◎管淑平
Britain’s top code-breakers say they are stumped by a secret code found on the leg of a dead pigeon.
英國頂尖的密碼破解人員說，他們被一份在死亡信鴿腳上發現的密碼難倒了。
The remains of the bird were found in a chimney in Surrey with a message from World War II attached.
這隻鴿子的屍體是在蘇里郡一座煙囪內被發現的，遺體上附有一份二次世界大戰的訊息。
Experts at the intelligence agency GCHQ have been struggling to decipher the message since they were provided with it.
情報機構「政府通信總部」的專家被交付這份密碼後，始終無法解譯這份訊息。
The message was discovered by David Martin when he was renovating the chimney of his house in Surrey.
這份訊息是大衛．馬丁在整修他蘇里郡住家煙囪時發現的。
Among the rubbish, he found parts of a dead pigeon including a leg. Attached to the leg was a red canister. Inside the canister was a thin piece of paper with the words "Pigeon Service" at the top and 27 handwritten blocks of code.
他在一堆廢棄物中發現一隻死鴿子殘骸，其中包括鴿子的一隻腳，腳上掛有一個紅色罐子，罐子裡是一張薄薄的紙，信頭寫有「信鴿部」字樣，內容是27個手寫的密碼字串。
"We didn’t really hold out any hopes we would be able to read the message because the sort of codes that were constructed to be used during operations were designed only to be able to be read by the senders and the recipients," said GCHQ historian Tony, who asked that only his first name be used.
「我們實在不抱任何希望能解讀這份訊息，因為這種密碼的組成是用於作戰期間，其設計就只有發信與收信者能解讀」，政府通訊總部歷史學家東尼說。
And without fresh information this pigeon may well have taken its secret to the grave.
在沒有其他新訊息下，這隻鴿子或許要把它的秘密一起帶進墳墓裡。
新聞辭典：
stump：動詞（非正式用語），使困惑、難倒。例句：I was stumped by your questions.（你的問題難倒我了。）
decipher：動詞，破解、解譯（密碼），解讀（艱澀難懂的文字）。例句：Archaeologists try to decipher the Mayan script to better understand the ancient civilization.（考古學家試圖解譯馬雅文字以深入了解這個古老文明。）
hold out：動詞片語，提供（援助、承諾），抱持、保有（希望），堅持。例句：The rescue teams still hold out hope of finding more survivors.（救難隊仍抱著找到更多生還者的希望。）
文章出處：自由時報電子報中英對照新聞
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