My Friend, Albert Einstein课文翻译.doc

1、我的朋友阿尔伯特爱因斯坦班尼旭霍夫曼爱因斯坦是历史上最伟大的科学家，如果用一个词出神入化地描述他，那就是“率真”。有个例子很能表现他的率真：一次，爱因斯坦突遇大雨，他脱下帽子将其藏在衣内。问及为什么这样，他很有逻辑地说，大雨会淋坏帽子，脱下帽子，头发受淋没什么关系。真是一语切入问题实质。正是这种人品素质，以及他对美的非凡感受，才是奠定他重大科学发现的秘诀。第一次见到爱因斯坦，是 1935 年，在新泽西州普林斯顿那所著名的高级研究院里。他是受研究院邀请最早的学者之一，薪金任他自己填写。可令院长失望的是，爱因斯坦填写的薪金太少了，院长不得不恳请先生多填一些。我非常敬畏爱因斯坦。一次，我正在研究一个

2、问题，必须向先生请教。临行前，我一直犹犹豫豫。当我终于敲响先生的屋门时，听到一声温和的“请进！”-声调微微上扬，透着欢迎和询问的语气。我走进办公室，见先生坐在桌前，一边吸烟一边做计算。他头发有些凌乱，一副不修边幅的样子。他对我颔首微笑，平易的面容使我立即消除了紧张感。我开始解释自己的想法。他让我把公式写在黑板上，以便能看明白每一个发展步骤。“请你慢慢说，我接受力很慢。”先生的请求令我愕然，也使我倍感亲切。这话竟出自爱因斯坦之口，而且说得那么温和！我笑了。所有的拘束荡然无存。与爱因斯坦合作让我终身不忘。1937 年我和波兰物理学家奥波德英费尔德请求与先生一起工作，他愉快地答应了。当时，他的万有引

3、力设想正待进一步研究和证明。这以后，工作中的朝夕相处，使我们不仅接近和了解了作为人，作为朋友的爱因斯坦，更了解了作为科学家的爱因斯坦。爱因斯坦研究之专注，是无与伦比的。较量难题，他犹如野兽扑食物。 每当我们陷入一个近乎难以超越的困境，爱因斯坦便习惯地站起来，放下烟斗，用他那滑稽的英语说“我想想”（他发不”th”这个音，所以把“think”说成了“ tink”）。边说边在屋里来回踱步，食指还不停地捻弄他那一头乱发。爱因斯坦独自梦幻般地出神，平静地思索，根本没有挖空心思，绞尽脑汁的摸样。时间一分一秒地过去，突然他停住脚步，脸上露出轻松的微笑，解决办法出来了。有时，解法非常简单，而我和英费尔德却没有

4、想到，我们简直想踹自己两脚。先生这无形的魔力我们是永远没法企及的。师母的去世对先生无疑是一个沉重打击，但这并没有影响他沉浸工作。记得在那段悲痛的日子里，我曾去过他家与他一起工作。他疲惫而悲伤，但依然竭力倾心工作。我尽量避免与他谈及家事，而是跟他讨论艰深的理论问题，帮他忘却悲痛。爱因斯坦慢慢深入讨论，眼里已不再流露悲伤。我们一直谈了两个多小时，告别时，他非常感谢我的诚意，对我说：“你的这个问题很有意思。”他暂时忘却了悲痛，寻词觅句表达他内心深切的情感。爱因斯坦不在乎宗教仪式，也不归属任何宗教组织，但他是我碰到的最虔诚的人。他曾跟我说“主意来自上帝”，语中充满对上帝的敬意。普林斯顿大学数学楼大理石

