雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:水銀延時線(107)
Robin was moving away from theoretical physics and into the philosophy of physics, and there were many discussions with him and his friend Keith Roberts.
Once they had tried to set up a purely operational definition of Special Relativity, and when one of them objected that there was no such thing as a rigid body in relativity, Alan said, 'Well, let's call them squeegees'
有一次他們試着對狹義相對論給出一個純操作性的定義，他們其中之一反駁說，相對論中沒有"剛體"這樣的東西，然後圖靈說："隨便你，叫橡膠體也無妨。"It was that pleasant, unpompous way of being serious without being solemn that in 1948 was far from widespread in academic life, and was associated with the legacy of the Apostles and the King's milieu—though it came naturally to Alan.
他們用這種愉快的方式，而不是嚴肅的學術腔，這與使徒社和國王學院的風氣有很大關係，而且對圖靈來說也很自然。
There was another nice occasion when Don Bayley came for the weekend to see Alan and Robin, to be greeted with a toy steam engine that Alan had bought at Woolworths.
有一次週末，唐·貝利回來看望圖靈和羅賓，他看見圖靈買了一個帶蒸汽機的玩具。'I always lusted after things like this as a boy,' he said ruefully, 'but didn't have enough pocket money for them. Now I have got enough money, I might as well have it.'
圖靈悲愴地說："我從小就渴望擁有一個這樣的玩具，但我沒錢買，現在我有錢了，終於可以擁有一個了。"They played with it for the afternoon.
他們整個下午都在玩這個玩具。Alan had told Robin that 'Sometimes you're sitting talking to someone and you know that in three quarters of an hour you will either be having a marvellous night or you will be kicked out of the room.'
圖靈告訴羅賓："有時候我坐下來跟別人聊天，我心裏就已經知道，45分鐘之後，我要麼擁有一個歡愉的春宵，要麼就會被一腳踹出門外。"It was not always like that, for the innocent Peter Matthews' cocoa sessions did not involve this stark dichotomy.
當然他也並不是總這樣，比如天真的彼得·馬修就沒有經歷過這樣的二選一。Nor was Alan accomplished in the necessary social game of words and eye-contact; he was too shy and brusque and lacking in confidence in his looks.
圖靈仍然沒有學會巧言令色，他太過於害羞，說話又非常直接，而且臉上總是缺乏自信。Cambridge did inspire him with greater interest in his appearance, and sometimes he would show Robin a photograph of himself at sixteen and say how handsome he looked then.
劍橋倒確實使他對自己的形象產生了一點興趣，他有時會給羅賓看他16歲時的照片，並說"你看我當年還挺帥的"。He was certainly not attractive in the Aryan-Brylcreem style of the 1940s.
然而按照40年代的審美觀，圖靈的外表並無魅力可言，To the fastidious, his open-necked, shabby, breathless immediacy came as messy and coarse, though there were redeeming features; he could put on a roguish charm which reminded people of his Irish ancestry, and besides his piercing blue eyes he had thick, luxuriant eyelashes and a soft-contoured nose.
這是一個挑剔的社會，而他總是顯得落伍、破舊、憋悶、凌亂、粗糙。不過他也有一些優點，他有幽默感，這會讓人聯想到他的愛爾蘭血統，他還有一雙沁人心脾的藍色眼睛，有着纖長而濃密的睫毛，還有一個秀麗挺拔的鼻子。But whatever his doubts and disadvantages he would pace round the courts of King's and invite young men in for tea.
不管怎麼說，他在國王學院，時常還能約到年輕小夥子一起喝茶。Sometimes he struck lucky. In April 1948 he struck very lucky indeed, for Neville Johnson stayed for tea, and stayed many times.
他有時運氣很好，1948年4月，奈維爾·約翰遜和他一起喝茶，而且喝了很多次。
