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
開始創作犯罪小說時，她在土耳其生活
at the time she started her career as crime writer.
那是她長大的地方
Turkey during the First World War had a colony of Belgian refugees.
一戰期間，土耳其生活著一群比利時難民
And Agatha Christie was aware of this.
阿加莎·克里斯蒂想到了這一點
And she thought it would be quite a nice idea, a good idea.
她認為這是一個好想法
It would give her detective something distinctive
如果把她的偵探設定為比利時人
if she made him Belgian.
他就會與眾不同
She came to bitterly regret this decision
她一度對這個決定感到后悔
as she sat down to write the 25th Poirot novel
當她坐下來寫第25篇白羅系列小說
or something like that.
或類似的小說時
Because one thing she realized is
她意識到自己對
that she knew virtually nothing of Belgium.
比利時事實上一無所知
And in fact if you are fan of Agatha Christie,
如果你是阿加莎·克里斯蒂的忠實讀者
you can see her working out this frustration.
你會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個女性偵探
called Ariadne Oliver who is actually very like Agatha Christie.
叫阿里亞登·奧利弗，很像阿加莎·克里斯蒂本人
And the bane of her life is the fact that
她人生真正的敗筆是
she has decided to write crime books with a Finnish detective.
決定去寫關于芬蘭偵探的犯罪小說
And apart from Helsinki and Sebelius,
除了赫爾辛基和西貝利厄斯
she hasn't a great deal to contribute to it in this line.
她在這方面沒什么特別貢獻
I think that another decision that Agatha Christie
我認為隨后另一個
would have subsequently regret it was
讓阿加莎·克里斯蒂后悔的決定是
having made Poirot about 67 years old in his first novel.
在第一部小說中將白羅的年齡設定為67歲
When you are modeling Poirot prowess in the later novel
你在后期的小說中想象白羅的智勇形象時
you must bear in mind that is wherever 100.
心里肯定會想他怎么著也得有百歲了吧
But by the time, he is snipping around solving these crimes.
但當時，他正在到處奔走破案
I noticed that some people said:
我注意到有人說:
Poirot he is a bit torpid, he doesn't move very much.
白羅有點行動遲緩，不愛走動
Of course, he doesn't, you know.
他當然不喜歡，你們清楚原因
It's amazing he is still amongst us really.
他能和我們一樣活著就已經很不可思議了
I said that Agatha Christie started writing her stories in Turkey.
我剛才講到阿加莎·克里斯蒂在土耳其開始寫小說
Turkey was of course in war particularly
土耳其在她寫作期間
when Agatha Christie was writing.
正處于戰爭中
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.
安靜穩定的非猶太區
It was an upper-middle class family;
一個上流社會家庭
it was a life very comfortable very affluent.
生活富裕舒適
A life of croquet parties, fancy dress balls
槌球聚會，高檔化妝舞會
and tea on the lawns and so on.
草地品茶等，是主要的生活內容
And I think that gave her an awareness of
我想這些讓她認識到
what an effective background this kind of setting would be
在犯罪小說中，這樣的設定
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
