[转帖] [2001.11.18] THE BEST TIME: PRINCETON, 1949 历史上最好的时间地点3

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http://www.ecocn.org/thread-60952-1-1.html
THE BEST TIME: PRINCETON, 1949
最好的时间：普林斯顿，1949年


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J.M. Ledgard opts for a sense of freedom, possibility and run-ins with Albert Einstein ...
J.M.莱德加选择自由，充满可能性的感觉以及和爱因斯坦的辩论...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, November/December 2011

Autumn in the Ivy League. A Halloween jack-o’-lantern on the doorstep. A clear morning, with breezes all the way from the ocean. The colours on the leafy American street come as if from a dream: reds and golds gusting.

常春藤校园里的秋季，万圣节的南瓜灯端坐在门前的台阶上。明媚的早晨，从远方的海上吹来微风。步满落叶的美国街道上色彩纷呈，仿佛来自于梦中：秋风卷起赤红金黄。

A brisk walk to a diner by the Princeton campus. Stools and counters are lined with chrome, the lighting is viscid. Breakfast is ham and eggs, coffee, a cigarette; the newsprint is inky, the news is from Moscow.

在普林斯顿的校园里轻快地步向一间餐厅。板凳和柜台镶着铬黄边，灯光迷蒙。早餐是火腿鸡蛋，外加咖啡和一根烟。报纸上墨渍斑斑，记载了来自莫斯科的新闻。

Mid-morning, an appointment with Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Study. A technical discussion, pushing around ideas about energy and star systems, Einstein hopping, the trees blazing through the window.

上午，和高级研究所的爱因斯坦开一个会。这是一场技术性的讨论，能量和星系的观点推来攘去，蹦跳的爱因斯坦，搭上窗外闪光的树木。

Meetings with students, a run around the muddy pitches, then back to the house.

见见学生们，绕着泥泞的操场跑一跑，之后就回家吧。

Home is not home. It is a large upstairs apartment, Nabokovian you could say, with few items, some portable heirlooms…having arrived from Europe, having escaped all that, and yet the losses and victory of the war still too close to fall into any perspective.

家并不是家。这是一间巨大的二层公寓，你可以感觉到纳博科夫的风格，东西很少，只有几件可随身携带的信物...从欧洲而来，逃避了一切，但是战争的成败还仿如昨天，过于接近而无法清楚审视。

The remains of the day are bright and warm on the bedroom balcony. Raked leaves burn on a bonfire in the garden below. Solitary drinking, smoking, listening to records; Polish songs, or Czech, at once far away and ever so close.

这天剩下的时间坐在卧室的阳台上，享受午后的温暖明亮。楼下花园里扫成一堆的落叶上点起了篝火。独自饮酒，独自抽烟，独自听着唱片。波兰的歌，活是捷克的，既遥远又永远那么亲近。

The special part is that this place is freedom, is possibility, is reinvention. Coincidentally, and impossible to see from the balcony, or even from Einstein’s study, it is the high-water mark of abundance on the planet, the maximum moment, of consumption without a sense of an ending.

这个地方特殊的是自由，是可能性，是再创造。很巧合的是，这里正是此时地球上最为丰足的地方，是没有终点意识的消费的最高涨时刻。这在那个阳台上是无法看到的，在爱因斯坦的办公室也不能。

J.M. Ledgard is east Africa correspondent of The Economist and a novelist. His latest book is "Submergence". He won a prize in the Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards 2011 for his Intelligent Life feature "Digital Africa".
J.M.莱德戈德是《经济学人》的东非记者，也是一位小说家。他最新的作品是《淹没》。他为“Intelligent Life”所写的特约报导“数字非洲”拿下了2011年帝亚吉欧非洲商业报导奖。