Thank you very much indeed, David.
大卫,真的十分感谢您
And thank you, everyone, good morning.
大家上午好,感谢你们的捧场
Well, as David has just said,
刚才大卫已经提到了
what I want to talk about this morning is British Detective Fiction,
我今天上午要讲一下英国的侦探小说
the Murder Mystery, the Who Done It.
谋杀之谜,谁是真凶
I have called my talk Cluedo and Cadavers in order to highlight
我把演讲主题称作,寻凶与死尸,是为了突出
what I see as the two central and contrasting features of the genre.
我心中这种流派的两个中心和其相对的特征
On the one hand, the Who Done It is a book
一方面,谁是真凶,是本小说
that present you with a challenging puzzle.
给读者出了一道颇具挑战性的谜题
It's kind of a fictional game.
是一种虚拟的游戏
In fact, it's very like a literature equivalent of Cluedo
事实上,它极像是把棋盘游戏,妙探寻凶的
the board game that
文学式表达
You might have worked out who killed Dr. Black or Mr. Boddy
你也许能推断出谁杀死了布莱克博士
as it is a bit obviously called in the American version of the game.
或者说美国版游戏中的博迪先生
Was it Professor Plum in the library with the candlestick,
是普拉姆教授在图书馆用烛台杀死的
or was it Colonel Mustard in the conservatory
还是马斯塔德上校在温室
with a chunk of lead piping?
用铅水管杀死的?
It's something that is nicely unreal.
这些事情很不真实
It's an entertaining brain teaser
它是一种有趣的脑筋急转弯
that tests your power of observation and deduction,
测试你的观察推理能力
or just you skill or luck at guessing.
或者只是检验你是否擅长猜测
On the other hand, the Who Done It isn't just a game.
另一方面,谁是真凶,不只是个游戏
It's a game that involves something
它涉及到的一些事情
that we usually take very seriously indeed,
通常是我们非常重视的方面
Corpses, cadavers, violent deaths.
死尸,暴力,死亡
It's a kind of past time that plays with very gruesome material,
这是在以可怕的元素消遣时间
which makes it a very strange kind of genre.
让其成为一种奇怪的流派
But the classic who done it which brings these two aspects together
不过经典的寻找真凶手法
the Cluedo aspect and the Cadaver aspect is actually proved to be
将推理元素与死尸元素合二为一
one of the most popular and long-end journey of literature genre.
成为最受欢迎并长久不衰的文学流派