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My brother once gave the Professor a toy, a bird that balanced on the edge of a bowl of water and repeatedly dunked its head in the water. Einstein watched it in delight, trying to deduce the operating principle. But he couldn't.
我兄弟曾送给教授一个玩具，那是一只立在盛水的碗边保持平衡并把脑袋反复浸入水中的鸟。爱因斯坦高兴地注视着它，一边试图推断出它的运动原理。
The next morning he announced, "I had thought about that bird for a long time before I went to bed and it must work this way ..." He began a long explanation. Then he stopped, realizing a flaw in his reasoning. "No, I guess that's not it," he said. He pursued various theories for several days until I suggested we take the toy apart to see how it did work. His quick expression of disapproval told me he did not agree with this practical approach. He never did work out the solution.
第二天早晨他宣布说：“关于那只鸟我想过了，它一定是这样运转的……”他开始做起了长篇解释。后来他意识到自己推理中的一个漏洞便停了下来。“不，我想不是那么回事。”他连续几天试着用各种理论来加以解释，后来我建议把玩具拆开来看看它是怎样运转的。他迅速现出的不赞成的表情告诉我，他并不同意这种实际操作的做法。他一直没有研究出这个答案。
Another puzzle that Einstein could never understand was his own fame. He had developed theories that were profound and capable of exciting relatively few scientists. Yet his name was a household word across the civilized world. "I've had good ideas, and so have other men," he once said. "But it's been my good fortune that my ideas have been accepted." He was bewildered by his fame: people wanted to meet him; strangers stared at him on the street; scientists, statesmen, students, and housewives wrote him letters. He never could understand why he received this attention, why he was singled out as something special.
爱因斯坦一直没能理解的另一个谜是他自己的名望。他提出的理论都是些非常深奥、只能使比较少的科学家感到兴趣的理论。然而他的名字在整个文明世界却家喻户晓，尽人皆知。有一次他说：“我有一些很好的思想，别人也有一些很好的思想。但由于我运气好，我的思想才被接受了。”他的名望使他迷惑不解：人们都想会见他；陌生人在街上盯着他看；科学家、政治家、学生和家庭主妇都给他写信。他一直不能理解，为什么他会受到这种注意，为什么单单把他挑出来当作特殊人物对待。
