The Girl with the Dragon TattooWord格式.docx

1、这位老警察正坐着喝咖啡，等待着，期盼着他的电话。“It arrived.”“它到了。”“What is it this year?“今年是什么？“I dont know what kind it is. Ill have to get someone to tell me what it is. Its white.”“我不知道是什么品种。我得找个人告诉我它是什么。它是白色的。“No letter, I suppose.”“没有信，我猜。“Just the flower. The frame is the same kind as last year. One of those do-it-y

2、ourself ones.”“只是花。框架跟去年一样。自制的一种。“Postmark?“邮戳？“Stockholm.”“斯德哥尔摩。“Handwriting?“手写？“Same as always, all in capitals. Upright, neat lettering.”“一如既往，所有用大写字母。笔直、整洁的字迹。With that, the subject was exhausted, and not another word was exchanged for almost a minute. The retired policeman leaned back in his

3、kitchen chair and drew on his pipe. He knew he was no longer expected to come up with a pithy comment or any sharp question which would shed a new light on the case. Those days had long since passed, and the exchange between the two men seemed like a ritual attaching to a mystery which no-one else i

4、n the whole world had the least interest in unravelling.于是，话题枯竭了，连一分钟的其余交谈也没有。退休警察向后靠在厨房椅子上，抽着烟斗。他知道，他再也不指望提出有力的意见或者敏锐的疑问，给这个案子带来新的希望。那些日子早过去了，两人间的交流似乎成为一种仪式，依附于一个谜团整个世界上没有其他人有一点解决的兴趣。 The Latin name was Leptospermum （Myrtaceae） rubinette. It was a plant about four inches high with small, heather-li

5、ke foliage and a white flower with five petals about one inch across. The plant was native to the Australian bush and uplands, where it was to be found among tussocks of grass. 拉丁名字是麦卢卡（桃金娘科）拉比尼特。它是约四英寸高一英寸宽的植物，长着石楠似的叶子和五瓣白花。这种植物源于澳大利亚灌木和高地，在草丛中被发现。There it was called Desert Snow. Someone at the bot

6、anical gardens in Uppsala would later confirm that it was a plant seldom cultivated in Sweden. The botanist wrote in her report that it was related to the tea tree and that it was sometimes confused with its more common cousin Leptospermum scoparium, which grew in abundance in New Zealand. What dist

7、inguished them, she pointed out, was that rubinette had a small number of microscopic pink dots at the tips of the petals, giving the flower a faint pinkish tinge.在这里它被叫做沙漠之雪。乌普萨拉植物园的人随后会确认，它是一种在瑞典很少种植的植物。这位植物学家在她的报告里写到，它与茶树有关系，有时候与它更加普遍的表亲，在新西兰大量生长的松红梅混淆。她指出它们的区别在于，拉比尼特花瓣尖端有少量显微镜下可见的粉色圆点，让花朵略微显淡粉色。

8、Rubinette was altogether an unpretentious flower. It had no known medicinal properties, and it could not induce hallucinatory experiences. It was neither edible, nor had a use in the manufacture of plant dyes. On the other hand, the aboriginal people of Australia regarded as sacred the region and th

9、e flora around Ayers Rock.拉比尼特根本是一种不显眼的花。它没有已知的药用功能，也不能引起幻觉。它即不能食用，也不能用于植物染料制造业。另一方面，澳大利亚土著把艾尔斯山周边区域和植物奉若神明。The botanist said that she herself had never seen one before, but after consulting her colleagues she was to report that attempts had been made to introduce the plant at a nursery in Gteborg,

10、and that it might, of course, be cultivated by amateur botanists. It was difficult to grow in Sweden because it thrived in a dry climate and had to remain indoors half of the year. It would not thrive in calcareous soil and it had to be watered from below. It needed pampering.这位植物学家说，她以前从未见过，咨询同事后，她

11、报告哥德堡已有将这种植物引入苗圃的努力，当然，它也许会被业余植物学家种植。因为它在干燥气候生长繁茂，必须在室内保存半年，所以在瑞典难以种植。它不能在石灰土里茂盛生长，必须从下面浇水。它需要百般呵护。The fact of its being so rare a flower ought to have made it easier to trace the source of this particular specimen, but in practice it was an impossible task. There was no registry to look it up in, n

12、o licences to explore. Anywhere from a handful to a few hundred enthusiasts could have had access to seeds or plants. And those could have changed hands between friends or been bought by mail order from anywhere in Europe, anywhere in the Antipodes.作为如此稀有的一种花，这个事实理应让追溯这个特别标本的来源简易化，但实际上这是不可能的任务。没有登记处

13、可以去查询，没有执照可以被搜索。从少数乃至几百个爱好者那里，能够得到种子或者植株。它们可以在朋友间转手，或者从欧洲、新西兰、澳大利亚的任何地方被邮购。But it was only one in the series of mystifying flowers that each year arrived by post on the first day of November. They were always beautiful and for the most part rare flowers, always pressed, mounted on water-colour paper

