万物简史 第39期:埃文斯牧师的宇宙(3)

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　　埃文斯是个杰出的天才人物，奥利弗?萨克斯在《一位火星上的人类学家》中有一章谈到孤僻的学者，专门用一段文字来描述埃文斯--但他马上补充说："绝没有说他孤僻的意思。"埃文斯从来没有见过萨克斯，对说他性格孤僻也罢，一位学者也罢，都报以哈哈大笑，但他不太说得清自己怎么会有这种天才。

　　"I just seem to have a knack² for memorizing star fields," he told me, with a frankly³ apologetic look, when I visited him and his wife, Elaine, in their picture-book bungalow⁴ on a tranquil⁵ edge of the village of Hazelbrook, out where Sydney finally ends and the boundless⁶ Australian bush begins. "I'm not particularly good at other things," he added. "I don't remember names well."埃文斯的家在黑兹尔布鲁克村边缘的一栋平房里，环境幽静，景色如画，悉尼就到这里为止，再往前便是无边无际的澳大利亚丛林。有一次，我去拜访了他和他的夫人伊莱恩。“我好像恰好有记住星场的本事。”他对我说，还表露出不好意思的样子，"别的事我都不特别擅长，"他接着说，"我连名字都不太记得住。""Or where he's put things," called Elaine from the kitchen.

　　“也记不住东西搁在哪儿。”伊莱恩从厨房里喊着说。

　　He nodded frankly again and grinned, then asked me if I'd like to see his telescope. I had imagined that Evans would have a proper observatory⁷ in his backyard—a scaled-down version of a Mount Wilson or Palomar, with a sliding domed⁸ roof and a mechanized chair that would be a pleasure to maneuver⁹. In fact, he led me not outside but to a crowded storeroom off the kitchen where he keeps his books and papers and where his telescope—a white cylinder¹⁰ that is about the size and shape of a household hot-water tank—rests in a homemade, swiveling plywood mount.

　　他又坦率地点了点头，咧嘴一笑，接着问我是不是愿意去看一眼他的望远镜。我原来以为，埃文斯在后院有个不错的天文台--一个小型的威尔逊山天文台或帕洛马天文台，配有滑动的穹形屋顶和一把移动方便的机械椅子。实际上，他没有把我带出屋外，而是领着我走进离厨房不远的一个拥挤不堪的贮藏室，里面堆满了书和文献。他的望远镜--一个白色的圆筒，大小和形状像个家用热水箱--就放在一个他自己做的、能够转动的胶合板架子上面。

　　When he wishes to observe, he carries them in two trips to a small deck off the kitchen. Between the overhang of the roof and the feathery tops of eucalyptus¹¹ trees growing up from the slope below, he has only a letter-box view of the sky, but he says it is more than good enough for his purposes. And there, when the skies are clear and the Moon not too bright, he finds his supernovae.

　　要进行观测的时候，他分两次把它们搬上离厨房不远处的阳台。斜坡下面长满了桉树，只看得见屋檐和树梢之间一片信箱大小的天空，但他说这对于他的观测工作来说已经绰绰有余。就是在那里，当天空晴朗、月亮不太明亮的时候，他寻找超新星。

 

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