巴斯克维尔的猎犬 华生医生的第一份报告（1）（在线收听）

　　Chapter 8 - First Report of Dr. Watson

　　第八章 华生医生的第一份报告

　　From this point onward I will follow the course of events by transcribing my own letters toMr. Sherlock Holmes which lie before me on the table. One page is missing, but otherwise theyare exactly as written and show my feelings and suspicions of the moment more accurately thanmy memory, clear as it is upon these tragic events, can possibly do.

　　从此以后， 我要按照事情发生的前后， 把放在我面前的桌子上的、 我写给歇洛克· 福尔摩斯先生的信件抄录下来。 虽然其中一篇已经遗失， 但我相信我现在所写的内容与事实绝无出入。 我对这些可悲的事件记忆得很清楚， 可是这些信总还是能更准确地说明我当时的感觉和怀疑的。

　　Baskerville Hall, October 13th.

　　寄自巴斯克维尔庄园十月十三日

　　My dear Holmes:

　　我亲爱的福尔摩斯：

　　My previous letters and telegrams have kept you pretty well up to date as to all that hasoccurred in this most God-forsaken corner of the world. The longer one stays here the more doesthe spirit of the moor sink into one's soul, its vastness, and also its grim charm. When you are onceout upon its bosom you have left all traces of modern England behind you, but, on the other hand,you are conscious everywhere of the homes and the work of the prehistoric people. On all sides ofyou as you walk are the houses of these forgotten folk, with their graves and the huge monolithswhich are supposed to have marked their temples. As you look at their gray stone huts against thescarred hillsides you leave your own age behind you, and if you were to see a skin-clad, hairy mancrawl out from the low door fitting a flint-tipped arrow on to the string of his bow, you wouid feelthat his presence there was more natural than your own. The strange thing is that they should havelived so thickly on what must always have been most unfruitful soil. I am no antiquarian, but Icould imagine that they were some unwarlike and harried race who were forced to accept thatwhich none other would occupy.

　　我以前发的信和电报， 谅已使你及时地了 解了在这个最荒凉的角落里所发生的一切。 一个人在这里呆得愈久， 沼地的神貌就会愈深地渗入你的心灵， 它是那样的广大， 具有那样可怕的魔力。 只要你一到了 沼地的中心， 你就要看不到近代英国的丝毫的痕迹了： 可是另一方面， 你在这里到处都能看到史前人的房屋和劳动成果。 在你散步的时候， 四周都是这些被人遗忘的人们的房屋， 还有他们的坟墓和粗大的石柱， 这些石柱， 可能就标明了 他们的庙宇之所在。 当你在斑驳的山坡上看到那些用灰色岩石建成的小屋的时候， 你就会忘记你现在所处的年代了， 如果你竟看到从低矮的门洞里爬出一个身 披兽皮、 毛发茸茸的人， 将燧石箭头的箭搭在弓弦上， 你会感到他的出现比你本人在这里还要自然得多呢。 奇怪的倒是在这一直都是最贫瘠的土地上， 他们竟会住得那样稠密。 我并不是个考古学家， 可是我能想象得出， 他们都是些不喜争斗而受人蹂躏的种族， 被迫接受了这块谁也不愿居住的地方。