14、 in a simple frame measuring six inches by eleven inches.但在每年十一月的第一天，被邮寄到的神秘花朵系列里，只有这次是这种花。它们通常漂亮，大部分罕见，总是被压紧，裱糊在水彩纸上，装在六英寸宽十一英寸长的简易框架里。The strange story of the flowers had never been reported in the press; only a very few people knew of it. Thirty years ago the regular arrival of the flower was the

15、 object of much scrutinyat the National Forensic Laboratory, among fingerprint experts, graphologists, criminal investigators, and one or two relatives and friends of the recipient. Now the actors in the drama were but three: the elderly birthday boy, the retired police detective, and the person who

16、 had posted the flower. 这些花朵的奇异故事从未被媒体报道过；只有少量人知晓。三十年前，花的定期到达是被详细审查的对象在国立法庭实验室，在指纹专家，笔迹学家，罪犯调查员，以及接收者的一两个亲戚朋友之间。现在这部戏的演员只有三个：过生日的老男人，退休警探，和邮寄花的人。The first two at least had reached such an age that the group of interested parties would soon be further diminished.前两个人至少已经到了这样的年龄相关方面很快将进一步减少。The police

17、man was a hardened veteran. He would never forget his first case, in which he had had to take into custody a violent and appallingly drunk worker at an electrical substation before he caused others harm. During his career he had brought in poachers, wife beaters, con men, car thieves, and drunk driv

18、ers. He had dealt with burglars, drug dealers, rapists, and one deranged bomber. He had been involved in nine murder or manslaughter cases. In five of these the murderer had called the police himself and, full of remorse, confessed to having killed his wife or brother or some other relative. Two oth

19、ers were solved within a few days. Another required the assistance of the National Criminal Police and took two years.这位警察是个强硬的老手。他永远不会忘记他的第一宗案子，他必须趁一个狂暴的醉酒工人没有在配电所引起其它危害前，把他拘留。在他的职业生涯，他逮捕过偷渡者，虐妻者，偷车贼，醉酒驾驶员。他处理过夜贼，毒品贩，强奸犯，和一个精神错乱的投弹者。他涉入过九起谋杀案或者过失杀人案。其中五个谋杀犯自首，充满悔恨地承认杀害妻子、兄弟或其他亲戚。另外两起在几天内解决。又一起需要国家刑

20、事警察的协助，耗费两年。The ninth case was solved to the polices satisfaction, which is to say that they knew who the murderer was, but because the evidence was so insubstantial the public prosecutor decided not to proceed with the case. To the detective superintendents dismay, the statute of limitations eventu

21、ally put an end to the matter. But all in all he could look back on an impressive career.He was anything but pleased.第九起案子从警方来看解决得令人满意，就是说，他们知道谁是凶手，但是由于证据不足，公诉人决定不提起诉讼。让探长沮丧的是，诉讼时效最终了解了这宗案子。但是，总之，他有一段印象深刻的职业生涯可以回忆。他根本不高兴。For the detective, the “Case of the Pressed Flowers” had been nagging at him fo

22、r yearshis last, unsolved, and frustrating case. The situation was doubly absurd because after spending literally thousands of hours brooding, on duty and off, he could not say beyond doubt that a crime had indeed been committed.对于这位侦探，“压花案”多年来困扰着他他仅剩的，未解决的，令人沮丧的案子。在职和离职，他的的确确耗费了数以千计个小时的沉思，他不能毋庸置疑地说

23、，确实有犯罪被付诸实践。所以情况倍加荒谬。The two men knew that whoever had mounted the flowers would have worn gloves, that there would be no fingerprints on the frame or the glass. The frame could have been bought in camera shops or stationery stores the world over. There was, quite simply, no lead to follow. Most oft

24、en the parcel was posted in Stockholm, but three times from London, twice from Paris, twice from Copenhagen, once from Madrid, once from Bonn, and once from Pensacola, Florida. The detective superintendent had had to look it up in an atlas.两人知道，无论是谁，裱糊这些花朵都会戴手套，框架和玻璃上不会有指纹。框架可以是在全世界的摄影器材店或者文具店里购买。很明

25、显，没有导线以供追踪。包裹最多次是从斯德哥尔摩寄出，但有三次从伦敦，两次巴黎，两次哥本哈根，一次马德里，一次波恩，还有一次是从弗罗里达的彭萨科拉。探长不得不在地图上查阅。After putting down the telephone the eighty-two-year-old birthday boy sat for a long time looking at the pretty but meaningless flower whose name he did not yet know. Then he looked up at the wall above his desk. Th

26、ere hung forty-three pressed flowers in their frames. Four rows of ten, and one at the bottom with four. In the top row one was missing from the ninth slot. Desert Snow would be number forty-four.放下电话，这个过八十二岁生日的男人，看着他还不知道名字的花朵，漂亮，却无意义，就这么坐了很久。然后他抬头看桌子上方的墙壁。那儿挂着四十三个装框的压花。 四排，每排十个，另外在底部有一排，四个。顶部的那排，第九个位置空缺。沙漠之雪是第四十四个。Without warning he began to weep. He surprised himself with this sudden burst of emotion after almost forty years.毫无预兆地，他开始哭泣。几乎过去了四十年，情感的突然爆发让他自己吃了一惊。