I think that when Shirmura and Taniyama first started talking about
我认为谷山丰和志村五郎开始讨论
the relationship between elliptic curves and modular forms, people were very incredulous.
椭圆曲线和模形式之间的关系时,大家都非常怀疑。
I wasn't studying mathematics yet.
我当时还不在研习数学
By the time I was a graduate student in 1969 or 1970, people were coming to believe the conjecture.
当1969年或1970年我是研究生时,大家开始相信这个猜想。
In fact, Taniyama-Shimura became a foundation for other theories which all came to depend on it.
事实上,谷山-志村猜想成为了其它依靠它而建立的理论的基础。
But Taniyama-Shimura was only a conjecture, an unproven idea,
但谷山-志村猜想毕竟只是个猜想,未经验证,
and until it could be proved, all the maths which relied on it were under threat.
而在它经验证之前,所有赖以建立的数理都面临威胁。
Built more and more conjectures, stretched further and further into the future
建立起了越来越多的猜想,越来越扩展向未来,
but they would all be completely ridiculous if Taniyama-Shimura was not true.
但如果谷山-志村猜想不对,这所有的一切就都荒诞可笑。
Proving the conjecture became crucial,
验证这猜想至为关键
but tragically, the man whose idea inspired it didn't live to see the enormous impact of his work.
但悲惨的是,创出这猜想的人没能活着看到他研究成果的巨大影响。
In 1958, Taniyama committed suicide.
1958年,谷山丰自杀了。
I was very much puzzled. Puzzlement may be the best word.
我感到非常困惑。'困惑'可能是最合适的字眼。
Of course I was sad, see it was so sudden and I was unable to make sense out of this.
当然我很难过,发生得如此突然,对于此事我完全不能理解。