5、壁炉上用德语刻着的“上帝难以捉摸，但上帝没有恶意”，可谓是他的科学信条。爱因斯坦的意思是，科学家从事的工作也许艰难无比，但绝不是杳渺无望。宇宙是规则有序的，上帝不会有意以悖谬和矛盾来迷惑我们。爱因斯坦还是一个出色的业余音乐家。我们常常在一起二重奏，他拉小提琴，我弹钢琴。有一次他说莫扎特是最伟大的作曲家，我很吃惊。他解释说，贝多芬“创造”音乐，而莫扎特的音乐之纯洁优美，令人感到是他“发现”了音乐-发现了这宇宙本身的故事，正等待人类去展示的内在美。这种莫扎特式的简洁，就是典型的爱因斯坦方法。爱因斯坦 1905 年创立的相对论理论，就是建立在两个简单的假设上的。一个是所谓的相对原则，简单地说，就是我

6、们无法判定，自己是处于静止状态，还是正在平稳地运动。另一个假设是，不论产生光的物质其速度如何，光速都是一样的。假如你用棍子在湖里搅动，观察湖水产生波浪的情形，就可以看出这个假设的合理性。不论在静止的码头，还是在飞驶的快艇上搅动棍子，波浪一旦产生，就按其自身的速度传播，与棍子速度无关。两个假设分开看，都具有明显的合理性。可是将它们放在一起就矛盾对立，足以使胆怯者放弃设想，逃之夭夭了。爱因斯坦勇敢地对两个假想进行探索-他的努力导致物理学上的革命。他证明，如果我们放弃对时间本质的固有的理解，二者是可以和平共处的。科学如同小孩用纸牌搭的房子，时间与空间概念是这个房子的地基。以前我们对时间概念的曲解，是

7、整个房子几近倒坍。正因为如此，爱因斯坦的工作尤为重要，也格外引起争议。在普林斯顿爱因斯坦七十寿辰的庆祝会上，一位诺贝尔奖获得者在试图表述爱因斯坦巨大成就的魔力而终于未果时，无奈地耸耸肩，指着腕上的表，无比惊奇地说，“一切都来源于它呀！”他的如此不善言辞，是我听到的对爱因斯坦天才的最雄辩的赞美。爱因斯坦对名气处之泰然，可却躲避不及。他走到哪，马上就被人认出。一个秋季的星期六，我和爱因斯坦在普林斯顿大学边走边谈论一个技术问题。路上，家长和毕业生们正潮水般地涌向体育馆，热切期待即将举行的足球比赛。走进我们的时候，他们突然停住脚步。他们认出了先生，顿时一脸庄严，似乎突然走进另一个世界。可是爱因斯坦根本

8、没发现什么异常，依旧全然不知地继续着他的讨论。别以为爱因斯坦只钻研艰深的科学问题。实际上，他常常在日常生活的细枝末节中发现科学原则，而这些细枝末节，常常被人忽略。有一次他问我是否思考过这样一个问题：踩在干燥或者浸满水的沙土上，双脚会下陷，但半湿的沙土表层却很结实。这是为什么？我无以对答，他的答案却惊人的简单。他说这就是表面张力，即液体表面弹性表皮导致的结果。水珠的凝积也是因为表面张力。有时我们看到，窗玻璃上两颗小雨珠一碰到一起，立即溶成一个大水珠，这也是表面张力的结果。爱因斯坦解释说，沙土半湿时，沙粒间有少量水分，水分的表面张力使沙粒与沙粒互相粘合，粘合后摩擦力使沙粒不易移动。而沙土干燥时，沙

9、粒间没有水分。沙土浸透时，沙粒间虽然有水，但没有粘合它们的水表面。这个问题没有相对论重大，但我们很难预测这看似简单的小问题会促使爱因斯坦做出重大发现。从这小小的沙土问题，我们窥见出爱因斯坦多么深邃而有创见，而思路有是多么地清晰和简洁。Unit ThreeTEXT IMy Friend, Albert Einstein I. Paraphrase the parts underlined in the following: 1He was one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known, yet if I had to convey

