翻译要靠自己动手（2）——费曼《我兀立于大海之滨》 按：这首“诗”节选自1955年费曼（R.P.Feynman）在美国国家科学院所做的演讲 The Value of Science 。2008年，《大学科普》编辑部托我将此“诗”翻译成汉语。后来，它被刊登在《大学科普》2008年第4期。 Richard Phillips Feynman 图片来源：Wikipedia I stand at the seashore, alone, 我兀立于大海之滨， and start to think. 独自思索。 There are the rushing waves . . . 波涛滚滚，潮往潮去 ...... mountains of molecules, 是分子，堆叠如山， each stupidly minding its own business . . . 顾自忙碌 ...... trillions apart . . . 数以兆计，扩散宇内 ...... yet forming white surf in unison. 我目所见，却是洁白浪花。 Ages on ages . . . 日复一日，年复一年 ...... before any eyes could see . . year after year . . . 洪荒之初，亦复如今 ...... thunderously pounding the shore as now. 雷鸣似地拍击海岸 For whom, for what? . . . 为了谁，又是为何而奔忙？ on a dead planet, 在一个死寂的行星上， with no life to entertain. 尚无生物降生。 Never at rest . . . 永不停歇 ...... tortured by energy . . . 任由能量折磨 , 驱策 ...... wasted prodigiously by the sun . . . 是太阳的慷慨挥霍 ...... poured into space. 肆意洒向太空。 A mite makes the sea roar. 只取毫末，便让大海呼啸。 Deep in the sea, 而大洋深处， all molecules repeat the patterns of one another 亿万分子，却反复排布 till complex new ones are formed. 直到那个全新且复杂的构造现身 They make others like themselves . . . 进而，同化万物 ...... and a new dance starts. 跃入崭新的进化之舞。 Growing in size and complexity . . . 尺度列张，愈趋繁复 ...... living things, 生命， masses of atoms, DNA, protein 堆砌的原子、 DNA 、蛋白质 dancing a pattern ever more intricate. 舞姿愈加精妙缤纷。 Out of the cradle onto the dry land 自海洋来到陆地 here it is standing . . . 终于 直立起来 ...... atoms with consciousness . . . matter with curiosity. 那是一群有意识的原子，懂得好奇的物质。 Stands at the sea . . . 兀立于大海之滨 ...... wonders at wondering . . . 思索着会思索的 ...... I . . . 我， a universe of atoms . . . an atom in the universe. 是原子的宇宙，亦如宇宙里的一粒原子。 注：我原来翻译最后一句（ a universe of atoms . . . an atom in the universe. ）有问题，经孙小淳老师指正，作了修改。特向孙老师表示感谢。 其实这句话最好的翻译在这里 ： 宇宙内事即己分内事，己分内事即宇宙内事。 ——（南宋）陆九渊 有兴趣的朋友可以下载费曼的演讲全文（文献来源：Caltech Library）： the value of science.pdf
前几天买了一本《你干吗在乎别人怎么想》（湖南科学技术出版社），这几天虽然时间很紧张，不过这本小书还是吸引我分出时间读完。书中前半部分更多的是费曼生平中一些或有趣或难忘的点滴构成，后半部分讲述了费曼作为委员会成员对“挑战者”号失事原因的调查。结尾附注的费曼的著名演讲《科学的价值》（The Value of Science）让人印象深刻。 下面是摘抄的几个段落。 科学的第一种价值是人人皆知，那就是科学知识让人们能够做成各种事情，造出各种东西 。当然，如果我们做了善事，那也不纯是科学的功劳；那也得归功于引导我们行善的道德选择。科学知识是一种力量，它既能让我们行善，也能让我们为恶，但是它本身并不附带使用说明。这样的力量显然是有价值的，尽管用好用坏取决于人。 The first way in which science is of value is familiar to everyone. It is that scientific knowledge enables us to do all kinds of things and to make all kinds of things. Of course if we makegoodthings, it is not only to the credit of science; it is also to the credit of the moral choice which led us to good work. Scientific knowledge is an enabling power to do either good or bad - but it does not carry instructions on how to use it. Such power has evident value - even though the power may be negated by what one does with it. 科学的另一价值是趣味，也叫做心智的享受 。这种享受，有人从读科学、学科学、思索科学得到，也有人从研究科学得到。这一点很重要，是那些告诉我们要考虑科学对社会影响的人们所忽视的。 难道说，这种纯粹的个人享受，对整个社会有什么价值吗？话不能这样说。应该说，关注社会本身的目标，也是一种责任。倘若社会的目标，就是要人们能够享受自己所做的事情，那么，科学带来的享受就像别的事情一样重要。 