世上最難的填字游戲

Earlier this year, Marc Breman, one of the most prolific crossword creators in Great Britain, released what some papers called the most challenging crossword puzzle in history. Breman creates around 13,500 crossword clues every year for publications like the Daily Mirror, the Daily Express, and the Sunday Telegraph. He has made more than 30,000 puzzles in his nearly three-decade career. But one stands above the rest.

今年早些時候，英國最高產(chǎn)的填字游戲創(chuàng)作者之一Marc Breman發(fā)布了一份被一些報(bào)紙譽(yù)為史上最具挑戰(zhàn)性的填字游戲。據(jù)悉，Breman每年都會為《每日鏡報(bào)》、《每日快報(bào)》、《星期天電訊報(bào)》等刊物創(chuàng)作約13500條填字游戲線索。在近三十年的職業(yè)生涯中，他已經(jīng)制作出了超過30000份謎題。其中，有一份卻從中脫穎而出。

"The World's Hardest Cryptic Crossword" got its title because of its intensely abstruse clues, and it took Breman six weeks to complete. Though the language of each clue—like 44 Down, "Fuss about a large bear," or 51 Across, "Yorkshire flower of zero application"—may read as straightforward, Breman's puzzle is said by the Daily Mail to be challenging due to its "linguistic wordplay, codes and numerous hidden meanings."

這份謎題之所以被譽(yù)為「世界上最難的填字游戲」，是因?yàn)槠渚€索極為深奧，花了Breman足足6周時間才設(shè)計(jì)完成。盡管每條線索的語言表達(dá)看上去都很直白(例如第44縱列「Fuss about a large bear」或第51橫列「Yorkshire flower of zero application」)，但《每日郵報(bào)》稱其挑戰(zhàn)性在于「語言雙關(guān)語、代號以及眾多隱藏含義」。

So just how hard is it? "Based on the feedback of other compilers who have seen it or tried it, mine is about 100 times harder," Breman told The Mirror in April. "If that description is indeed correct, then it stands to reason that it would take the average enthusiast 100 times longer to solve it. This amounts to 100 weeks, or just over two years."

所以說，到底有多難呢?Breman在四月份時曾表示：「基于其他出題人閱讀或嘗試后的反饋，我這份謎題比他們出的難上100倍」「如果他們的描述正確無誤，那么理所當(dāng)然的是，普通發(fā)燒友需要花費(fèi)100倍的時間去解開它。這相當(dāng)于100周，或者說兩年多時間」。

In an interview with The Guardian, Breman said, "[The puzzle] started as a reaction to being asked by a couple of magazines to make things easier. I decided to make the hardest puzzle I could, just for fun." But he did backpedal the claim of its impossible difficulty just a touch: "It's clearly not the hardest puzzle, it's just the hardest puzzle I could make."

在接受《衛(wèi)報(bào)》采訪時，Breman表示「[這份謎題]起初是為了響應(yīng)一些雜志提出的讓我出簡單點(diǎn)的要求。于是我決定竭盡所能制作一份最難的謎題，只是為了好玩而已」。與此同時，他也補(bǔ)充道：「這顯然不是最難的謎題，只是我能想出來的最難謎題而已」。

Almost immediately, one reader of The Daily Telegraph said he solved the puzzle in under two hours. "I am a very keen puzzler," Simon Anthony told the paper. "Some of the clues were definitely tricky, but two years would be a stretch … it used a lot of interesting vocabulary and cluing, although some of the clues were outrageous." Anthony was the first of 10 people Breman said sent him a correct solution.

不過，《每日電訊報(bào)》的一位讀者幾乎馬上表示自己在兩小時內(nèi)解開了這份謎題。這位名叫Simon Anthony的讀者表示：「我是個非常狂熱的解謎者」「有些線索確實(shí)很棘手，但是兩年時間也太長了… 這份謎題使用了許多有趣的詞匯與線索，盡管有些線索非?；闹嚒埂?Breman對此表示，Anthony是回答正確的前十人之一。