暗黑童谣：《黑麦奇案》选读（英音朗读）

近日，《明星大侦探》传来“路透”消息，新一季开始录制。在这档系列侦探综艺节目中，第二季有一期涉及根据童谣内容杀人。不知道观众们是否知道，这是节目组在以这种特殊的方式致敬阿加莎·克里斯蒂。

（《明星大侦探》第二季《恐怖童谣》综艺片段）

在阿加莎·克里斯蒂的《黑麦奇案》中，剧中人物的死亡方式与一首童谣有关。这部作品亦被搬上荧幕，先后翻拍成两部电影，还有一集英剧（《马普尔小姐探案》第四季第1集）。下面大家就一起来看看用童谣杀人的案件在文学作品中是如何呈现的吧。

Chapter 13

Inspector Neele’s first thought was that the old lady had gone mad. ‘Blackbirds?’ he repeated.

Miss Marple nodded and said,

‘Sing a song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye,

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened the birds began to sing.

Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?

The king was in his counting house, counting out his money,

The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey,

The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,

When there came a little dickey bird and nipped off her nose.’

dainty adj.  讲究的；秀丽的

parlour n. 会客室 

dickey bird n.（儿语）小鸟 

nip off 咬掉

‘My goodness,’ Inspector Neele said.

‘I mean, it does fit,’ said Miss Marple. ‘Rex Fortescue. Rex means King. In his Counting House, in other words at his place of work, dealing with money. And Mrs Fortescue, the Queen in the parlour, eating bread and honey. And so, of course, the murderer had to put that clothes peg on poor Gladys’s nose.’

‘You mean the whole thing is crazy?’

‘Well, it is certainly very strange. But you really must make inquiries about blackbirds. Because there must be blackbirds!’

It was at this point that Sergeant Hay came into the room saying urgently, ‘Sir.’ He broke off at the sight of Miss Marple.

Inspector Neele said, ‘Thank you, Miss Marple. I’ll think about what you’ve said. As you are interested in the girl, perhaps you would like to look at the things from her room. Sergeant will show you them in a few minute.’

Miss Marple nodded her head and went out.

（英剧《马普尔小姐探案》海报）

‘Black birds!’ said Sergeant Hay. ‘Look at this.’ He showed him an object wrapped in a handkerchief. ‘I found it in the bushes,’ said Sergeant Hay. ‘It could have been thrown there from one of the back windows.’

It was a nearly full pot of marmalade.

In his mind, the Inspector saw a new pot of marmalade; he saw hands carefully removing its cover; he saw a small amount of marmalade being removed, mixed with a preparation of taxine and replaced in the pot, the top smoothed over and the lid carefully replaced.

‘And.’ said Sergeant Hay, ‘Mr Fortescue was the only one that had marmalade for breakfast. The others had jam or honey.’

Neele nodded. ‘That made it very simple, didn’t it?’ In his mind he saw the breakfast table now. Rex Fortescue stretching out his hand for the marmalade pot, taking out a spoonful and putting it on his toast. And afterwards? The pot of marmalade being replaced by another with exactly the same amount taken from it. And then an open window. A hand and an arm throwing that pot out into the bushes. The only thing he couldn’t see was whose hand and arm it was.

Inspector Neele said in a businesslike voice, ‘Well, we’ll have to get this analysed. How do they order marmalade and where is it kept?’

‘Marmalade comes in six pots at a time. A new pot would be taken into the pantry when the old one was nearly empty.’ 

‘That means,’ said Neele, ‘that the taxine could have been put into the marmalade several days before it was actually put onto the breakfast table. And anyone who was in the house, or who could have got into the house, could have done it.’

（英剧《马普尔小姐探案》海报）

Inspector Neele went to look for Mary Dove, She asked, ‘Did you want to see me about something?’

Neele said pleasantly, ‘It’s becoming important to get exact times clear. Members of the family all seem a little unsure about times. You, Miss Dove, have been extremely accurate. Now, the last time you saw Gladys Martin was in the hall fore tea, and that was at twenty minutes to five?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where were you coming from?’