10、 the essence of Albert Einstein in a single word, I would choose simplicity. Perhaps an anecdote will help. Once, caught in a downpour, he took off his hat and held it under his coat. Asked why, he explained, with admirable logic, that the rain would damage the hat, but his hair would be none the wo

11、rse for its wetting. This 1knack for going instinctively to the heart of a matter was the secret of his major scientific discoveriesthis and his extraordinary feeling for beauty. 2I first met Albert Einstein in 1935, at the famous Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N. J. He had been among th

12、e first to be invited to the Institute, and was offered carte blanche 2as to salary. To the directors dismay, Einstein asked for an impossible sum: it was far too small. The director had to 3plead with him to accept a large salary. 3I 4was in awe of Einstein, and hesitated before 5approaching him ab

13、out some ideas I had been 6working on . When I finally knocked on his door, a gentle voice said, “Come” with a rising 7inflection that made the single word both a welcome and a question. I entered his office and found him seated at a table, calculating and smoking his pipe. Dressed in ill - fitting

14、clothes, his hair characteristically 8awry, he smiled a warm welcome. His utter naturalness at once set me at ease. 4As I began to explain my ideas, he asked me to write the equations on the blackboard so he could see how they developed. Then came the staggering - and a1together 9endearing - request

15、 : “Please go slowly. I do not understand things quickly.” This from Einstein! He said it gently, and I laughed. From then on, all 10vestiges of fear were gone. 5Einstein was born in 1879 in the German city of Ulm. He had been no 11infant prodigy ; indeed, he was so late in learning to speak that hi

16、s parents feared he was a 12dullard. In school, though his teachers saw no special talent in him, the signs were already there. He taught himself calculus, for example, and his teachers seemed a little afraid of him because he asked questions they could not answer. At the age of 16, he himself wheth

17、er a light wave would seem stationary if one ran 13abreast of it. From that innocent question would arise, ten years later, his theory of relativity. 6Einstein failed his entrance examinations at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School, in Zurich, but was admitted a year later. There he went beyond his

18、 regular work to study the 14masterwork of physics on his own. Rejected when he applied for academic positions, he ultimately found work, in 1902, as a patent examiner in Berne, and there in 1905 his genius burst into fabulous flower. 7Among the extraordinary things he produced in that memorable yea

19、r were his theory of relativity, with its famous offshoot, E = mc 2 (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared), and his quantum theory of light. These two theories were not only revolutionary, but seemingly contradictory: the former was intimately linked to the theory that light consists

20、of waves, while the latter said it consists somehow of particles. Yet this unknown young man boldly proposed both at once - and he was right in both cases, though how he could have been is far too complex a story to tell here. 8Collaborating with Einstein was an unforgettable experience. In 1937, th

21、e Polish physicist Leopold Infeld and I asked if we could work with him. He was pleased with the proposal, since he had an idea about gravitation waiting to be 15worked out in detail. Thus we got to know not merely the man and the friend, but also the professional. 9The intensity and depth of his co

22、ncentration were fantastic. When battling a 16recalcitrant problem, he 17worried it as an animal worries its prey. Often, when we found ourselves up against a 18seemingly insuperable difficulty, he would stand up, put his pipe on the table, and say in his 19quaint English, “I will a little tink” (he

23、 could not pronounce “th”). Then he would pace up and down, 20twirling a lock of his long, graying hair around his forefinger. 10A dreamy, faraway and yet inward look would come over his face. There was no appearance of concentration, no furrowing of the brow-only a 21placid inner communion. The min

24、utes would pass, and then suddenly Einstein would stop pacing as his face relaxed into a gentle smile . He had found the solution to the problem. Sometimes it was so simple that Infeld and I could have 22kicked ourselves for not having thought of it. But the magic had been performed invisibly in the

25、 depths of Einsteins mind, by a process we could not 23fathom. 11When his wife died he was deeply shaken, but insisted that now more than ever was the time to be working hard. I remember going to his house to work with him during that sad time. 24His face was haggard and grief-lined, but he put fort

