A Case Of Identity
身份案

"My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street,
我同福尔摩斯两人对坐在贝克街他寓所的壁炉前。他说："老兄，
"life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.
生活比人们所能想象的要奇妙何止千百倍；
We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence.
真正存在的很平常的事情，我们连想也不敢想。
If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city,
假如我们能够手拉手地飞出那个窗户，翱翔在这个大城市的上空，
gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on,
轻轻地揭开那些屋顶，窥视里边正在发生的不平常的事情：
the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events,
奇怪的巧合、密室的策划、闹别扭、以及令人惊奇的一连串的事件，
working through generations, and leading to the most outre results,
它们一代一代地不断发生着，导致稀奇古怪的结果，
it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable."
这就会使得一切老一套的、一看开头就知道结局的小说，变得索然无味而失去销路。"

"And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered.
我回答说："可是，我并不信。
"The cases which come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and vulgar enough.
报纸上发表的案件，一般地说，都十分单调，俗不可耐。
We have in our police reports realism pushed to its extreme limits,
在警察的报告里，现实主义到了极点，
and yet the result is, it must be confessed, neither fascinating nor artistic."
必须承认，结果是既不有趣，也无艺术性。"
"A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a realistic effect," remarked Holmes.
福尔摩斯说道："要产生实际的效果必须运用一些选择和判断。
"This is wanting in the police report, where more stress is laid,
警察报告里没有这些，也许重点放到
perhaps, upon the platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details,
地方长官的陈词滥调上去了，
which to an observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter.
而不是放在观察者认为是整个事件必不可少的实质的细节上。
Depend upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace."
毫无疑问，没有什么象司空见惯的东西那样不自然的了。"