‘From upstairs – I had heard the telephone.’ 

‘Gladys had answered the telephone?’

‘Yes. It was a wrong number,’ said Miss Dove.

‘And that was the last time you saw her?’

‘She brought the tea tray into the library about ten minutes later.’

‘After that Miss Elaine Fortescue came in?’

‘Yes, about three minutes later. Then I went up to tell Mrs Jennifer tea was ready.’

‘Did you usually do that?’ Neele asked.

‘No – people came in to tea when they pleased – but Mrs Adele Fortescue asked where everybody was. I thought I heard Mrs Jennifer coming – but that was a mistake ...’

Neele interrupted. ‘You mean you heard someone upstairs moving about?’

‘Yes – but no one came down, so I went up. Mrs Jennifer was in her bedroom. She had been out for a walk.’

‘The time was then ... ?’ asked Neele.

‘Oh – nealy five o’clock.’

‘And Mr Lance Fortescue arrived – when?’

‘A few minutes after I came downstairs – I thought he had arrived earlier – but ...’

Inspector Neele interrupted, why did you think he had arrived earlier?’

‘Because I thought I had seen him through the window. I caught a glimpse of someone through the yew bushes – and I thought it would be him.’

glimpse v. 一瞥

‘This was when you were coming down after telling Mrs Jennifer Fortescue tea was ready?’

Marry corrected him, ‘No, when I came down the first time.’

Inspector Neele kept his dinner excitement out of his voice as he said, ‘It couldn’t have been Lance Fortescue. His train arrived at Baydon Heath at 4.37. He had to wait for a taxi. It was actually nearly a quarter to five (five minutes after you had seen the man in the garden) when he left the station and it is a ten-minute drive. He paid the taxi at the gate here at about five minutes to five at the earliest.’

‘I’m sure I did see someone.’

‘He was going – which way?’

‘Along behind the yew bushes towards the east side of the house.’

‘There is a side door there. Is it kept locked?’

‘Not until the house is locked up for the night.’

‘Anyone could have come in by that side door without being seen by any of the household?’

‘Yes.’ She added quickly, ‘You mean – the person I heard later upstairs could have come in that way? Could have been hiding – upstairs? But who ... ?’

‘That we have to find out. Thank you, Miss Dove.’

（英剧《马普尔小姐探案》剧照）

As she turned to go, Inspector Neele said in a casual voice. ‘By the way, you can’t tell me anything about blackbirds, can you?’

For the first time Mary Dove looked surprised. ‘You mean that silly business last summer? It must, I think, have been some nasty joke. Four dead blackbirds were on Mr Fortescue’s desk in his study here, and then more were found in a pie.’

‘Any sort of reason behind it – any connection with blackbirds?’

Mary shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘Was Mr Fortescue annoyed?’

‘Of course.’

‘But he was not upset in any way?’

‘I really can’t remember.’

‘I see,’ said Inspector Neele.

Mary Dove once more turned away, but this time, he thought, she went slowly, as if she would like to know more of what was in his mind. Well, Miss Marple had suggested that there would be blackbirds and, sure enough, there the blackbirds were! Inspector Neele was not going to let this blackbird business take his attention away from the logical investigation of murder by a sane murderer for a sane reason. But of course he would still consider the crazier possibilities of the case.

investigation n. 调查

sane adj. 神智健全的

 （紫杉树和《唱一首六便士的歌》）

文化注释

Poisons: taxine and potassium cyanide

Agatha Christie worked as a pharmacist during the first and second world wars, and therefore had considerable knowledge of drugs and poisons. In the story the murderer uses two different types of poison. The first was taxine, which comes from yew tree. Yew is very common in Britain, especially in the formal gardens of rich people, such as the one at Yewtree Lodge, the home of the Fortescue family. The plant has thick dark green leaves which can easily be cut into different shapes, and gardeners often use it to make hedges and borders. All parts of the tree are extremely poisonous, including the red berries.

