The
Murders in the Rue Morgue es un cuento de Edgar
Allan Poe publicado en 1841. Ha sido descripto como la primera
historia moderna de detectives. Dupin
resuelve el misterio del brutal asesinato de dos mujeres.
Todos los testigos escucharon diferentes idiomas:
podría haber sido en castellano, inglés, francés o ruso. No coinciden entre
ellos. Era una voz gruesa. Más abajo unos
párrafos de la historia en inglés.
En vocabulario encontramos outré, gruff, y denizens.
Paragraphs
… It was his humor, now, to decline all conversation
on the subject of the murder, until about noon the next day. He then asked me,
suddenly, if I had observed any thing peculiar at the scene of the atrocity.
There was something in his manner of emphasizing the
word "peculiar," which caused me to shudder, without knowing why.
"No, nothing peculiar," I said;
"nothing more, at least, than we both saw stated in the paper."
"The 'Gazette,'" he replied, "has not
entered, I fear, into the unusual horror of the thing. But dismiss the idle
opinions of this print. It appears to me that this mystery is considered
insoluble, for the very reason which should cause it to be regarded as easy of
solution—I mean for the outræ character of
its features.
The police are confounded by the seeming absence of
motive—not for the murder itself—but for the atrocity of the murder. They are
puzzled, too, by the seeming impossibility of reconciling the voices heard in
contention, with the facts that no one was discovered up stairs but the
assassinated Mademoiselle L'Espanaye, and that there were no means of egress
without the notice of the party ascending. The wild disorder of the room; the
corpse thrust, with the head downward, up the chimney; the frightful mutilation
of the body of the old lady; these considerations, with those just mentioned,
and others which I need not mention, have sufficed to paralyze the powers, by
putting completely at fault the boasted acumen, of the government agents. They
have fallen into the gross but common error of confounding the unusual with the
abstruse. But it is by these deviations from the plane of the ordinary, that
reason feels its way, if at all, in its search for the true. In investigations
such as we are now pursuing, it should not be so much asked 'what has
occurred,' as 'what has occurred that has never occurred before.' In fact, the
facility with which I shall arrive, or have arrived, at the solution of this
mystery, is in the direct ratio of its apparent insolubility in the eyes of the
police."
I stared at the speaker in mute astonishment.
"I am now awaiting," continued he, looking
toward the door of our apartment—"I am now awaiting a person who, although
perhaps not the perpetrator of these butcheries, must have been in some measure
implicated in their perpetration. Of the worst portion of the crimes committed,
it is probable that he is innocent. I hope that I am right in this supposition;
for upon it I build my expectation of reading the entire riddle. I look for the
man here—in this room—every moment. It is true that he may not arrive; but the
probability is that he will. Should he come, it will be necessary to detain
him. Here are pistols; and we both know how to use them when occasion demands
their use."
I took the pistols, scarcely knowing what I did, or
believing what I heard, while Dupin went on, very much as if in a soliloquy. I
have already spoken of his abstract manner at such times. His discourse was addressed
to myself; but his voice, although by no means loud, had that intonation which
is commonly employed in speaking to some one at a great distance. His eyes,
vacant in expression, regarded only the wall.
"That the voices heard in contention," he
said, "by the party upon the stairs, were not the voices of the women
themselves, was fully proved by the evidence. This relieves us of all doubt
upon the question whether the old lady could have first destroyed the daughter
and afterward have committed suicide. I speak of this point chiefly for the
sake of method; for the strength of Madame L'Espanaye would have been utterly
unequal to the task of thrusting her daughter's corpse up the chimney as it was
found; and the nature of the wounds upon her own person entirely preclude the
idea of self-destruction. Murder, then, has been committed by some third party;
and the voices of this third party were those heard in contention. Let me now
advert—not to the whole testimony respecting these voices—but to what was peculiar
in that testimony. Did you observe any thing peculiar about it?"
I remarked that, while all the witnesses agreed in
supposing the gruff voice to be that of a Frenchman,
there was much disagreement in regard to the shrill, or, as one individual
termed it, the harsh voice.
"That was the evidence itself," said
Dupin, "but it was not the peculiarity of the evidence. You have observed
nothing distinctive. Yet there was something to be observed. The witnesses, as
you remark, agreed about the gruff voice; they were here unanimous. But in
regard to the shrill voice, the peculiarity is—not that they disagreed—but
that, while an Italian, an Englishman, a Spaniard, a Hollander, and a Frenchman
attempted to describe it, each one spoke of it as that of a foreigner. Each is
sure that it was not the voice of one of his own countrymen. Each likens it—not
to the voice of an individual of any nation with whose language he is
conversant—but the converse. The Frenchman supposes it the voice of a Spaniard,
and 'might have distinguished some words had he been acquainted with the
Spanish.' The Dutchman maintains it to have been that of a Frenchman; but we
find it stated that 'not understanding French this witness was examined through
an interpreter.' The Englishman thinks it the voice of a German, and 'does not
understand German.' The Spaniard 'is sure' that it was that of an Englishman,
but 'judges by the intonation' altogether, 'as he has no knowledge of the
English.' The Italian believes it the voice of a Russian, but 'has never
conversed with a native of Russia.' A second Frenchman differs, moreover, with
the first, and is positive that the voice was that of an Italian; but, not
being cognizant of that tongue, is, like the Spaniard, 'convinced by the
intonation.' Now, how strangely unusual must that voice have really been, about
which such testimony as this could have been elicited!—in whose tones, even, denizens of the five great divisions of Europe could
recognise nothing familiar!…
Ilustración de Byam Shaw del libro de Poe
Vocabulary
Outré: violating
convention or propriety: bizarre. Queer.
Eccentric.
His art is a bit too outré
for most people to enjoy.
Gruff: Hoarse; harsh.
Synonyms: hoarse, rough, harsh, rasping, husky, low, croaking, throaty, gutural.
Gruff: brusca, tosca,
hosca.
He spoke in a gruff voice.
Denizen:
inhabitant, one that frequents a place. Frequenter.
Denizen:
Habitantes. Pobladores.
One of those muscle-bound denizens
of the gym.
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