译《化身博士》第四章：杰基尔医生收到一封信(二)

译《化身博士》第四章：杰基尔医生收到一封信(一)

'This is a sad business about Sir Danvers Carew' said Mr Utterson.

“丹佛斯·卡鲁先生出现了这样的悲剧。”厄特森先生说。

'Yes indeed, sir. The murderer was a madman, of course.'

“确实啊，先生。凶手简直是个疯子。”

'I would like your opinion about that,' replied the lawyer. 'I have a letter from the murderer here.'

“我想听听你关于这事的见解。”律师回，“我这有一封凶手写的信。”

Mr Guest was interested in the study of handwriting. His eyes brightened at once. 'A murderer's letter!' he said. 'That will be interesting.' He looked carefully at the writing. 'Not a madman, I think,' he said. 'But what unusual handwriting!'

葛斯特先生对研究手稿很感兴趣，立马眼前一亮。“杀人犯写的信！”他说。“这很有意思啊！”他仔细查看字迹，“我觉得不像疯子写的。”他说，“但字迹风格不一般啊！”

译《化身博士》第四章：杰基尔医生收到一封信(二)

Just then a servant entered with a note.

这时，一位仆人送进屋一张请帖。

'Is that note from Doctor Jekyll?' asked Mr Guest. 'I thought I recognized the handwriting. Is it anything private, Mr Utterson?'

“是杰基尔博士送来的请帖吗？”葛斯特先生问。“我想我认出笔迹了。内容很私密吗，厄特森先生？”

'Only an invitation to dinner. Why? Do you want to see the letter?'

“只是张晚宴邀请函。怎么了？你想看吗？”

'Just for a moment, please, sir.' The clerk put the two letters side by side and studied them carefully. 'Thank you, sir,' he said. 'Very interesting.'

“就等一会会，先生，”助手将两封信并排放着，认真比对。“谢谢，先生，”他说。“真有意思！”

For a moment Mr Utterson hesitated, wondering and worrying. At last he put his thoughts into words. 'Why did you look at the two letters together?' he asked.

有一会儿，厄特森先生面带犹豫、不解以及担忧。最后，他还是把心里想的问了出来。“你为什么把两封信放一起比对？”他问。

'Well, sir, in many ways the two are surprisingly similar.'

“呃，先生，这两封信在很多地方都出奇地相似。”

'How strange!...Mr Guest, I must ask you not to speak of this business to anyone.'

“真是怪事！…葛斯特先生，请你不要对任何人提及这事。”

'Of course not, sir,' said the clerk. 'You can depend on me.' Shortly afterwards he said good night to his master and made his way home.

“好的，先生，”助手说。“你能相信我。”没过多久，他跟他上司道晚安，回家去了。

When he was alone, Mr Utterson locked the two letters in his cupboard. 'Well!' he thought. 'So Henry Jekyll wrote that letter for a murderer!' His face was as calm and expressionless as usual, but his heart was filled with fear for his old friend.

当只剩他一个人时，厄特森先生把两封信锁进了柜子里，心想：“行吧，所以是亨利·杰基尔替杀人犯写的信。”他面上平静得跟平时一样没什么表情，但心里却很担心老朋友。

译《化身博士》第五章：朋友之死（一）

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PS:本书为牛津系列简易读物，由英国著名作家罗斯玛丽·博德根据英国作家查罗伯特·路易莎·斯蒂文森的同名小说改写。

英文为书虫系列原文，译文是笔者翻译。本文仅因个人兴趣而译，故本文谢绝转载和各种商业用途，同时承诺若出现任何责任由作者承担，必要时简书可删除文章。