The second poison to be used in this story is potassium cyanide. When cyanide is put into liquid, it acts extremely quickly and death can happen in just a few seconds. At the time Agatha Christie was writing, it was normal for people to keep a form of cyanide in the garden shed to put on wasps’ nests to kill them all quickly. Now, it is against the law to possess such poisons.

毒药：紫杉碱和氰化钾

阿加莎·克里斯蒂在第一次和第二次世界大战期间做过药剂师，所以具备相当的有关药品和毒药的知识。本书中罪犯使用了两种毒药，第一种是紫杉碱，来自紫杉树。紫杉在英国十分常见，尤其是在富翁的规则式庭园中，例如 Fortescue 家的居所紫杉公馆中的花园。这种植物的叶片厚实，呈绿色，可以轻易地切割为各种形状，于是园丁经常将其修剪为树篱和花坛。此种树的各部分均有剧毒，包括红色浆果。

故事中使用的第二种毒药是氰化钾。氰化物放入液体后，见效吸其迅速，仅需几秒钟便可夺走人的性命。在阿加莎·克里斯蒂写作的时代，人们通常会在花园的工具棚中保存一些氰化的物，用于快速消灭黄蜂的巢穴。如今存有这种毒药则是违法的。

Nursery rhymes

These are songs or poems for young children, often with actions added to them to make them more enjoyable and fun. Many of them are hundreds of years old, but these are mostly forgotten now. A Pocket Full of Rye gets its name from a nursery rhyme called Sing a Song of Sixpence.

儿歌

这是为小孩子所作的歌曲或诗歌，通常会加入动作，使其更加好玩、有趣。不少儿歌已经有数百年的历史，但如今大多已被人遗忘。《黑麦奇案》的书名便是来自一首叫做“唱一首六便士的歌”（Sing a Song of Sixpence）的儿歌。

   ( 以上内容节选自《黑麦奇案》，图片来自网络)

《黑麦奇案》是“阿加莎·克里斯蒂经典侦探作品集”丛书之一。
阿加莎·克里斯蒂：100年前的英伦传奇
用中国人看得懂的英语带您进入阿加莎·克里斯蒂的世界

• 语言：英语专家精心改写，适合中高级英语学习者阅读
• 文化：人物表和历史文化背景注释
• 词汇：难词注释帮助学习和阅读
• 听力：优美英音全文朗读（附二维码音频下载和点读功能）

长按识别二维码购买平装本☟
长按识别二维码购买精装本☟
丛书目录（点击蓝色书名，可跳转到试听页面）
《斯泰尔斯庄园奇案》（The Mysterious Affair at Styles）《鸽群中的猫》（Cat among the Pigeons）《云中奇案》（Death in the Cloud）《命案目睹记》（4.50 from Paddington）《死亡约会》（Appointment with Death）《国际学舍谋杀案》（Hickory Dickory Dock）《古屋疑云》（Peril at End House）《罗杰疑案》（The Murder of Roger Ackroyd）《东方快车谋杀案》（Murder on the Orient Express）《控方证人及其他》（The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories）《尼罗河上的惨案》（Death on the Nile）《穿棕色套装的人》（The Man in the Brown Suit）《黑麦奇案》（A Pocket Full of Rye）《悬崖上的谋杀》（Why Didn't They Ask Evans）《弄假成真》（Dead Man's Folly）《书房命案》（The Body in the Library）《怪屋》（Crooked House）《密码》（N or M？）《魔手》（The Moving Finger）《地狱之旅》（Destination Unknown）《借镜杀人》（They Do It with Mirrors）《寓所谜案》（The Murder at the Vicarage）《葬礼之后》（After the Funeral）《闪光的氰化物》（Sparkling Cyanide）

商务印书馆英语编辑室

微信号：CP-English

长按识别二维码关注