雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第9章:退隱山林(11)

People did not have a second chance.

圖靈不會給人第二次機會。

If they tuned into a Turing wavelength, they would receive hours of attention at full blast, with an almost embarrassing intensity.

如果他們能與圖靈產生共鳴，圖靈會付出幾個小時的時間，全力與之交流，伴隨着令人尷尬的緊張和激烈的氣氛。

But with a wobble of frequency, the light went out, the door banged.

但是說不定什麼時候，圖靈的燈就會突然熄滅，門會砰然關上。

It was all or nothing, like the pulses of the computer.

對他來說，要麼就是全部，要麼就是沒有，就像數字計算機的脈衝一樣，沒有中間值。

He would walk away without a word of apology.

他會扭頭就走，連一句告辭的話都不會說。

In 1936, he had felt rebuffed by Hardy, but now it was he who obliged others to meet him on his own terms alone.

1936年，他被哈代拒之門外，但是現在，是他在強迫其他人，滿足他自己的方式。

'Boyish' or 'schoolboyish' was the word that still came to many lips to describe the immediacy of his presence, his shaggy, dog-eared, larger-than-life appearance, and his ability to see that the Emperor had no clothes.

“孩子氣”或“學生氣”，仍然總被用來形容他的粗魯舉止、雜亂的毛髮、過時的打扮，還有他總是揭穿“皇帝沒穿衣服”的處事方式。

His role at Manchester, indeed, was sometimes seen as that of Newman's enfant terrible.

他在曼徹斯特的角色，實際上經常是作爲紐曼的一個讓大人難堪的孩子。

He had little social life at Manchester; it would have required too much compromise.

他在曼徹斯特很少有社會交往，這對他來說太難了。

Apart from a few visits to Bob and his wife, now living in the Cheshire suburbs, it was the Newman home, a piece of Cambridge in the North, that gave him a welcome.

他只是偶爾去拜訪鮑博一家，他們住在柴郡的郊區，那裏也是M·紐曼的家，可以算是北方的一隅劍橋，他在那裏比較受歡迎。

They came to be on first name terms, something unusual for Max Newman, who cut a distinctly magisterial figure in his department.

他們總是互相直呼其名，這讓M·紐曼感覺有點不自然，他在自己的部門裏，很顯然是一位權威人物。

His wife was the writer Lyn Irvine, who first came across Alan when he stayed with them at Criccieth for Easter 1949, amazing them with long runs round Cardigan Bay.

他的妻子是作家蓮·歐文，她第一次接觸圖靈是在1949年一起過復活節時，當時他繞着卡迪根灣長跑，令她感到很驚奇。