雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:面朝大海(206)

Typically, he had made a game out of the difficult process of breaking the ice,

在這段艱難的時光裏，他發明了一種遊戲，

so that when among friends, notably Robin and his friend Christopher Bennett, they would share what Alan chose to call 'sagas' or 'saga-ettes'.

每當和朋友們在一起，比如羅賓和克里斯朵夫·伯納特，他們就會一起玩這個"大傳奇小傳奇"。

A 'saga' would have to enjoy the dimensions of 'the Arnold story', but a saga-ette might have more modest proportions of self-revelation.

當圖靈選到"大傳奇"，他就會講述一些阿諾德事件的細節，而如果是"小傳奇"，則會講一些其它的小祕密。

Alan would tell the saga-ette of a particular Paris adventure.

圖靈講了他在巴黎的一次經歷。

Alan had picked up a young man and insisted on walking back to his hotel instead of taking the Metro.

當時他搭上一個年輕人，並且堅持要他不坐地鐵，而是跟他一起步行回旅館。

This caused amazement, Alan said, because 'he thought of Paris like you or I would think of a Riemann surface;

那個人對此很驚訝，圖靈解釋說，因爲"他眼中的巴黎，就像我們眼中的黎曼曲面，

he only knew the circles of convergence round every Metro station, and couldn't analytically continue from one to another!'

他只知道每個地鐵站附近的收斂圓，卻不能從一個解析連續到另一個。

In the hotel, the boy had solemnly lifted up the mattress, and inserted his trousers, pour conserver les plis,

在旅館裏，這個年輕人一本正經地把牀墊擡起來，把褲子鋪平壓在下面，以保持褲子的摺痕。

which this time amazed Alan, who never had a visible crease and wanted to get on with it.

這次輪到圖靈感到驚訝了，他從來都沒想過，褲子需要有摺痕，他覺得這種做法很有意思。

Afterwards, the boy had made up some story about exchanging their watches so as to prove their trust for each other, until they met next day,

後來，這個年輕人提議，雙方交換手錶，作爲下次見面的信物。

so Alan showed his trust, and lost the watch, but considered it worth the sacrifice.

圖靈表現了自己的信任，於是失去了手錶，但他認爲這是值得的。