艾萨克·牛顿：最后的魔术师（2013）

I told the Royal Society that I was busy in some other subject,
某些我自己的事业
some business of my own.
他最深沉的本能就是从世界的舞台上龟缩回自己的天地，
His deepest instincts were profound shrinking from the world,
一种无力处理的恐慌是把他的想法、信仰和发现
a paralysing fear that his thoughts, his beliefs, his discoveries
直接摊开在阳光下，以待公众的评论
would be exposed to the criticism of the world.
牛顿会撤退回自己的内心世界
Newton withdrew back inside his mind.
把自己锁在剑桥的房♥间里，
Locked in his Cambridge rooms,
在接下来的十二年里，他成了真正的隐士
he became a virtual hermit for the next 12 years.
他所作出来的作品被认为危险到
The work he produced there was considered so dangerous
必须把它锁在箱子里两个世纪之久
that it would be locked away for two centuries.
这就是他最深沉的迷障
This was his deepest obsession.
它就一直躺在黑暗之中等著
It lay waiting in the dark
直到，像一条神秘的巨龙，
until, like some mythical dragon,
艾萨克·牛顿的秘密
Isaac Newton’s secret
会被公诸于世的
could be released back into the world.
一大群贫穷的英国贵族
A bunch of impoverished English nobility
需要筹些钱，
needed to raise some money,
就开始变卖♥♥已经躺在
and started selling papers
贮藏室几百年的文件
that had been sitting in storage for centuries.
1963年，经济学家约翰·梅纳德·凯因斯
In 1936, the economist John Maynard Keynes
在拍卖♥♥会上买♥♥到了一些牛顿的秘密文件－
bought some of Newton’s secret papers at auction –
一位伟大的数学家崇拜另一位
one great mathematician admiring another.
苏富比正在拍卖♥♥一些东西
Sotheby’s was auctioning the stuff off
凯因斯真的是被吓到了
and Keynes was righteously horrified.
我的意思是，这是，抱歉，但是这本来就是英国的国宝，
I mean, this is, excuse me, but it’s England’s birthright,
而且这些是非常重要的思想遗产，揭露这些文件
and the idea that these very important and revealing papers
让它沦落到私人的手里
were going to go into private hands
让他觉得很不舒服
kind of disgusted him.
他发现…
What he found…
…这里头的牛顿是完全不一样的牛顿，
..revealed an utterly different Newton,
不是那位我们所想所知的那位理性的科学家
not the rational scientist we thought we knew.
牛顿所进行的研究是非常、非常庞大的计划
What Newton does in a very, very large project
开始于1670年代晚期，
beginning in the late 1670s,
他竭尽所能找到许多经典的文献来源
he goes back to as many classical sources as he can find –
希腊、罗马、埃及、巴比伦、迦勒底－
Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Babylonian, Chaldean –
而且他全部都仔细研读过
and he reads into them
这些人物的想法后来被称为牛顿学说
the idea that these people knew about Newtonianism.
牛顿断言这些古代的文化
Newton alleged that these ancient cultures
早就知道地球和彗星是绕著太阳转
had always known that the earth and comets travel round the sun.
他们瞭解上帝的力量，
They understood God’s power,
塑造宇宙那股看不见的力量
the invisible force that shaped the universe.
现在他也瞭解了！
And now he would, too.
他是最后的魔法师
He was the last of the magicians,
最后的巴比伦人、最后的苏美人
the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians,
和最后最伟大的心灵，用相同的眼睛仔细观看著这个大千世界
the last great mind that looked out on the visible world with the same eyes
就和那些在一万年前就开始开创智慧遗产
as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance
那些人一样
10,000 years ago.
牛顿相信他得脚踏实地
Newton believed he’d been put on earth
确实无误将这些伟大的真理传给全人类
to reveal these great truths to humanity.
我想这里头应该包含著相当的自负和野心
I think there’s something extremely arrogant and ambitious
这就是牛顿对自己的期许
about how Newton sees himself,
而且他也把自己看作是从诺亚到摩西到耶稣
and he sees himself in a lineage
最后传承到他自己
that goes from Noah to Moses to Christ
一脉相承而来的子孙
and ends in himself.
牛顿相信这些古代文明
Newton believed that these ancient civilisations
全都源自于科学化的宗教
all shared one scientific religion.
比起其他宗教，这是第一种最理性的宗教，
That first religion was the most rational of all others,
直到国家把它给篡改了
till the nations corrupted it.
牛顿确信他得把篡改前的源头给找出来
Newton was convinced he’d found the source of the corruption.
他相信某些存在于基♥督♥徒，
He believed something that most Christians,
无论是清教♥徒♥或天主教♥徒♥之中的东西
whether they’re Protestant or Catholic,
是该被强烈指责、令人厌恶的
would find deeply reprehensible, disgusting,
可能还比无神论者还要糟糕
probably even worse than atheism.
