Idly watching fish swimming in a pond and allowing the mind to wander can lead to some surprising results.
一边呆呆地看着鱼儿在池塘里游水,一边让思绪联翩,可能会带来一些令人惊奇的结果。
The Education of a Physicist
一个物理学家受过的教育
Micho Kaku
米基奥·凯科
Two incidents from my childhood greatly enriched my understanding of the world and sent me on a course to become a theoretical physicist.
我孩提时代发生的两件事大大加深了我对这个世界的理解,还把我送上了成长为理论物理学家的道路。
I remember that my parents would sometimes take me to visit the famous Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. One of my happiest childhood memories is of crouching next to the pond, fascinated by the brilliantly colored carp swimming slowly beneath the water lilies.
我记得父母亲有时带我到坐落在旧金山的有名的日本茶园去玩。我记忆中儿时最快乐的事情之一是,自己蹲在池塘边,沉醉于观看那些在睡莲下缓缓游动的色彩斑斓的鲤鱼。
In these quiet moments, I felt free to let my imagination wander; I would ask myself sillyquestions that only a child might ask, such as how the carp in that pond would view the world around them. I thought, What a strange world theirs must be!
在这样的一些安静时刻,我听凭自己的想像力漫游;我常常会问自己只有小孩才会问的愚蠢问题,比如说,池塘里的鲤鱼会怎样看待它们周围的世界。我心里在想,他们的世界肯定千奇百怪!
Living their entire lives in the shallow pond, the carp would believe that their "universe" consisted of the dark water and the lilies. Spending most of their time moving around for food on the bottom of the pond, they would be only dimly aware that an alien world could exist above the surface. The nature of my world was beyond their comprehension. I was intrigued that I could sit only a few inches from the carp, yet be separated from them by a very huge gap. The carp and I spent our lives in two distinct universes, never entering eachother's world, yet were separated by only the thinnest barrier, the water's surface.
鲤鱼一生生活在浅浅的池塘中,他们会认为他们的"天地"是由暗色的水和睡莲组成的。他们大部分时间都在游来游去寻找池塘底上的食物,所以至多只会模模糊糊地觉得水面上方可能有一个陌生的世界。他们不理解我的世界的本质。我可以坐在距鲤鱼只有几英寸的地方,但却被一条鸿沟与他们分隔开来,对此我深感好奇。鲤鱼和我生活在两个不同的天地中,都永远不会进入对方的世界,但把双方隔离开来的只是一道最薄的障碍--水面。