时间简史

我对其中一位朋友 约翰·麦克莱纳说
I think I made a comment…to one of my friends, John McClenahan…
“我觉得史蒂芬这个人”
“I think that Stephen…
“能力非凡”
will turn out to be unusually capable.”
我不确定我当时就是这么说的
I don’t think I put it in quite those words…
但我做了类似这样的评价
but I made some such remark to him…
约翰并不认同
and he disagreed.
所以我们打了个赌
And so we made a bet on the subject.
用我们小时候的方法
In our childish way, we bet…
赌注是一袋糖果
a bag of sweets on the issue.
顺便说一句 我认为我敢赌我是正确的
And incidentally, I reckon that my bet has come correct…
我觉得他该付我赌注
and I think I’m entitled to payment…
虽然我现在还没收到
which has not yet been made.
宇宙膨胀
The expansion of the universe…
暗示着一种可能性
suggested the possibility…
宇宙起源于
that the universe had a beginning…
过去的某个时间点
at some time in the past.
宇宙起源的时间点
The point at which the universe may have started out. ..
被称作大爆♥炸♥
Became known as the Big Bang.
他第一年在圣阿尔本兹学校的时候
The first year he was at St. Albans School…
成绩倒数第三名
he came, I think, third from the bottom.
我对他说 “好吧 史蒂芬”
I said, “Well, Stephen…
“你真的想变得那么差吗”
do you really have to be as far down as that?”
他说道
And he said, “Well…
“很多人都没有做得更好”
a lot of other people didn’t do much better.”
他一点也不在意
He was quite unconcerned.
不知为何 他总是被认为
Somehow he was always recognized…
很聪明
as being very bright. ..
事实上他有一年获得过神学奖
And in fact they gave him the Divinity Prize one year.
这没有什么奇怪的
That was not surprising
因为他爸爸在他很小的时候就常常给他
because his father used to read him…
朗读一些圣经的故事
Bible stories from a very early age…
他对那些故事很熟悉
and he knew them all very well…
他对宗教的一些事非常精通
and he was quite well-versed in religious things…
然而我不认为他是通过大量的练习才熟悉的
although I don’t think he makes a great deal of practice of it now.
每个人都会谈论神学
Everybody used to argue theology.
那是一个好的安全的话题
That’s a good, safe subject.
你不需要事实或者
You don’t need any facts or…
分散注意力
distracting things like that.
如果你参与讨论
If you go in for arguing
你可以愉快地辩论任何事
you know, debating you can quite happily debate about anything…
包括神学
including theology…
上帝存在及其形式
and the existence or otherwise of God.
一些人会厌倦了
And then someone gets bored…
就会谈论星际旅行 或者类似这些的
or Journey Into Space comes on, or something like that…
然后讨论到此结束
and the argument breaks up.
在亘古不变的宇宙中
In an unchanging universe…
我们可以想象是上帝于过去的某个时间
one can imagine that God created the universe…
创造了宇宙
at literally any time in the past.
另一方面
On the other hand…
如果宇宙在膨胀
if the universe is expanding…
那可能有物理原因
there may be physical reasons…
为什么一定要有起源呢
why there had to be a beginning.
宇宙的膨胀并不排除创造者
An expanding universe does not preclude a creator…
但是它在上帝是何时创世这方面
but it does place limits…
有局限性
on when he might have carried out his job.
我们一家到了印度
When the family went to India…
史蒂芬也来和我们一起住一年
it was arranged that Stephen should come and live with us for a year.
他认为我们
He decided it would be nice…
晚上应该跳苏格兰舞是很好的
that we should have…Scottish dancing in the evening.
提醒你一下 这是一间很普通的房♥子
Mind you, this was quite an ordinary house…
但是我们有很多房♥间和一个大厅
but we had rather a lot of room and a large hall…
我们买♥♥了一些唱片
and so we bought some records…
和一本消遣的书
and a book about what to do…
史蒂芬开始主持
and Stephen took charge.
他坚持让你穿夹克打领带
And he insisted you put on a jacket and a tie.
他来当晚会的主持
And then he was the master of the proceedings.
史蒂芬很认真地在做
And Stephen took it very seriously.
但他喜欢跳舞 发现了吗
But then he liked dancing, you see?
