【卫报】写在相对论之后

“最近我没什么成就”

作者： Owen Hulatt

译者：赵萌萌 & 王津雨

校对：邵海灵

策划：邹世昌

The celebrated scientist frets about fame and his brain ‘going off with age’ in candid, soon to be auctioned correspondence with his sister, Maja.

名气大是件烦心事，年纪大了也让人恼，因为脑子越来越不中用了 —— 在爱因斯坦给妹妹玛雅的家书中，这位赫赫有名的科学家坦言了自己的心声，而这些信件将很快出现在拍卖大会上。

本文选自 The Guardian | 取经号原创翻译

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A glimpse at the “private, hidden face” of Albert Einstein, including the celebrated scientist’s thoughts on everything from his fears that his best work was behind him to his equivocal feelings about his fame, has been revealed in a cache of letters he wrote to his beloved younger sister, Maja.

这些尘封已久的信件，让我们能一窥阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦私底下“不为人知的一面”。在信中，他对心爱的妹妹玛雅透露了许多想法，比如对自己江郎才尽所感到的恐惧，和对自己的名声所怀有的那种 说不清、道不明的 感觉。

equivocal /ɪˋkwɪvəkl/ adj having a double or doubtful meaning; ambiguous 模棱两可的；意义不明的

The collection, which includes a previously unknown photograph of Einstein as a five-year-old and the only surviving letter written by Einstein to his father, comes from the archive of Maja Winteler-Einstein and her husband Paul Winteler. A mix of letters, postcards and photographs, many of which have not previously been published, the documents range in date from 1897 to 1951.

在这沓信件中，还夹有一张爱因斯坦五岁的照片，以及唯一一封幸存下来的、他给父亲写的信，都是公众之前不曾知晓的。这些信件来自玛雅·温特勒-爱因斯坦和她的丈夫保罗·温特勒的 档案 ，他们收藏着从1897到1951年间与爱因斯坦的往来通信、明信片和照片，其中许多此前从未公之于众。

archive /ˈɑːkaɪv/ n. a place where a large number of historical records are stored, or the records that are stored 档案文件；档案室

“What’s remarkable about them stems from the fact that he had this incredibly close relationship with his sister. It’s quite clear when he’s writing to her, there’s no role-playing at all,” said Thomas Venning at Christie’s, which will auction the letters at the start of May. “He was very conscious of what was expected of him after he became famous, and you don’t get any of that in letters to his sister. He says some things that I’ve never seen him say anywhere else, and I’ve catalogued many hundreds of his letters.”

“这些信件之所以不同寻常，是因为爱因斯坦与妹妹的关系亲密得令人不可思议。很明显，他给妹妹写信时，是完全坦诚、毫无伪装的。”佳士得拍卖行的托马斯·卫宁说，“成名后的爱因斯坦很清楚外界对自己抱有何种期待，但在和妹妹的通信中，你看不到他有丝毫矫饰。他在信里说的事情，我从未见他在其他地方提起过，我可 整理 过几百封他的信件呢。”该行将于五月初拍卖这些信件。

catalogue /'kætəlɒg/ v. to make a catalog of 登记分类；记载

In 1924, nine years after he completed the general theory of relativity in 1915, Einstein would write to Maja that “scientifically I haven’t achieved much recently – the brain gradually goes off with age, although that’s not so unpleasant. It also means that you’re not so answerable for your later years.” Ten years later, he would write to her: “I am happy in my work, even if in this and in other matters I am starting to feel that the brilliance of younger years is past.”

1915年，爱因斯坦提出了 广义相对论 。九年后，即1924年，爱因斯坦在信中对玛雅说：“我最近没什么科研方面的成就——现在年纪大了，脑子也慢慢不行了，虽然这也不算那么让人讨厌的一件事。这也意味着我不用再为下半辈子操心了。”又过了十年，他又对妹妹写道，“我很享受我的工作，尽管不论是在工作还是其他方面，我都觉得自己盛年已逝，光辉不再了。”

Venning said he had not seen Einstein admit this anywhere else. “It’s not him playing a role, you can see that thought going through his head. Which is true – if Einstein had died in 1916, his fundamental legacy would have been intact. He carried on working for another 40 years without making any other great breakthroughs. So it’s just an extraordinary moment which we get because of how close their relationship was. He didn’t have to reassure her,” he said.