科学的另一不容低估的价值，是它改变了我们关于世界的概念 。科学引导我们想象各种各样的事情，这些事情比过去年月里的诗人和梦想家所想的更加迷人。科学研究告诉我们，自然的想象力比人的想象力要伟大得多。比如，这么多人被一种神秘的吸引力吸在一个旋转的球上，一半人头朝下，一旋转就是几十亿年，不是比无底的大海里有只大龟，龟驼着大地更来劲吗？ Is this mere personal enjoyment of value to society as a whole? No! But it is also a responsibility to consider the aim of society itself. Is it to arrange matters so that people can enjoy things? If so, then the enjoyment of science is as important as anything else. But I would like not to underestimate the value of the world view which is the results of scientific effort. We have been led to imagine all sorts of things infinitely more marvelous than the imaginings of poets and dreamers of the past. It shows that the imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man. For instance, how much more remarkable it is for us all to be stuck - half of us upside down - by a mysterious attraction to a spinning ball that has been swinging in space for billions of years than to be carried on the back of an elephant supported on a tortoise swimming in a bottomless sea. 现在，我要讲讲科学的第三种价值了。这种价值稍稍有些间接，但是并不牵强。科学家对于自己的无知、怀疑和不确定有很多体验，我以为这些体验非常非常重要。 当一个科学家不知道某个问题的答案时，他是无知的。当他猜到结果会是怎样时，他是不确定的。而当他对结果如何相当有把握时，他仍然有些怀疑。我们发现，下述的心态顶顶重要，那就是：要想进步，我们必须承认自己的无知，并留下怀疑的余地。科学知识是一些陈述的集合，这些陈述有不同程度的确定性——有的根本不确定，有的几乎确定，但是没有一条是绝对的有把握。 今天，我们科学家已习惯了这一点，并且理所当然地认为，不确定与科学毫无矛盾之处，认为，不知照样能活下去。可是，我不知道是否每个人都意识到这是真的。我们今天的怀疑的自由，乃产生于科学早期与权威做过的斗争。那一斗争极其深刻，极其有力：我们就是要争取，允许我们质问，允许我们怀疑，允许我们不确定。提醒人们绝不要忘了这场斗争，以免失去业经得到的东西。这乃是科学家对社会的责任。 想到人类难以置信的潜力，而相比之下成就却如此渺小，我们都会难过。一次又一次，人们认为自己理应做得更好些。 前人在自己时代的恶魇中梦想未来。作为他们的梦里人，我们今人看到了，在某些方面，古人之梦，今人已醒，而在许多方面，却是旧梦依然。今人对于未来的希望，也还是古人对今天的梦想。古今同一梦，今天丝毫也不比昨天逊色。 I would now like to turn to a third value that science has. It is a little less direct, but not much. The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain. Now, we scientists are used to this, and we take it for granted that it is perfectly consistent to be unsure, that it is possible to live and not know. But I don't know whether everyone realizes this is true. Our freedom to doubt was born out of a struggle against authority in the early days of science. It was a very deep and strong struggle: permit us to question - to doubt - to not be sure. I think that it is important that we do not forget this struggle and thus perhaps lose what we have gained. Herein lies a responsibility to society. We are all sad when we think of the wondrous potentialities human beings seem to have, as contrasted with their small accomplishments. Again and again people have thought that we could do much better. Those of the past saw in the nightmare of their times a dream for the future. We, of their future, see that their dreams, in certain ways surpassed, have in many ways remained dreams. The hopes for the future today are, in good share, those of yesterday. 古往今来，人们一直都在试图测度人生的意义。他们想，如有某种方向或意义指导行动，人类定会释放出巨大的力量。于是乎，很多很多的答案应运而生。可是，这些答案彼此太不同了，一种答案的倡导者，会把信奉另一种答案的行动者视为洪水猛兽。