大部頭的愛因斯坦傳記讀著嫌太嚴肅，偶然看見這篇小文，感覺有趣，翻成中文和大家共享。
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《回憶愛因斯坦：他可真不是駕駛帆船那塊料》
Recalling Albert Einstein, who was not much of a genius when it came to sailing
------By Corey Kilgannon
紐約州卡特籌格村：當愛因斯坦於1939年7月間頭一次走進羅斯曼百貨店時，店主大衛.羅斯曼立刻認出了他，因為那時消息早已經傳遍了這個位於長島遠端的僻靜小村，說是那位頭發蓬亂行為怪僻的天才自認是駕駛帆船的行家，且在卡特籌格碼頭旁租下了一棟渡夏小屋。
CUTCHOGUE, New York: When Albert Einstein first came into Rothman's Department Store in July 1939, the owner, David Rothman, recognized him immediately.
Word had already spread across this sleepy bayside hamlet far out on Long Island that the strange, shaggy genius fancied himself a sailor and had rented a summer cottage overlooking Cutchogue Harbor.
科學家那艘長15英尺渾身吱嘎亂響的帆船取名“挺耐腐”，這詞在意第緒語裏意為 “寒磣”，或 “等外品”。 據小皮克尼克灣一帶的傳聞講，這詞拿來形容愛因斯坦的駕船技術也恰如其分。
The name of his clunky 15-foot sailboat was Tinef, Yiddish for "worthless" or "junk," and, according to tales across the Little Peconic Bay, it could have equally described Einstein's sailing skills.
“這地方總有不下30號人說是曾在愛因斯坦翻船時搭救過他，把他和他的船拖回碼頭，”大衛.羅斯曼的兒子羅伯特說。 羅伯特現在經營著他父親那間百貨店。
"You had 30 people around here who'd tell you they rescued Einstein when he capsized, and towed him and his boat in," said David Rothman's son Robert, who now runs the store.
那年夏天愛因斯坦走進百貨店時，愛因斯坦60歲，羅伯特才12歲。 科學家要買一樣東西，因為他的英文有很重的德國口音，聽起來他好像在問店裏是否賣日冕 （sundial）。
Robert was 12 that summer when Einstein, then 60, first came in and, in his heavy German accent, seemed to be asking whether the store sold sundials.
"我父親於是把他領到百貨店後門外，指給他看一個日冕，”羅伯特上個星期在他的百貨店裏回憶說。 “愛因斯坦說，‘不是這個，是 sundial，’一麵說，一麵朝他腳上指。 原來他是想買雙拖鞋 （sandals）。”
"So my father takes him out back and shows him a sundial," Robert Rothman recalled last week in the store. "Einstein says, 'No, no. Sundials,' and points at his feet. He's looking for sandals."
百貨店裏隻有一種窄窄的女士拖鞋，可是給愛因斯坦穿上，卻好像和他那副隨意不羈的裝扮十分般配。
The only sandals Rothman's stocked were a narrow feminine pair, but they seemed to fit right into Einstein's haphazard appearance.
“我至今還想得起他站在這個店裏的情景，頂著那麽一大蓬頭發，”羅伯特說。 “那時候，男人很少有留那種發式的，他還用根白棉繩作腰帶，可能就是從他那船上拆下來的。
"I can still see him standing here with that big head of hair," Rothman said. "The hair was very unusual at that time for a man, and he used a white cotton rope for a belt - probably something that came off his sailboat."
羅伯特.羅斯曼今年80歲。 他是少有的幾個至今仍記得愛因斯坦當年在長島渡夏的人，愛因斯坦在長島渡夏時曾做過影響深遠的大事，同時又有令人捧腹的時刻。
Rothman, 80, is one of a handful here who still remember Einstein's Long Island summer vacation, which had moments of both profound importance and profound hilarity.
他在那裏寫下了給羅斯福總統的信，有人認為那封信可能導致了對原子彈的研究開發。 然而有關大教授時常會因為船擱淺或翻船而需要人救助的故事也成了人們茶餘飯後經久不衰的笑料。
There was the letter he wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that some believe may have led to the development of the atomic bomb, and then there was the widespread delight among locals over the professor's needing constant rescue after stranding or capsizing his sailboat.
可是羅伯特.羅斯曼對那個夏天記得最清楚的就是，他要小心翼翼，不要因為打擾了他父親和愛因斯坦的快樂時光而惹上麻煩。 他記得自己曾坐在愛因斯坦的門廊前，還記得他父親開車帶愛因斯坦到處轉，而他則坐在後座上。
But Rothman remembers it simply as the summer he had to keep out of his father's - and Einstein's - hair. He recalls sitting on Einstein's porch and riding in the back seat as his father drove Einstein around.
"那年我才12歲，我自然不能幫他寫物理理論，我的職責就是不亂跑，不貧嘴，我的職責基本上就是幫助照看愛因斯坦的孫子。 我曾帶那孩子揚帆出海，” 羅伯特說。
"I was 12 then, so I wasn't helping him write physics theories," he said. "I was supposed to be seen and not heard, and basically had to keep his grandson occupied. I took the kid sailing."
