【前情回顾】：

福尔摩斯在与华生的第一次见面中就说出了华生曾去过阿富汗的事实，这让华生十分吃惊。而华生也体会到了福尔摩斯对于化学实验的热情。在互相了解对方的生活习性后，双方决定成为合租伙伴。一对奇妙的搭档就此展开新的生活。

【今日翻译】：

We met next day as he had arranged, and inspected(查看) the rooms of No. 221B, Baker Street.
We were both satisfied with the rooms, and agreed to take them there and then.
We gradually began to settle down(安顿下来) and get used to our new surroundings(周围环境).
第二天我们俩如约见面，去Baker 街看221B房子。
恩，房子瞅着挺好，我们挺满意，就直接拎行李入住。
安顿好后，去周围逛了逛，熟悉环境。

Holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with.
He was quiet in his ways, and his habits were regular.
It was rare for him to be up after ten at night, and he had breakfast and was gone before I rose in the morning.
Sometimes he went to the laboratory, sometimes to the rooms where students would dissect(解剖) corpses(尸体), sometimes to the most dangerous and criminal areas of the city.
我觉得Holmes挺好相处的。
他一般都很安静，而且是个超自律的人。
晚上10点基本只能在床上见到他，并且早上我还没起床，他就已经吃了早饭出门了。
一般他会去实验室啊，学生的解剖室啊，或者是城市里的重大犯案现场。

I have never seen anyone so energetic as he was when he was hard at work,
but now and again a reaction would take him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting-room,
hardly saying a word or moving a muscle(肌肉) from morning to night.
我从没见过哪个人想他这样热爱工作的，简直是个疯子。
好在，每结束一个反应的时候，他都会葛优瘫在沙发里要几天。
一句话不说，一动不动。只差空调wifi西瓜。

His appearance was such as to strike the attention(注意力) of anyone who saw him.
In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively thin that he seemed to be considerably taller.
His eyes were sharp(敏锐的) and intense(热切的), and his thin nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision.
他实在忒俊俏，人群里谁也看不到，只能一眼瞅到他。
估计他有六英尺（1米83）高，不过他太瘦了，所以看起来好像更高一点……
他的眼神敏锐又热情，高挺的鹰钩鼻让他的面貌平添了一份机警和决绝。

I must confess(承认) that I was extremely curious about this man, and tried very hard to get him to tell me something about himself—
which he seemed very reluctant(不情愿的) to do.
I had no friends and my health prevented me from going out, so I welcomed this mystery(谜) and tried my best to solve it.
我摸着良心说，我被他深深吸引了。特别听他讲他的所有事情——
不过他不乐意。
我没啥朋友，又因为健康问题只能宅在家，所以我牢牢抓住这个困惑，准备使出浑身解数找到答案。

He was not studying medicine, nor did he appear to have followed any course of reading which might fit him for a degree in science.
Yet his enthusiasm for certain studies was remarkable,
and his knowledge of certain unusual subjects was so extremely full and detailed(详尽的) that his observations sometimes astonished(使吃惊) me.
His ignorance(无知) was as remarkable as his knowledge.
He appeared to know next to nothing of contemporary(当代的) literature(文学), philosophy(哲学) and politics.
他没系统学过医学，也没像被人那样学该学的学位。
不过他对于某些领域的学习热情可真是让人印象深刻。
有些冷门偏僻的学科知识，他知道的炒鸡详尽，而且他的有些发现也让我大吃一斤。
然后，他的无知让我更加印象深刻……
像当代文学，哲学，政治学什么的，他竟然一概不知。

Upon my quoting(引用) Thomas Carlyle, he asked the simplest questions such as who he might be and what he had done.
And my surprise reached a peak(顶点) when I found that he was unaware of the Copernican Theory and of the composition(构成) of the Solar System(太阳系) .
我说道Thomas Carlyle（托马斯·卡莱尔）的时候，他竟然问我他是谁，做过啥。问的我一脸懵逼。
然后，我发现他甚至不知道 Copernican（哥白尼）理论和太阳系的构成……我的懵逼值达到了最高峰。

