雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第4章:彼岸新星(35)
In Back to Methuselah, Bernard Shaw imagined super-intelligent beings of 31,920 A.D. growing out of the concerns of art, science and sex ('these childish games—this dancing and singing and mating') and turning away to think about mathematics.
('They are fascinating, just fascinating. I want to get away from our eternal dancing and music, and just sit down by myself and think about numbers.')
（"那纔是真正迷人的，我要遠離那些扯淡的舞蹈和音樂，坐下來做一些算術"）。This was all very well for Shaw, for whom mathematics could symbolise intellectual enquiry beyond his reach.
對於蕭伯納來說，這些並無實際意義，數學只是一種智力活動的象徵，而並不是他所涉足的領域。
But Alan had to think about mathematics at twenty-four, when he had by no means tired of the 'childish games'.
但是，艾倫在24歲的時候，在還沒有對"幼稚遊戲"感到厭倦的時候，就把自己的身心都獻給數學了，He did not divide his mind into rigidly separate compartments, once saying that he derived a sexual pleasure from mathematics.
他好像是從數學中，得到了一種性的快感。Then with his new friend Venable Martin, he went to H.P. Robertson's lectures on relativity in the new year of 1937, and also went canoeing, perhaps in the stream that fed Carnegie Lake.
1937年，他與新朋友維納德·馬丁去參加H.P.羅伯森的相對論講座，還一起去卡耐基湖流出的小河上劃獨木舟。At one point he 'indirectly indicated' an 'interest in having a homosexual relation', but his friend made it clear that he was not interested.
艾倫婉轉地表示自己對同性戀有興趣，但他的朋友卻明確表示自己沒興趣。Alan never broached the matter again and it did not affect their relationship in other ways.
於是艾倫沒有再提此事，這也並沒有影響他們之間的關係。The New Jersey poet would have understood.
那位"新澤西詩人"也許會理解他，But Alan did not see the America of Walt Whitman, only the land of sexual prohibition.
但是艾倫並沒看到惠特曼所描繪的美國，他看到的只是一片滿是性禁忌的土地。The country of Daddy and Mama had adopted homosexuality as a deeply Un-American activity, especially since the twentieth century clean-up had got under way.
特別是在大清洗運動之後，這個國家把同性戀看成了一種隱祕的反美活動。At Princeton there was no one talking about a 'pretty normal bisexual male'.
在普林斯頓，沒有人談論同性戀。Alan was lucky to be rebuffed by so tolerant a person as Venable Martin.
艾倫被維納德這樣寬容的人拒絕，已經算是走運了。