和愛因斯坦那棟小屋隔幾個房子住著瑪薩.保羅。 今年82歲的瑪薩過去在這裏渡夏，如今則在此常年居住。 瑪薩從她房子的陽台上朝伸出淺灣的一塊獨立礁石一指，她說大科學家會不時坐在那礁石上，向著大海凝視出神。
Several doors down from Einstein's cottage, Martha Paul, 82, would spend summers in the house where she now lives full time. She pointed down from her deck to a solitary rock jutting out of the shallow water, where she said the scientist used to sit and stare out to sea.
“我的嬸嬸和他的發式一模一樣。 有一次我看見他們倆在海灘上相遇時都不約而同停了下來，”瑪薩說，“他們都情不自禁地盯著對方頭發看，好像都對居然會看到和自己一樣的發式而吃驚。”
"My Aunt Martha had his same hairstyle, and once I saw them pass each other while walking on the beach," Paul recalled. "They looked up and stared at each other like they were amazed to see the same hairdo."
“對我們來說，他就是個發式滑稽，說話怪腔怪調，駕船技術很差的水手”，瑪薩補充道。“那時大家會一麵朝港口外瞧著，一麵笑話那個在船上不知所措的怪人。”
"To us, he was just a bad sailor with funny hair and a funny accent," she added. "People used to look out there and laugh at this strange guy in his sailboat going nowhere."
1939年，正是愛因斯坦試圖提出一種把幾個科學原則和並在一起的統一場理論的時候，也許他覺得駕船出海可以讓他的思緒隨著他的船遨遊。
In 1939, Einstein was seeking a unified field theory to unite several scientific principles, and perhaps sailing allowed his mind to drift along with his boat.
正是在愛因斯坦在羅斯曼的百貨店裏欣賞了莫紮特的“朱庇特”交響樂錄音以後，愛因斯坦和百貨店老板發現對方會拉小提琴。不久，他們兩人就開始每周一次聚會在百貨店裏，一起拉室內樂。
After Einstein admired the recording of Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony playing in Rothman's, the scientist and the store owner discovered they were both violinists, and soon they were meeting weekly at the Rothman house to play chamber music.
後來愛因斯坦在給大衛.羅斯曼的信裏說，那是他 “一生最幸福的夏天”，說那個海灣是 “我所見過的最美麗的可以航船的所在。”
Einstein later wrote to David Rothman that it was his "happiest summer ever," calling the bay "the most beautiful sailing ground I ever experienced."
在另一封信裏，愛因斯坦先是記述了自己看到小羅伯特給自己的小劃艇巧妙地安裝上桅杆和船帆時的喜悅，接著就提到自己是如何燒掉了對相對論的書麵闡述的第一稿。
Another letter recalls Einstein's delight at young Robert's clever rigging of his own rowboat with a mast and sail, and then in the next sentence describes how Einstein burned his first written attempt to explain relativity.
“有一次他從他的小屋駕船來百貨店，居然半路上迷路了”，羅伯特回憶說， “警察來電話，說海灘上有一個一腦袋長頭發的人在東奔西跑，到處問怎麽去羅斯曼百貨店。”
"Once, he sailed to the store from his cabin and got lost," Rothman said. "The police found him and called, saying there was this hairy guy wandering the beach asking for my father."
百貨店至今變化無幾。收銀台旁擺一個粗笨的煤油暖爐，店裏仍舊出售園林工具，家用器具，五金工具，船上用品和玩具。
The department store has hardly changed. Next to the checkout counter is a bulky kerosene heater, and the inventory still includes gardening tools, housewares, hardware, appliances, nautical equipment and toys.
“城裏猶太人不多，我父親是一個，”羅斯曼說。據他講，雖然其父全靠自學，但能和愛因斯坦討論政治，藝術，駕船術，音樂和哲學。
"My dad was one of the few Jews in town, and he had educated himself," said Rothman, who said his father nonetheless could discuss politics, art, boating, music and philosophy with Einstein.
曾有一次愛因斯坦試著在一張廢紙片上用草圖來解釋他的相對論和其他定律。前不久羅斯曼的家人才把這草圖出售給一位收藏家。
Once, Einstein tried to explain his theory of relativity and other principles by sketching them on a scrap of paper. The Rothman family recently sold the scrap to a collector.
羅斯曼家仍然藏有很多愛因斯坦的來信，信中談到他的船，他的家庭和健康狀況，還談及他對第二次世界大戰的憂心。 所有這些信都是用打字機在愛因斯坦的個人信箋上打出，結尾都署有規整緊湊的簽名：“阿.愛因斯坦。”
The family still has numerous Einstein letters, which included news about his boat, his family and his health, and his concerns about World War II. They are all typewritten on Einstein's personal stationery and signed with a neat, tight script: "A. Einstein."
第二年夏天愛因斯坦沒有再來，而是在紐約州北部的薩蘭娜克湖畔渡過的。 但是他保持了和大衛.羅斯曼的通信聯係， 而大衛.羅斯曼從那以後也每年給愛因斯坦送一雙 “日冕”去。
Einstein spent the next summer at Saranac Lake in upstate New York, but he continued to correspond with David Rothman, who sent him a new pair of "sundials" year after year.
