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The murders in the Golden Age novels
黄金时代小说中的凶手
as ingenious as elaborated as they can get.
尽其所能发挥创意精心布置
People are stabbed with icicles, poisoned with postage stamps.
人们被冰锥刺伤，因邮票中毒
They are stabbed to death while being trapped in a tower
他们被困在塔上直到教堂的钟声一响
when church bells are ringing.
他们被刺致死
P.D. James once wrote about Dorothy L. Sayers P.D.
詹姆斯有次写到多萝西·L.塞耶斯
and said: the murderer in unnatural death is implausible.
他说:非自然死亡的凶手实在是难以置信
It is not really possible to kill someone
通过往血管里注入空气
by injecting air into a vein,
来杀某个人是不可能的
at least not with a normal size syringe.
至少不可能通过常规大小的注射器
I am advised that the syringe would have had to be so large that
我咨询得知，注射器必须要足够大
the patient would be more likely to die of shock on beholding it.
大到病人更可能是看一眼就吓得休克而死
Then for many effects of the injected air,
关于注射空气的诸多效应
and I personally cold have advised Mr. Tallboy
我本人想建议一下，杀人广告，中的
In Murder Must Advertise
高男先生
many simpler and surer ways of killing his blackmailer
有很多简单可靠得多的方法来杀死勒索者
than by climbing onto the roof
而不用爬到屋顶
and using a catapult through the skylights.
通过天窗射弹弓
I have to say my absolute favorite
我得说我最喜欢的
of these preposterously complicated means of murders
这类矛盾而复杂的凶杀
is by Nagaio Marsh in one of her novel.
是奈欧·马什的一部小说
Novel that opens with the concert in a village hall,
小说以一个村庄大厅里的音乐会为开头
and a female performer sits sedately at the piano
一位女艺术家镇定地坐在钢琴前
to play a piece by Rachmaninoff.
弹奏拉赫玛尼诺夫的作品
And everything goes well for a few minutes.
几分钟内一切都很正常
And then she presses her foot down on the soft pedal
然后她的脚踩下弱音踏板
and a booby trap shotgun inside hidden inside the piano ledge
钢琴架里藏的一把设了陷阱的枪
shoots her between the eyes.
射中她的眉心
I think that's stretching things a bit.
我想这有点夸张了
And that's a weakness of the genre.
这是这一流派的弱点
The other weaknesses that go along with it
伴随的另一样弱点是
are snobbery and aristocratic tough detectives,
势利的贵族的硬汉形象的侦探们
like Lord Peter Wimsey, Albert Campion,
比如彼得·温姆西勋爵，阿尔伯特·坎比恩
Roderick Alleyn and so on.
罗德里克·艾霖等等
I saw a wonderful cartoon of a bartender moving forward
我看过一个有趣的卡通是一个酒保一边前进
holding a covered dish, lifting it and saying
一边举着个有盖的盘子，打开盖子，说:
your red herring, my Lord.
阁下，这是您的红鲱鱼(另有误导之意)
And I think that's very much the kind of world that you are in there.
我想这个场景非常贴切
Does socially reactionary novels...
它们是反社会小说...
but once they were enormously popular I mean,
不过它们曾经大为流行，我是说
and was seen very much as an English phenomenon.
很大程度上被视为英国的现象
William Trevor once said: all over England it seems to me...
威廉·崔弗曾经说过:全英国在我看来...
All over England and it seems to me
全英国在我看来
bodies were being discovered by housemaids and librarians.
尸体都是佣人和图书管理员发现的
Village poison PANs were tirelessly at work.
乡村里制作毒药的人没日没夜的工作
There was murdering in Mayfair,
凶案发生在伦敦的上流住宅区
on trains, in airships, in Palm Court lounges,
在火车上，飞艇上，棕榈阁休息室里
Golfs stumbled over corpses on fairways,
高尔夫球在球道上被尸体绊倒
chief constable awoke them in their garden
警察局长在他们的花园里被叫醒
We have nothing like it in West Cork.
我们在西科克从没有这些
This was kind of fiction that maintained its fascination for decades.
这是几十年魅力不减的小说
Then in the 1960s things started to change.
到20世纪60年代事情开始发生变化
The genre began to show availability to
这一流派开始展示出
evolve to adapt to new social circumstances
演变适应新社会环境的能力
without losing its distinctive characters.
而不丧失其自身特点