26、h a great effort to concentrate. To help him, I steered the discussion away from routine matters into more difficult theoretical problems, and Einstein gradually became absorbed in the discussion. We kept at it for some two hours, and at the end his eyes were no longer sad. As I left, he thanked me

27、with moving sincerity. “It was a fun,” he said. He had had a moment of 25surcease from grief, and then 26groping words expressed a deep emotion. 12Einstein was an accomplished amateur musician. We used to play duets, he on the violin, I at the piano. One day he surprised me by saying Mozart was the

28、greatest composer of all. Beethoven “created” his music, but the music of Mozart was of such purity and beauty one felt he had merely “found” it-that it had always existed as part of the inner beauty of the Universe, waiting to be revealed. 13It was this very Mozartean simplicity that most character

29、ized Einsteins methods. His 1905 theory of relativity, for example, was built on just two simple assumptions. One is the so-called principle of relativity, which means, roughly speaking, that we cannot tell whether we are at rest or moving smoothly. The other assumption is that the speed of light is

30、 the same no matter what the speed of the object that produces it. You can see how reasonable this is if you think of agitating a stick in a lake to create waves. Whether you wiggle the stick from a stationary 27pier , or from a rushing speedboat, the waves, once generated, are on their own, and the

31、ir speed has nothing to do with that of the stick. 14Each of these assumptions, by itself, was so 28plausible as to seem primitively obvious. But together they were in such violent conflict that a 29lesser man would have dropped one or the other and fled in panic. Einstein daringly kept both-revolut

32、ionized physics. For he demonstrated they could, after all, exist peacefully side by side, provided we gave up cherished beliefs about the nature of time. 15Science is like 30a house of cards, with concepts like time and space at the lowest level. 31Tampering with time brought most of the house tumb

33、ling down, and it was this that made Einsteins work so important -and controversial. At a conference in Princeton in honor of his 70th birthday, one of the speakers, a Nobel Prize winner, tried to convey the magical quality of Einsteins achievement. Words failed him, and with a shrug of helplessness

34、 he pointed to his wristwatch, and said in tones of 32awed amazement, “It all came from this.” His very ineloquence made this the most eloquent tribute I have ever heard to Einsteins genius 16Einsteins work, performed quietly with pencil and paper, seemed remote from the 33turmoil of everyday life:

35、But his ideas were so revolutionary they caused violent controversy and irrational anger. Indeed, in order to be able to award him a belated Nobel Prize, the selection committee had to avoid mentioning relativity, and pretend the prize was awarded primarily for his work on the quantum theory. 17Poli

36、tical events upset the 34serenity of his life even more. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, his theories were officially declared false because they had been formulated by a Jew. His property was confiscated, and it is said a price was put on his head. 18When scientists in the United States, f

37、earful that the Nazis might develop an atomic bomb, sought to 35alert American authorities to the danger, they were scarcely 36heeded. In desperation, they drafted a letter which Einstein signed and sent directly to President Roosevelt. It was this act that led to the fateful decision to go all-out

38、on the production of an atomic bomb-an endeavor in which Einstein took no active part. When he heard of the agony and destruction that his E=mc had wrought, he was dismayed beyond measure, and from then on there was a look of 37ineffable sadness in his eyes. 1938There was something elusively whimsic

39、al about Einstein. It is illustrated by my favorite anecdote about him. In his first year in Princeton, on Christmas Eve, so the story goes, some children sang 39carols outside his house. Having finished, they knocked on his door and explained they were collecting money to buy Christmas presents. Ei

40、nstein listened, then said, “Wait a moment.” He put on his scarf and overcoat, and took his violin from its case. Then, joining the children as they went from door to door, he accompanied their singing of “Silent Night” on his violin. 20How shall I sum up what it meant to have known Einstein and his

