評論
打印
The Copper Beeches
銅山毛櫸案
"To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily Telegraph,
"一個為藝術而愛好藝術的人，"歇洛克·福爾摩斯將《每日電訊報》的廣告專頁扔在一邊說，
"it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.
"常常是從最不重要和最平凡的形象中得到最大的樂趣。
It is pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this truth that in these little records of our cases which you have been good enough to draw up,
華生，我高興地觀察到，從你誠誠懇懇地為我們的案件所作的那些記錄中，你已經掌握了這個真理，
and, I am bound to say, occasionally to embellish,
而且，我肯定地講，有時你還加以潤色，
you have given prominence not so much to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I have figured
你加以突出的并不是那些我曾經參與過的許多著名案件的偵破和轟動一時的審訊，
but rather to those incidents which may have been trivial in themselves,
而是那些本身情節可能是平凡瑣細的案件，
but which have given room for those faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made my special province."
然而這些案件有發揮推論和邏輯綜合的才能的余地，我把它們列入我的特殊的研究范圍之內。"
"And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my records."
"然而，"我微笑著說，"我不能完全為自己在記錄中采用聳人聽聞的手法開脫。"
"You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood pipe
"也許你確有錯誤，"他邊評論述用火鉗夾起火紅的爐渣來點燃他那長把的櫻挑木煙斗，
which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood.
當他是在爭論問題而不是在思考問題的時候，他常常是用這個煙斗來替換陶制煙斗的。
"You have erred perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your statements
"也許你錯就錯在總是想把你的每項記述都寫得生動活潑些，
instead of confining yourself to the task of placing upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect
而不是將你的任務限制在記述事物因果關系的嚴謹的推理上，
which is really the only notable feature about the thing."
這實際上是事物唯一值得注意的特點。"
