The Greatest Escapist1

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二战的众多英雄故事之外，有些人的爱情故事更加富有传奇色彩，霍勒斯·格里斯雷就是其中的一位。这名英国士兵的作战经历并不辉煌，但在战俘营里他邂逅了敌军一名女翻译，从此开启了二百多次越狱的惊险历程，与敌军女友上演了一场生死之恋。

Do the Birds Still in Hell 一书封面

Like so many captured British soldiers in the Second World War, he tried constantly2. constantly: 持续不断地，经常地。to escape. But despite crossing the wire over 200 times, Horace Greasley would always creep back in to captivity.3. Horace Greasley: 霍勒斯·格里斯雷（1918—2010），二战时英国士兵，1940年5月被德国俘虏，称自己为了与恋人见面越狱超过二百次；creep: 悄悄地小心地进行；captivity: 囚禁，关押。

This incredible story of the young PoW sneaking out for snatched moments with his German sweetheart is testament to the enduring power of love amid the hatred and suffering of war.4. 这个年轻战俘悄悄逃出去与他的德国恋人幽会，这个难以置信的故事证明了在战争的仇恨和痛苦中爱情的不朽力量。incredible: 难以置信的；PoW: = prison of war，战俘；be testament to:是……的证明； enduring: 持久的，不朽的。

Discovery would have meant death by firing squad5. firing squad:（执行枪决的）行刑队。for Horace, but the risks run by his lover Rosa Rauchenbach were just as great. Having hidden her Jewish roots from the Nazis, she was an interpreter at the camp where he was held.6. Jewish: 犹太人的；interpreter: 口译者，传译员。

At the age of 90, Horace recounted his exploits in a book,Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?7. recount: 叙述，描述；exploit:（一般用复数）英勇的行为。Now, the wartime8. wartime: 战时。romance is being turned into a Hollywood movie.

When Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in Spring 1939,20-year-old Horace was working as a barber in his home town of Ibstock, Leicestershire.9. Czechoslovakia: 捷克斯洛伐克，是1918年10月28日至1992年12月31日存在的联邦制国家，原名捷克斯洛伐克共和国；Ibstock: 伊布斯托克，英格兰莱塞特郡的一座村庄；Leicestershire: 莱塞特郡（位于英格兰中部）。

One of his clients offered him a safe, well-paid job as a fireman, but Horace opted to10. opt to do sth.: 选择做某事。join the army. After seven weeks training with the 2nd/5th Batallion Leicestershire Regiment, he was sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force.11. 2nd/5th Batallion Leicestershire Regiment: 莱塞特军团第五营第二连；British Expeditionary Force: 英国远征军。

Captured by the Wehrmacht during the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940,12. capture: 俘虏，逮捕；Wehmacht:（德国）国防军；retreat: 撤退；Dunkirk: 敦刻尔克，法国东北部靠近比利时边境的港口城市，以二战中1940年发生在这里的敦刻尔克战役和英法军队大撤退而闻名。Horace had to endure a 10-week forced march across France, Belgium and Holland. Exhausted and malnourished, he ended up in a marble quarry labour camp in Polish Silesia.13. exhausted: 筋疲力尽的；malnourished: 营养不良的；quarry: 采石场；labour camp: 劳改营；Silesia: 西里西亚，中欧的一个历史地域名称。目前该地域的绝大部分地区属于波兰，小部分则属于捷克和德国。

Rosa, the 17-year-old daughter of the quarry director,was working as an interpreter in the camp. Horace recalls an instant mutual attraction, and the two snatched meetings whenever they could.14. recall: 回想，回忆起；instant: 立刻的，马上的；mutual: 相互的；attraction: 爱慕。

But the two were forced apart when Horace was transferred to Freiwaldau,15. transfer: 转移（地方）；Freiwaldau: 弗雷沃尔德，捷克东北部城镇。40 miles away. To see his lover Horace had to remove the wooden bars from his cell window, crawl under the camp’s perimeter fence, and make a break for the chapel that was the location for each rendezvous.16. 为了见自己的爱人，霍勒斯不得不拆掉牢房窗户上的木条，从集中营周围的栅栏下面匍匐爬过去，快速跑到每次约会的小教堂。crawl:爬；perimeter:（军营的）四周；chapel: 小教堂；rendezvous:（秘密的）约会，会面。

Once out, Horace had no chance of escape. The nearest neutral17. neutral: 中立的。country was Sweden, 420 miles to the North.Instead, he would creep back into the camp under the noses of his captors18. captor: 捉拿者。, often with packets of food for his comrades.

These illicit trysts were not Horace’s only act of de fiance.19. illicit: 非法的；tryst: 幽会；de fiance: 违抗。An incredible photo shows the emaciated prisoner face-to-face with SS leader Heinrich Himmler.20. emaciated: 憔悴的；SS: 党卫队，为德文Schutz（护卫、防护、亲卫）与德文Staffel（团队、编群、队伍）的组合词，英文普遍简称为SS，是德国纳粹党中用于执行治安勤务的编制之一；Heinrich Himmler: 海因里希·希姆莱（1900—1945），纳粹德国的一名重要的政治头目，曾为内政部长、党卫队首领。Showing the mass murderer his protruding ribs, he demanded more food for Allied PoWs.21. protruding: 突出的；rib: 肋骨； Allied PoW: 盟军战俘。

年老时候的Horace Greasley

二战时期的Horace Greasley

In 1945, Freiwaldau was liberated22. liberate: 解放。by the Allies. Although Horace travelled back to England and Rosa became a translator for the Americans, the two continued to communicate by letter.

But the correspondence suddenly stopped when Rosa died in childbirth.23. correspondence: 通信联系；childbirth: 分娩。Horace never found out if the baby—who also perished24. perish: 死亡。—was his.

Swearing he would never take orders from anyone again,Horace ran a hairdresser’s, a taxi company and a haulage firm back in Leicestershire.25. 霍勒斯发誓再也不会听命于任何人，他回到莱塞特郡后先后经营过理发店、出租车公司和货运公司。haulage: 货运。He met his wife Brenda in 1970, they married in 1975, and retired to Spain in 1988.

Aged 89, Horace was introduced to the ghostwriter Ken Scott, and his story appeared in print in 2008, time for his 90th birthday.26. ghostwriter: 代笔人；in print: 已出版的。His tale told at last, he died in February 2010.

NowMission Impossible IIIproducer Stratton Leopold has been asked by US filmmakers Silverline Productions to bring the book to the big screen.27. Mission Impossible III: 美国电影《碟中谍3》；producer: 制片人； filmmaker: 电影制作人；big screen: 电影院，大银幕。

Scott—who will fly to America for a read-through of the script—toldthe Mirror: ‘I can say it will be a mix of German and British actors and they are A-listers.28. read-through: 通读；script: 脚本；the Mirror: 英国《镜报》，1903年创刊，是全国性质的每日通俗报纸，刊登的消息普遍被认为具有可靠性和权威性；A-lister: 一线演员。

“As for the director, they are currently choosing between two. Finally people will see Horace’s amazing story on the big screen.”