41、 works? Like the Nobel Prize winner who pointed helplessly at his watch, I can find no adequate words. 40It was akin to the revelation of great art that lets one see what was formerly hidden. And when, for example, I walk on the sand of a lonely beach, I am reminded of his ceaseless search for cosmi

42、c simplicity-and the scene takes on a deeper, sadder beauty. 怪才迪姆斯泰勒他身材矮小，头却很大，与他的身材很不相称是个满脸病容的矮子。他神经兮兮，有皮肤病，贴身穿比丝绸粗糙一点的任何衣服都会使他痛苦不堪。而且他还是个夸大妄想狂。他是个极其自负的怪人。除非事情与自己有关，否则他从来不屑对世界或世人瞧上一眼。对他来说，他不仅是世界上最重要的人物，而且在他眼里，他是惟一活在世界上的人。他认为自己是世界上最伟大的戏剧家之一、最伟大的思想家之一、最伟大的作曲家之一。听听他的谈话，仿佛他就是集莎士比亚、贝多芬、柏拉图三人于一身。想要听到他的高论

43、十分容易，他是世上最能使人筋疲力竭的健谈者之一。同他度过一个夜晚，就是听他一个人滔滔不绝地说上一晚。有时，他才华横溢；有时，他又令人极其厌烦。但无论是妙趣横生还是枯燥无味，他的谈话只有一个主题：他自己，他自己的所思所为。他狂妄地认为自己总是正确的。任何人在最无足轻重的问题上露出丝毫的异议，都会激得他的强烈谴责。他可能会一连好几个小时滔滔不绝，千方百计地证明自己如何如何正确。有了这种使人耗尽心力的雄辩本事，听者最后都被他弄得头昏脑涨，耳朵发聋，为了图个清静，只好同意他的说法。他从来不会觉得，对于跟他接触的人来说，他和他的所作所为并不是使人产生强烈兴趣而为之倾倒的事情。他几乎对世间的任何领域都有自

44、己的理论，包括素食主义、戏剧、政治以及音乐。为了证实这些理论，他写小册子、写信、写书文字成千上万，连篇累牍。他不仅写了，还出版了这些东西所需费用通常由别人支付而他会坐下来大声读给朋友和家人听，一读就是好几个小时。他写歌剧，但往往是刚有个故事梗概，他就邀请或者更确切说是召集一群朋友到家里，高声念给大家听。不是为了获得批评，而是为了获得称赞。整部剧的歌词写好后，朋友们还得再去听他高声朗读全剧。然后他就拿去发表，有时几年后才为歌词谱曲。他也像作曲家一样弹钢琴，但要多糟有多糟。然而，他却要坐在钢琴前，面对包括他那个时代最杰出的钢琴家在内的聚会人群，一小时接一小时地给他们演奏，不用说，都是他自己的作品。

45、他有一副作曲家的嗓子，但他会把著名的歌唱家请到自己家里，为他们演唱自己的作品，还要扮演剧中所有的角色。他的情绪犹如六岁儿童，极易波动。心情不好时，他要么用力跺脚，口出狂言，要么陷入极度的忧郁，阴沉地说要去东方当和尚，了此残生。十分钟后，假如有什么事情使他高兴了，他就会冲出门去，绕着花园跑个不停，或者在沙发上跳上跳下或拿大顶。他会因爱犬死了而极度悲痛，也会残忍无情到使罗马皇帝也不寒而栗。他几乎没有丝毫责任感。他似乎不仅没有养活自己的能力，也从没想到过有这个义务。他深信这个世界应该给他一条活路。为了支持这一信念，他向一切借得着钱的人借债不管是男是女，也不管是朋友还是陌路人。求助信他一写就是二十封有

