神祕的東方快車-

神祕的東方快車-The True History of the Orient Express-(1)

Spies used it as a secret weapon. A president tumbled from it. Hitler wanted it destroyed. Just what made this train so intriguing? 間諜利用它作祕密武器。有一位總統從火車上掉下。希特勒想毀滅它。到底什麼事使它變得如此詭異?

^{在當時旅行仍然是粗糙和危險時，東方快車所展示的是，豪華和舒適著稱的旅行-包括臥舖和餐車。在1883年6月5日 第一列東方快車離開巴黎到達維也納。直到1883年10月4日，維也納仍然是終點站。列車在1891年正式更名為東方快車。}

                                                                1883年首部列車

Georges Nagelmackers, creator of the Orient Express, envisioned “a train that would span a continent, running on a continuous ribbon of metal for more than 1,500 miles,” writes one historian.

喬治 Nagelmackers, 東方快車的創造者, 構想 「一列火車橫跨大陸, 運行在一個連續的金屬帶「鐵道」上超過1500英里」， 一位歷史學家如此寫道。

To most people the Orient Express is more an idea than a tangible entity. We are most familiar with its life in fiction and cinema: Hercule Poirot solved his most famous case on it, Alfred Hitchock’s lady vanished from it and James Bond rode it from Istanbul to London.

     

               當時廣告                                                            伊斯坦堡終點站                                                          

對大多數人來說，東方快車与其說是一個有形的實體，不如說是個想法。我們最熟悉它在小說和電影中的生龍活現: 在火車上波波洛-偵探，破解了他最著名的案件、專拍緊張片的希區考克導演，片中的女士從車上消失了， 並且007詹姆士·邦德，乘坐它從土耳其伊斯坦堡到倫敦。

Now, the latest iteration of the legendary train is chugging back to the big screen as director Kenneth Branagh tries his hand at remaking Agatha Christie’s classic murder-mystery tale.

現在, 這部傳奇列車的最新一次隆隆地再現在大銀幕上，是由導演肯尼士布拉納試圖重塑，愛葛莎的經典謀殺案的神秘故事。

But what was the real Orient Express like, how did it first attain its aura of mystery and intrigue and what was the famous train’s ultimate fate?

                              當時行駛路線圖(跨越黑海用海路接駁)

但東方快車的真正的面貌如何? 它是如何第一次達到它的神秘和陰謀的光環？這列著名的列車的終極命運又如何?

A Continental Vision (歐陸的景觀)

In 1865, a prominent Belgian banker’s son named Georges Nagelmackers first envisioned “a train that would span a continent, running on a continuous ribbon of metal for more than 1,500 miles,” as E. H. Cookridge writes in Orient Express: The Life and Times of the World’s Most Famous Train. During a trip to America, Nagelmackers witnessed the many innovations in railway travel there—chief among them George Pullman’s unprecedented, luxurious “sleeper cars”—and he returned determined to realize his vision.

                                    

                         Georges Nagelmackers, founder of the CIWL-火車發明人

在 1865年, 一個著名的比利時銀行家的兒子名叫喬治 Nagelmackers，首先設想 「一列火車將橫跨大陸，行駛在一個連續的金屬絲帶(鐵路)上超過1500英里」，正如Cookridge 在「東方快車」影片上寫道: 世界最有名火車的生命和時代。在一次美國之旅中, Nagelmackers 目睹了美國鐵路旅行中許多的創新事物--其中最主要的是，喬治鉑爾曼設計，令人意想不到与豪華的「臥鋪車」--因此他回來后就決心實現他的願景。

In 1883, after a number of false starts, financial troubles and difficulties negotiating with various national railway companies,  Nagelmackers’s Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (wagons-lits being French for “sleeper cars”) established a route from Paris to Istanbul, then called Constantinople. The newspapers dubbed it the “Orient Express”—though Istanbul was as far toward the “Orient” as this train would ever travel—and Nagelmackers embraced the name.

1883年開始經歷許多錯誤、財務困難和遭遇到，與各種不同的全國鐵路公司談判的困難之後，Nagelmackers 的公司國際貨車-Lits (wagon-Lits 是法語 "臥鋪車"之義) 建立了從巴黎到伊斯坦堡的路線，當時叫君士坦丁堡。報紙把它稱為 "東方快車"--雖然伊斯坦堡離 "東方"之路途，就如同這列火車將會行駛的距離一樣遙遠, --但Nagelmackers 還是欣然接受這個名字。

On October 4, the Orient Express set out on its first formal journey, with many journalists aboard to publicly marvel at the train’s luxury and beauty. (Nagelmackers, a clever showman, even arranged to have shoddy, decaying old Pullman cars stand in contrast on the tracks adjacent to the Express as it left Paris’s Gare de Strasbourg.) Aboard the train, the delighted passengers felt as though they’d entered one of Europe’s finest hotels; they marveled at the intricate wooden paneling, deluxe leather armchairs, silk sheets and wool blankets for the beds. The journey from Paris to Istanbul lasted a little over 80 hours.

在 10月4日, 東方快車開始了它的第一次正式旅途，載有許多新聞工作者，以公開讚嘆這列火車的豪華和秀麗。「Nagelmackers, 是一位聰明的作秀專家, 他甚至在鐵道附近安排有偽劣，腐朽的老普爾曼火車車廂(1831-897年美國坐臥兩用)，以作為對照。當它離開巴黎的斯特拉斯堡火車站時」。在火車上, 高興的乘客感覺好像他們住進了歐洲最好的飯店之一；他們驚歎于錯綜複雜的木製鑲板、豪華的真皮扶手椅、絲綢床單和床上的羊毛毯。從巴黎到伊斯坦布爾的旅程走了80小時多一點。

The King of Trains (火車之王)

Some kings traveling onboard the train infamously exhibited very odd behavior. Ferdinand of Bulgaria, scared to death of assassins, was observed locking himself in the bathroom. Belgium’s King Leopold II rode the train to Istanbul after making elaborate arrangements to infiltrate a Turkish man’s harem. The king of Bulgaria, an amateur engineer, insisted that he be allowed to drive the train through his country, which he did at perilous speeds. Czar Nicholas II demanded that special cars be built for his visit to France, and some decades later the French President Paul Deschanel clumsily tumbled from one of these cars in the dead of night, an event that prompted such ridicule that he eventually resigned.

                

Badge of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits on a car of the Orient Express- 國際臥鋪快車標誌

一些國王乘坐火車臭名昭彰地做出非常奇怪的糗事。其中包括：十分害怕刺客的保加利亞國王，費迪南，竟嚇得被發現把自己鎖在浴室裡不敢出來。比利時國王利奧波德二世，在精心安排潛入土耳其人的後宮後，乘坐火車到伊斯坦布爾。保加利亞國王，一位業餘工程師堅持認為，由他駕駛火車通過他的國家，結果他以(狂奔)危險的車速辦到了。沙皇尼古拉二世要求，為他的法國之旅建造特別的火車車廂。幾十年後, 法國總統保羅. 佐伊德夏內爾，深夜時分笨拙地從其中一輛車廂上摔了下來，此事件造成如此大笑話，而導致他最終辭職。

待續

Justin Lai 編譯

11/17/2017