牛顿不相信
Newton denied
神是三位一体的
that God was a Trinity.
只有一个真神
There is one God,
永生永存、全能全知的天父，
the Father ever-living, omnipresent, omniscient, almighty,
天堂和地球的创造者，
the maker of Heaven and Earth,
而且上帝和人之间只有一个中介者
and one mediator between God and Man,
也是个人，耶稣基♥督♥
the Man, Christ Jesus.
这是比最激进的清教♥徒♥还要激进
This went beyond even the most radical Protestantism.
这是异端邪说
This was heresy.
但牛顿更彻底研读圣经
But Newton had studied the Bible more thoroughly
比研究任何科学问题还彻底
than any scientific question.
他断言在四世纪的时候，圣经被添写了错误的文本
He concluded that false texts had been inserted into the Bible in the 4th century
来张显耶稣的神性
to assert Christ’s divinity.
反对三位一体在当时是违法的
Anti-Trinitarianism was illegal.
这是违法的，原则上，你有可能因为这样而丧命
It was outlawed. In principle, you could be put to death for it.
这是令人不安的秘密
This was a dreadful secret
使得牛顿一生都在隐藏此事而处于极端痛苦之中
that Newton was at desperate pains to conceal all his life.
牛顿藏得比异端邪说还深沉
Newton concealed more than heresy.
他也追随著神秘的探索
He was also following a mystical quest
可以回溯到希腊和埃及时代－
that went back to the Greeks and Egyptians –
研究…
the study…
炼金术，
of alchemy,
寻找神奇的配方
the search for the divine ingredient
不只能让铅变成黄金
that could not only turn lead into gold
也可以给予生命的力量
but give the power of life itself.
牛顿在找贤者之石
Newton was searching for The Philosopher’s Stone.
这是维繫生命重要的物质，如果掺一点到化学药剂里，
This was the vital substance that, if introduced into a chemical potion,
就能让一块金属
could turn that from just a lump of metal
变成活生生的东西
into something alive.
有一种精力的介质，
There is a vital agent,
在泥土里渗透到万物之中
diffuse through everything in the earth,
一种汞状的精气，
a mercurial spirit,
极端细微和非常易变
extremely subtle and supremely volatile,
传播到每个地方
which is dispersed through every place.
这种想法让你可以拥有上帝的力量，
The idea that you could have God’s power,
生与死的力量
the power of life and death
淨化成一种物质，
distilled into a substance,
使它变得似乎危险到
made it seem so dangerous
它本身就是罪过
that it had to be illegal.
焚膏继晷－
The fire scarcely went out night or day –
有个晚上，他和我熬夜
he sitting up one night and I another,
直到完成他的化学实验
till he had finished his chemical experiments.
牛顿总是要求精确
Newton was always precise.
一丝不苟记录下他收集到的结果，
He meticulously recorded his results,
甚至在追寻炼金术的神祕目标也是如此
even when pursuing the magical goals of alchemy.
今天，我们称之为科学方法
Today, we call it the Scientific Method.
他是最精确、最严谨和最正确的
He was most accurate, strict and exact.
他的目的是什麽，我没能力参透，
What his aim might be, I was not able to penetrate into,
但他的痛苦、他的勤奋
but his pain, his diligence,
让我觉得他是向著某个方向前进的
made me think he was aiming for something
是在人类艺术和工业之外的目的
beyond the reach of human art and industry.
他不只是对炼金术士有疯狂般的执著
He was not just a crazy obsessive alchemist.
他还是全欧洲无与伦比的炼金师
He was the peerless alchemist of Europe.
再也没有比他更优秀的炼金师
There was no better alchemist.
牛顿的炼金术研究
Newton’s alchemical studies
甚至启发他超越了科学能力
inspired him beyond even his scientific abilities.
他的直觉让他描述出近乎神奇的转变
His intuition led him to describe a seemingly magical transformation
这是只有在二百年之后才被瞭解的现象
that would only be understood 200 years later.
物体变成光的变化，而且光也会变成物体，
The changing of bodies into light, and light into bodies,
这是非常契合自然的现象，
is very conformable to nature,
自然界似乎以变化为乐
which seems delighted with transmutation.
这种变化
This transmutation
在1905年的物理界被爱因斯坦石破天惊的理论所预测到
anticipated Einstein’s great breakthrough in physics in 1905.
质量和能量是可以互换的，
Mass and energy are interchangeable,
或爱因斯坦把它表示为，
or as Einstein puts it,
E = MC2
E = MC2.
事实上，这听起来非常类似爱因斯坦的说法
Actually, it does sound very like Einstein.
他明白地表示出来物体和光是可以互相转换的