阿加莎·克里斯蒂的谜样人生

乱吠的猎狗如蛆附骨
and yelping hounds following me everywhere.
我一直很厌恶骂名这种东西
I had always hated notoriety of every kind,
而现在我也饱尝了臭名昭著的滋味
and now I had had such a dose of it,
有时候甚至让我想放弃生命”
that at some moments I felt I could hardly bear to go on living.”
-可怜的女人 -我想说
– Poor woman. – I mean what it is…
能这么坦率直白地写出来真是了不起
what an honest thing to actually write.
但她就只留下这么多内容
But that’s all.
那么 你能帮我找到更多吗
So, can you help me any more?
好吧
Well…
她是以笔名玛丽·维斯马科特
Where she really wrote about it
真正写下这段经历的 这本书
is as Mary Westmacott, and this book –
所以你是说
So whoa. So, you’re saying…
她把这段经历写进小说里了
she let it out in a novel?
没错 她确实写进去了
She did. She did. She really did.
她用笔名玛丽·维斯马科特写的小说
These Mary Westmacott novels
事实上并不出名 总共有六本
which not particularly well known. There are six of them.
她在1930至1956年间写就这些书
She wrote them between 1930 and 1956.
也就是说 作为一名侦探小说家
So, when she’s at the peak of her powers
她在事业巅峰的时候
as a detective-fiction writer,
同时创作了和自己风格完全相反的作品
she’s writing the absolute opposite of those books,
她的侦探小说一直都很干净利落
you know, which are neat and tidy.
一切都有答案 一切都是…
Everything’s resolved. Everything’s, you know –
故事最后有情感的宣泄
that little catharsis at the end,
然后世界又重归平静
the world restored to itself.
这些维斯马科特小说则截然不同
These Westmacotts are the exact opposite.
故事里充满了矛盾冲突 情感起伏
Everything’s churned up, everything’s emotional,
还有种种未解的谜团
everything’s unexplained.
她在深入挖掘自己
She’s digging deep into herself,
试图理解在现实生活中
trying to understand everything
困扰她的各种问题
that puzzles her in real life.
而她写下的这些小说
And she’s writing these really rather…
虽然不如她的侦探小说出名
They’re not as accomplished as the detective fiction,
但却有着不可思议的力量
but they’re incredibly powerful,
而且这可能是你能找到的
and they are probably the best clue to her
了解她的最佳线索
that you’re gonna find.
用笔名发表的小说吗
Under a pseudonym?
没错 在笔名保护之下
Yes. Protected by the pseudonym.
她的消失会不会永远是个谜呢
So, her disappearance will always remain a mystery, or not?
我们无从得知她当时的思绪
It’s a mystery in the sense that we would
这位可怜的女人经历了怎样的苦楚
never know what was going on in the poor woman’s head,
这的确是个谜
what anguish she went through.
但我们多少能了解她当时的情感状态
It’s not a mystery in the sense that,
从这个层面上讲 谜题多少有了答案
in the emotional context, we kind of know.
当然 她为了挽回丈夫付出的所有努力
And of course, everything she did to get that man back
也决定了她永远不可能挽回他
determined that she would never get him back,
个人的悲剧已经变成了公众焦点
because a private tragedy became this public sensation,
我想这就是
and I think that’s as good
你能找到最好的解答了吧
an explanation as you’re gonna get, really.
阿加莎和阿尔奇于1928年离婚
Agatha and Archie were divorced in 1928.
在哈罗盖特的土耳其水疗吧里
In Harrogate’s Turkish spa,
我回想着了解到的信息
I reflected on what I’d learned.
这一定是阿加莎一生中最煎熬的日子
It must have been a dreadful period in Agatha’s life.
我想大部分人都得经历
I imagine most of us have got to
这样一个无法冷静思考的时期
the stage where you can’t think straight any more,
脑中时刻紧绷着一根弦
and you get that tight band around the head.
至少我有过
I know I have.
我想我们永远无法弄清楚到底发生了什么
I don’t think we’ll ever know what really happened.
但我们能确定的是这段痛苦的历程
But we do know that this whole painful experience
开启了阿加莎·克里斯蒂生活的新篇章
was the beginning of a new phase in the life of Agatha Christie.
她想要做个了结 彻底关上这扇大门
It’s as though she wanted to just slam the door on it all,
在她的自传里有这样一段详细描述
and she describes it quite vividly in her autobiography.
“我知道想要重新开始
“I knew that the only hope of starting again
只能彻底远离
was to go right away from
那些摧毁我生活的事物
all the things that had wrecked life for me.
在经过这许多事情之后
There could be no peace for me in England now,
在英格兰我已经找不到平静了”
after all I had gone through.”