卫宁说自己从未见过爱因斯坦在别处承认过这点。他还表示，“他说这话是不带任何掩饰的，你可以看出这就是他脑子里当时在想的东西。确实是这样——假若爱因斯坦在1916年就去世，他给世人留下的最最主要的财富依然是很完整的。虽然在之后整整四十年的时间里，爱因斯坦继续潜心研究，但却再也没有取得任何重大的突破。所以说，正因为两人有着如此亲密的关系，我们才得以捕捉到这个极为特殊的时刻。他没必要刻意 照顾 妹妹的情绪。”

reassure / ˏriːəˈʃɔː(r)/ v. remove sb's fears or doubts; make sb confident again 消除某人的恐惧或疑虑；恢复某人的信心；使某人放心

Tackling topics from his hobbies of sailing and playing the violin, to his difficult relationship with his first wife, the letters are “unpublished snapshots of Einstein, his private face”, according to Venning. In one from 1935, Einstein makes a rare acknowledgement of his achievements, writing to Maja: “In our main avenues of research in physics we are in a situation of groping in the dark, where each is completely sceptical about what another is pursuing with the highest hopes. One is in a constant state of tension until the end. At least I have the comfort that my main achievements have become part of the foundations of our science.”

这些信件谈到了爱因斯坦航海和拉小提琴的爱好，也提到了他与第一任妻子间的紧张关系，用卫宁的话来说，它们就是“爱因斯坦未经公开的生活快照，记录了他私底下的另一面”。在1935年写给玛雅的一封信件中，爱因斯坦罕见地肯定了他自己的成就，说：“在物理研究的主干道上，我们还在摸黑探索，每个人都会带着完全质疑的眼光，去看待另一个人满怀希望追求的东西。从头到尾，每个人的神经都高度紧绷。不过，我的主要研究成果已经为物理学奠定了一部分基础，这起码还能聊以自慰。”

“It sounds unusually big-headed for Einstein – he was an incredibly low-key, humble person, always careful not to say anything that sounded too proud. But I think he felt he could say something to Maja,” said Venning.

卫宁说：“这种话听起来自我感觉太良好，不像是爱因斯坦说出来的——他是一个低调谦逊到极点的人，总是谨言慎行，不会说出任何听起来有妄自尊大之嫌的话。不过我觉得，他自己感觉有些事还是可以说给玛雅听听的。”

In 1923, in a letter that Christie’s has valued between £6,000 and £9,000, Einstein writes to Maja of his international fame, telling his sister and her husband that “I am becoming very much loved and even more envied; there’s nothing to be done about it.”

在1923年的一封信中（佳士得拍卖行估价6000-9000英镑），爱因斯坦提到了他在国际上的声望，还告诉玛雅和她的丈夫“我现在可以说是非常受人爱戴了，招来的嫉妒则更多。对此我根本无能为力。”

“He’s not rejoicing in it, he’s just sort of accepting it. Einstein was the first scientist to be a world celebrity. Before that it just didn’t really happen to scientists, so he was in this unique position,” said Venning

卫宁指出：“他没有为自己名气见长而欢喜，只能说是被动接受吧。爱因斯坦是第一位享誉世界的科学家。此前的科学家很难获得这样的知名度，所以他正处于一个前无古人的境地。”

爱因斯坦的一封书信

The shadow cast by the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s, and the strength Einstein drew from his work, is starkly depicted in a letter written to his sister in September 1933. Earlier that year, Einstein had renounced his German citizenship in Antwerp, fearing for his life after the Nazis branded relativity “Jewish science” and publicly denounced him. He took up a role at Princeton University in New Jersey in October; his sister would follow him in 1939.