46、时卑躬屈膝，不顾羞耻，有时又趾高气扬地授予他预期的资助人资助他的殊荣，要是对方谢绝这一荣誉，他会气得要死。我还没见到如果债主不告上法庭他会主动付帐或还钱的记录。只要他能弄到钱，他花起来总是像个印度王公。只要他的某部歌剧一有上演的可能，他便会马上肆意花钱，迅速积欠一笔十倍于预期所得版税的债务。没有人搞得清楚他自己肯定也不清楚他欠了多少钱。但我们确实知道，他的一位最慷慨的资助人曾给他六千美元偿还他在某市最急迫的债务；一年之后，不得不再给他一万六千美元，使他得以在另一城市安身，而不致因欠债去坐牢。他在其他方面也是放荡不羁。无数个女人曾进入过他的生活。他的发妻与他一起生活了二十年，是在不停地忍受和原谅

47、他的不忠中度过的。他的第二个妻子本是最崇拜他、对他最忠实的朋友的妻子，他从好友手中夺走了她。他甚至在劝说她离开第一个丈夫之际，还同时写信给一个朋友，询问能否给他介绍个阔妇人有钱就行他可以为了金钱跟她结婚。 他在其他私人交往中也极端自私。他对朋友有无好感，完全取决于他们对他是否绝对忠诚，抑或他们在经济上或艺术上对他是否有用。一旦他们使他失望即使是拒绝赴宴之类的小事或者他们对他不再那么有用，他就会毫不犹豫地与他们断绝来往。在他生命的最后日子里，他只剩下了一个朋友，就连这个朋友也还是他在中年时才认识的。这位怪才的名字叫理查德瓦格纳。我所谈到的关于他的一切情况都有记录可查包括报纸、警方报告、认识他的人

48、的证词、他本人的信件以及他的自传。但令人奇怪的是，这种记录对他的名望丝毫无损。因为，这个身材矮小、满脸病容、脾气古怪、令人着迷的小个子自始至终都是对的。该受嘲笑的是我们。他是全世界最伟大的剧作家之一，一位伟大的思想家，是迄今为止全世界最了不起的音乐天才之一。这个世界确实应该养活他。当你掂量他的作品时十三部歌剧和音乐剧，其中十一部仍然长演不衰，八部当之无愧地位于世界音乐剧伟大名作之列当你聆听他的作品时，他欠债不还也好，伤透人心也罢，这些代价似乎都不算什么。想一想命运至少曾一度赐给拿破仑，那个断送法国、洗劫欧洲的人何种的奢华吧。相比之下，你也许会同意，用几千元的债务来换得指环三部曲并不太贵。即使他

49、不忠于朋友和妻子，又有什么关系呢？他有一位他至死都忠贞不渝的情侣：音乐。他一刻也没有动摇过自己的信念和憧憬。他的作品中没有一行乐谱是平庸之辈构想得出的。即使他有枯燥乏味或极其糟糕的作品，其乏味中仍可见伟大之处。他最糟的败笔中也有不凡之处。人们聆听他的乐曲时，并不因他也许曾是或不是什么样的人而宽恕他。这不是宽恕不宽恕的问题。这是件令人惊讶得目瞪口呆的事情他体内无限的创造力，像魔鬼般拼命挣扎、又挖又挠试图冲出体外；这恶魔撕扯着他，冲他狂叫，要他谱写出藏于体内的乐曲。遭受如此痛苦的折磨，他那可怜的脑袋和身躯竟没有被压垮，这岂不是人间奇迹？而真正的奇迹在于，短短七十年，他居然完成了那么多的工作，即使是一个伟大的天才，也难以做到。因此他没有时间过常人的生活，这又有什么好奇怪的呢？注释本文是美国音乐评论家、作曲家迪姆斯泰勒（1885-1966）为电台写的一篇广播稿，讲述的是音乐怪才、大名鼎鼎的德国作曲家瓦格纳。本文写作手法独特，语言诙谐幽默但发人深思，是不可多得的佳作。1. monster: 这个词除了“ 怪兽”之外，还有“魔星（指极受欢迎的歌