旅程的下一站
On the next leg of my journey,
我必须去更远的地方
I’d have to go further afield,
去了解阿加莎离开英格兰之后
to find out what happened when Agatha left England,
这趟极大地改变了她生活的旅行
on a voyage that would change her life in more ways than one.
第二部分结束
第二部分结束
第三部分
第三部分
伊斯坦布尔 被称为东西交汇的城市
Istanbul, the city where it’s said that east meets west.
1928年 在与阿尔奇离婚之后
In 1928, following her divorce from Archie,
阿加莎·克里斯蒂渴望冒险
Agatha Christie was craving adventure,
所以她一时兴起乘着东方快车
so, on a whim, came to Istanbul
途径巴格达
on the Orient Express,
来到了伊斯坦布尔
en route to Baghdad.
这是她情迷东方世界的开始
It marked the beginning of a love affair with the East
这种情结一直延续了四十多年
that would last for over 40 years,
对她的生活和写作都有着深远的影响
one which would have a profound effect on her life and writing.
也正是她把故事设定在充满异域风情的国度
And it was her use of exotic locations in stories
比如《尼罗河上的惨案》和《东方快车谋杀案》
like Death On The Nile and Murder On The Orient Express
让她区别于同时代的其他作家
that really set her apart from her contemporaries.
我要去拜访芭芭拉·纳德尔
I’m meeting Barbara Nadel,
她也被称为土耳其的侦探小说女王
otherwise known as the queen of Turkish crime-writing.
尽管出生于伦敦
Though born in London,
芭芭拉笔下的故事大多发生在伊斯坦布尔
most of Barbara’s stories are set in Istanbul,
而她的小说深受阿加莎·克里斯蒂的影响
and her novels have been strongly influenced by Agatha Christie.
-你好 大卫 很高兴见到你 -你好
– Hi, David. Nice to meet you. – Hello, how are you.
-欢迎[土耳其语] -谢谢
– Hosgeldiniz. – Thank you.
欢迎来到伊斯坦布尔 请跟我来
Welcome to Istanbul. Please come in.
芭芭拉带我来到锡尔凯吉火车站
Barbara took me to Sirkeci Station,
阿加莎和波洛正是在这里登上东方快车
where both Agatha and Poirot once boarded the Orient Express.
我想要了解更多阿加莎这段时期的生活
I wanted to know more about this period in Agatha’s life
《东方快车谋杀案》
以及这对国内读者的影响
and the effect it had on her readers back home.
你怎么知道阿加莎·克里斯蒂的呢
What was your introduction to Agatha Christie?
小时候我们家有很多她的书
We had her books at home,
孩提时代的我就拿来看
so I picked them up as a kid
读完之后觉得 “这些书真不错”
and read them and thought, “These are good.”
作家
当你还小的时候 你不会想太多
And when you’re a young child, you don’t think too much about it,
随着年龄增长 我开始阅读更多的侦探小说
but as I got older, I started reading more crime fiction,
但最后我总会回到阿加莎·克里斯蒂
but I always went back to Agatha Christie.
且不说别的原因
Because I think apart from anything else,
她为侦探小说增添了不同的元素
one of the extra dimensions that she brings to crime fiction,
其中之一就是英式的惬意之感
that was so extraordinary at that time, was,
但也不乏惊险刺♥激♥
you’ve got this sort of English cosiness about it,
这在当时是非同寻常的
but you’ve also got this edge.
这些不仅体现在情节的发展
Not just in terms of the plots
以及人物心理的变化
and her psychological development of the characters,
更是体现在… 她游历各国
but also the edge of…she went abroad.
她将谜案的发生地
You know, she set mysteries in places
设定在伊♥拉♥克♥和埃及
like Iraq and… and Egypt.
这些地方曾在大英帝国的统治之下
And these were places that… I mean at the time Britain had an empire,
所以英国人知道这些地方
so British people were aware of these places,
但他们没有去过那里
but they didn’t go to these places,
除非他们是随军前往
unless they went with the army,
当然这就是另外一回事了
but I mean that was a different thing.
-非常有意思 -没错
– So interesting. – Yes. Yes, it is.
她要有意思的多
Yeah, she’s a lot more…
她可不仅仅是…
She’s a lot more fascinating than…
人们心里那种瘦小的英国老太太
you know, I think People get this idea, old little English lady.
-她可远不只是这样 -没错
– She was a hell of a lot more than that. – Yes.
她是位十足的女探险家
She was a real adventuress.
正是在这趟旅行中
It was on that trip that
阿加莎第一次参与了考古挖掘工作
Agatha went to her first archaeological dig,
她对此非常痴迷
and she was fascinated by it.
而通过这个新的兴趣
And it was through this new interest that
她遇到了此生挚爱
she was introduced to a young archaeologist