“You appear to be astonished(惊讶的),” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise.
“Now that I do know it, I will do my best to forget it.”
“To forget it!”
“你看起来好像很惊讶，”他看着我的一脸惊讶，好像觉得很好笑。“我就算知道这些知识，我也会努力的忘记它。：）”
“啥！忘了它！？”

“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty room, and you have to stock(摆放) it with such furniture as you choose.
A fool takes in all the junk(垃圾) he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out(被挤出),
or at best is mixed up(胡乱堆放) with a lot of other things so that he has difficulty in finding it.
Now the expert worker is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain.
He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, and he has a large collection of these tools, but all in the most perfect order.
The ‘room’ in one’s brain is of fixed and limited size, so there comes a time when, for every addition of knowledge, you forget something that you knew before.
It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts pushing out(挤出) the useful ones.”
“呐，我是觉得，一个人的大脑就像是一个空房间，你会往里面放入你想放入的家具。
笨蛋是一个劲儿的往里面扔所有他碰到的东西，包括垃圾。那他想放的喜欢的家具——也就是对他有用的知识——不是放不下了被挤出门外，就是藏在一堆垃圾里面难以找到。
而专家们会小心翼翼的选择要往大脑里放入什么。他们通常会放一些对他们的工作有用的工具，并且会分门别类井井有条。
一个人的大脑空间是固定且有限的，所以，如果你要往里面放入新知识，那就得把一个相应的旧知识扔掉。
这样才能保证，真正有用的东西，不会被那些垃圾挤出去。”

“But the Solar System(太阳系)!” I protested(抗议).
“What is it to me?” he said impatiently(不耐烦地), “you say that we go round the sun.
If we went round the moon, it would make no difference to me or to my work.”
“可是，太阳系爱！”我不认同！
“跟我有毛关系？”好吧他开始不耐烦了，“你说我们绕着太阳转。但如果它绕着月亮转，跟我的工作有啥影响？”

I was on the point of asking him what that work might be, but something in his manner showed me that the question would be an unwelcome one.
During the first week or so we had no visitors, and I had begun to think that my companion was as friendless a man as I was myself.
Presently, however, I found that he had many acquaintances(熟人), and those in the most different classes of society.
这时候我炒鸡想问他他的工作到底是啥，不过从他的言行举止看出来，好像他不会乐意谈论这个话题。
第一周我们基本上没啥访客，我还觉得，哎呦，我的同居者和我一样没啥朋友啊。
结果，最近啪啪打脸。我发现他有好多的熟人，简直遍布不同的社会阶层。

There was one little pale rat-faced(獐头鼠目的), dark eyed fellow who was introduced to me as Mr. Lestrade, and who came three or four times in a single week.
One morning a young girl called, fashionably dressed, and stayed for half an hour or more—closely followed by an elderly woman in dirty clothes.
On another occasion an old white-haired gentleman had an interview with my companion, and another time, a railway(铁路) porter in his uniform.
有一个人一周就来了三四趟。听说那个人叫Mr. Lestrade，不过长得贼眉鼠脸的，苍白的脸，黑色的眼珠子。
有天早上还来了个打扮时髦的小妞儿，呆了能有一个来小时。紧随其后还来了位脏兮兮的老大妈。
还有一次一位头发花白的老绅士也约了我的小伙伴。除了这个，小伙伴还见过一个穿制服的铁路搬运工。

At such times Sherlock Holmes used to beg for the use of the sitting-room, and I would go back to my bed-room.
He always apologized to me for putting me to this inconvenience(不便).
“I have to use this room as a place of business,” he said, “and these people are my clients(客户).”
Again I had an opportunity of asking him a point-blank question,
and again my delicacy(审慎) prevented me from forcing another man to confide(吐露秘密) in me.
我为啥能记这么清楚？还不是因为每到他们要见面的时候，我的同居者都会求我把起居室让给他们作为会谈室，我就回我卧室葛优躺。
关于这点，他老是跟我道歉说麻烦我了，“我得用这屋子作为会谈室，这些人是我的客户。”
这时候我都觉得我是有机会问他，他到底是干啥的，不过，出于对他人的尊重，我都把问题咽回去了。还是不强迫的好，等他自己想说的时候说吧。

over，不定时翻译。