他们很可怕，因为，换一个角度看，那就是人类的所有潜能都被引入一条狭隘的死胡同。历史告诉我们， 虚妄信仰产生巨大恶性。实际上，哲学家正是从这一历史的观照中，才意识到人类显然拥有无穷的潜力。于是乎，又来了一个梦：这一回，梦想的是如何找到那条开放通达的康庄大道。 那么，这一切其中的含义又是什么呢？如何来一语尽释存在之谜呢？ 总结归齐，古人之所知也好，古人未之知而吾人之所知也好，吾人将以何以言之？吾人将谓：我们必须坦白承认，我们不知道。 可是，在这一坦白中，也许我们已然找到了通途。 Through all ages of our past, people have tried to fathom the meaning of life. They have realized that if some direction or meaning could be given to our actions, great human forces would be unleashed. So very many answers have been given to the question of the meaning of it all. But the answers have been of all different sorts, and the proponents of one answer have looked with horror at the actions of the believers in another - horror, because from a disagreeing point of view all the great potentialities of the race are channeled into a false and confining blind alley. In fact, it is from the history of the enormous monstrosities created by false belief that philosophers have realized the apparently infinite and wondrous capacities of human beings. The dream is to find the open channel. What, then, is the meaning of it all? What can we say to dispel the mystery of existence? If we take everything into account - not only what the ancients knew, but all of what we know today that they didn't know - then I think we must frankly admit that we do not know. But, in admitting this, we have probably found the open channel. 人类尚且年轻，一切才刚刚开始，问题成堆也无足怪。但未来还有千千万年。我们有责任尽力做，尽力学，寻求更好的解决办法，并传给后人。我们有责任留给后人一双自由之手。从前年轻性急，人类可能犯下过严重的错误，长时间阻碍了自己的成长。我们如此年轻，如此无知，假如我们说我们今天已经有了答案，那就犯下了这样的错误。 如果我们压制讨论，压制批评，宣称“这就是答案，朋友嘛；人类得救了！”我们就会给人类套上权威的锁链，让自己局限于眼前的想象。这样的事从前发生得太多了。 我们科学家，知道以往的无知哲学如此令人满意，思想自由取得的进步如此伟大，所以我们有责任宣称，这一自由是有价值的；我们就有责任宣扬，为什么不要害怕怀疑而是要欢迎怀疑，讨论怀疑；有责任坚持拥有这一自由。这就是我们对于天下后世应尽的责任。 We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on. It is our responsibility to leave the people of the future a free hand. In the impetuous youth of humanity, we can make grave errors that can stunt our growth for a long time. This we will do if we say we have the answers now, so young and ignorant as we are. If we suppress all discussion, all criticism, proclaiming "This is the answer, my friends; man is saved!" we will doom humanity for a long time to the chains of authority, confined to the limits of our present imagination. It has been done so many times before. It is our responsibility as scientists, knowing the great progress which comes from a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, the great progress which is the fruit of freedom of thought, to proclaim the value of this freedom; to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed and discussed; and to demand this freedom as our duty to all coming generations. What Do You Care What Other People Think? ——Richard Feynman 参考： 中文翻译出自《你干吗在乎别人怎么想》R·P·费曼 著 R·莱顿 笔录 李绍明 李超 译 湖南科学技术出版社 2005 英文出处： http://www.phys.washington.edu/users/vladi/phys216/Feynman.html
标签: 科学的价值
