《血字的研究》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy’s country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.

一八七八年，我在伦敦大学取得了医学博士学位，随后前往内特利，接受为陆军外科医生规定的课程。在那里完成学业后，我正式被编入诺森伯兰第五燧发枪团，担任助理外科医生。该团当时驻扎在印度，我还没来得及归队，第二次阿富汗战争就爆发了。在孟买登陆后，我得知我所属的部队已经穿过山口，深入敌国腹地。尽管如此，我还是和许多与我处境相同的军官一起随后赶去，并安全抵达坎大哈，在那里找到了我的团，随即开始了新的职责。

The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.

这场战役给许多人带来了荣誉和晋升，但对我来说，只有不幸和灾难。我被调离原来的旅，编入伯克郡团，随该团参加了致命的迈万德战役。在那里，我的肩膀被一颗杰泽尔子弹击中，子弹打碎了骨头，擦伤了锁骨下动脉。要不是我的勤务兵默里表现出忠诚和勇气，把我横放在一匹驮马上，成功将我安全送回英军防线，我早就落入那些凶残的加齐之手了。

Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawar. Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards, and even to bask a little upon the verandah, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was dispatched, accordingly, in the troopship “Orontes,” and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it.

由于伤痛折磨，又因长期艰苦而虚弱不堪，我和一大批伤员一起被送往白沙瓦的基地医院。在那里，我逐渐恢复，已经好转到能在病房里走动，甚至还能在阳台上晒一会儿太阳，这时我又被肠热病击倒了，那是我们在印度属地的一大祸害。有好几个月，我的生命都被认为没有希望了，等到我终于清醒过来并逐渐康复时，我已经虚弱消瘦得让医疗委员会决定，必须一天也不能耽搁地把我送回英国。于是，我被送上运兵船「奥龙特斯号」，一个月后在朴茨茅斯码头登陆，健康已经无可挽回地毁了，但慈父般的政府准许我在接下来的九个月里设法改善健康。

I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air—or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought. So alarming did the state of my finances become, that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living. Choosing the latter alternative, I began by making up my mind to leave the hotel, and to take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile.

我在英国既无亲人也无朋友，因此自由得像空气一样，或者说，自由得就像每天十一先令六便士的收入所能允许一个人达到的程度。在这种情况下，我自然被吸引到伦敦去，那是一个巨大的污水池，帝国所有游手好闲和无所事事的人都被不可抗拒地排了进去。我在河滨大道的一家私人旅馆住了一段时间，过着既不舒适又无意义的生活，花起手头的钱来远远超过了我应该花的程度。我的财务状况变得如此令人担忧，以至于我很快意识到，我要么离开首都，到乡下去过安静的生活，要么彻底改变我的生活方式。我选择了后一种办法，首先下定决心离开那家旅馆，搬到一个不那么体面、也不那么昂贵的住处去。