有四位物理学家与我同级
There were four physicists in my year
戈登·贝瑞
Gordon Berry…
里查德·布莱恩
Richard Bryan…
史蒂芬
Stephen…
和我自己
myself.
我对史蒂芬最初的印象是
I first remember Stephen…
有一次 我和戈登吃完饭去史蒂芬的房♥间
on an occasion when Gordon and I went up after dinner to his room…
找他
to try to find him.
史蒂芬正在那里
And Stephen was up there…
那儿有一箱啤酒
with a crate of beer…
慢慢地喝着啤酒
slowly drinking his way through it.
他只有17岁 不允许去酒吧
He was only 17. He couldn’t legally go into a pub.
他很小就去了牛津大学读书
He’d gone up to Oxford ridiculously early.
我们常常聚会
We used to have what we called a gathering net.
组织啤酒派对或者类似的活动
We used to organize a beer party and various things like that…
以邀请尽可能多的新生
to gather all these collar as many freshman as we could get…
让他们加入划船俱乐部
to get them to join the Boat Club.
我们就是这样认识他的
And that’s how we collected him, you see?
但是史蒂芬的问题是
But the question always with Stephen was…
“我们应该让他做第一批的八个舵手之一”
“Should we make him the cox of the first eight…
“还是第二批”
or the second eight?”
有些舵手比较冒险
Well, coxes can be adventurous…
有些则很沉稳
and some coxes can be very steady people.
他属于冒险的那一类
He was rather an adventurous type.
你永远也不知道他接下来会干什么
You never knew quite what he was going to do…
当他和船员一起的时候
when he went out with the crew.
他有时候会想些自己的事情
I think he used to bring his work with him into the boat sometimes.
在船上他思维的齿轮开始转动
His sort of thinking gear was going…
在不同层次上
on different levels.
我们被要求阅读
We were asked to read chapter 10…
一本书的第十章 书名叫电磁学
in a book called Electricity and Magnetism…
由布里尼夫妇所著 一个不太可能的组合
by Bleaney and Bleaney, an unlikely combination
他们是夫妻档
a husband-and-wife team
在第十章的最后部分 有13个问题
and at the end of that chapter, there were 13 questions…
都是具有挑战性的问题
all of them final honors questions.
我很快发现我一个都不会做
I discovered very rapidly that I couldn’t do any of them.
理查德和我一起做了一个星期
Richard and I worked together for the week…
我们做出了1道半
and we managed to do 1 1/2 questions…
我们感到很骄傲
which we felt very proud of.
戈登拒绝外援
Gordon refused all assistance…
独♥立♥做出了1道题
and managed to do one all by himself.
史蒂芬 像往常一样 甚至还没开始
Stephen, as always, hadn’t even started…
但是第二天早上 他9点钟进房♥间
but the next morning, he went’ up to his rooms at 9:00. ..
我们回来是12点 也可能是12点5分
And we came back about 12:00, maybe five past 12:00…
史蒂芬随后也来了 我们在大学门口的长廊碰到
and down came Stephen, and we were in the college gateway, the lodge.
“霍金” 我说 “你做出了多少”
“Ah, Hawking,” I said, “how many have you managed to do, then?”
“好吧” 他说 “我只有时间做前十道”
“Well,” he said, “I’ve only had time to do the first ten.”
在那一刻
I think at that point we realized
我们认识到我们不仅仅不是一路人
that it’s not just we weren’t in the same street.
我们根本就不是一类人
We weren’t on the same planet.
我曾算过
I once calculated…
我在牛津的三年里
that I did about 1, 000 hours’ work…
做过1 000个小时的工作
in the three years I was at Oxford
平均每天一小时
an average of an hour a day.
我不会因为不勤于工作而感到骄傲
I am not proud of this lack of work.
我只是在描述我当时的态度
I am just describing my attitude at the time…
当时就觉得没有什么是值得努力的
an attitude that nothing was worth making an effort for.
每个星期的课外辅♥导♥他都做些研究
He used to produce his work every week for tutorial…
因为他从来不保留笔记
and, as he never kept any notes…
草稿或者类似这些资料
or papers or that sort of thing…
离开我房♥间的时候 他都把那些会扔到我的垃圾桶里
on leaving my room, he would normally throw it in my wastepaper basket.
当他和其他一些大学生一起做研究
And when he was with other undergraduates at the tutorial…