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When he was restored to the throne at Apple, we put him on the cover of Time,
喬布斯重新執掌蘋果公司之后，我們將他搬上了《時代》雜志的封面，
and soon thereafter he began offering me his ideas for a series we were doing on the most influential people of the century.
此后不久，他就開始給我們正在做的20世紀最有影響力人物系列專題出謀劃策。
He had launched his “Think Different” campaign,
當時他已經展開了“非同凡想”（Think Different)的宣傳活動，
featuring iconic photos of some of the same people we were considering, and he found the endeavor of assessing historic influence fascinating.
在他的電視廣告片里出現的眾多歷史人物中，有一些也正是我們在考慮的，而喬布斯發現，評估人物的歷史影響力很有意思。
After I had deflected his suggestion that I write a biography of him, I heard from him every now and then.
在拒絕了幫他寫傳記的建議后，我還是時不時收到一些他的消息。
At one point I emailed to ask if it was true, as my daughter had told me,
有一次，我發電子郵件詢問他，蘋果公司的標識是不是如同我女兒告訴我的一樣，
that the Apple logo was an homage to Alan Turing,
是在向偉大的英國計算機先驅阿蘭·圖靈（AlanTuring)致敬。
the British computer pioneer who broke the German wartime codes and then committed suicide by biting into a cyanide-laced apple.
圖靈破譯了戰爭時期德國的電碼，最后卻食用浸過氰化物的蘋果自殺了。
He replied that he wished he had thought of that, but hadn’t.
喬布斯回復我說，他希望自己曾經考慮過這一點，但實際上并沒有。
That started an exchange about the early history of Apple,
從這件事起，我開始逐漸了解蘋果公司的早期歷史，
and I found myself gathering string on the subject, just in case I ever decided to do such a book.
并一點一點搜集這方面的資料，沒準兒哪天我想寫一本這方面的書呢。
When my Einstein biography came out, he came to a book event in Palo Alto and pulled me aside to suggest, again, that he would make a good subject.
我的愛因斯坦傳記出版后，有一次，在帕洛奧圖的一個新書活動上，喬布斯把我拉到一邊，再一次提出，以他為主題的書肯定很有意思。
His persistence baffled me.
他的堅持讓我很為難。
He was known to guard his privacy, and I had no reason to believe he’d ever read any of my books.
眾所周知他非常注意保護自己的隱私，而我想他應該從來沒有看過我寫的書。
Maybe someday, I continued to say. But in 2009 his wife, Laurene Powell, said bluntly,
也許將來的某個時候吧，我還是這么說。但是，到了2009年，他的妻子勞倫·鮑威爾（LaurenePowell)對我直言不諱地說：
“If you’re ever going to do a book on Steve, you’d better do it now.”
“如果你真的打算寫一本關于史蒂夫的書，最好現在就開始?！?/div>
He had just taken a second medical leave.
他當時剛剛第二次因病休假。
I confessed to her that when he had first raised the idea, I hadn’t known he was sick.
我向勞倫坦承，當喬布斯第一次提出這個想法時，我并不知道他病了。
Almost nobody knew, she said. He had called me right before he was going to be operated on for cancer, and he was still keeping it a secret, she explained.
幾乎沒有人知道，她說。他是在接受癌癥手術之前給我打的電話，直到今天他還將此事作為一個秘密，她這么解釋道。
I decided then to write this book.
就在那個時候，我決定要寫這本書了。
Jobs surprised me by readily acknowledging that he would have no control over it or even the right to see it in advance.
讓我驚喜的是，喬布斯欣然允諾，他不會干涉這本書的寫作過程，甚至不會提前閱讀它。
“It’s your book,” he said. “I won’t even read it.”
“這是你的書，”他說，“我不會看的?！?/div>
But later that fall he seemed to have second thoughts about cooperating and, though I didn’t know it, was hit by another round of cancer complications.
但那年秋天的晚些時候，他似乎對于合作有了猶豫，而我不知道的是，他被又一輪癌癥并發癥侵襲了。
He stopped returning my calls, and I put the project aside for a while.
他不再回我的電話，我也把這個項目放到了一邊。
Then, unexpectedly, he phoned me late on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve 2009.
之后，很出人意料的，他在2009年末新年前夜的傍晚給我打來了電話。
He was at home in Palo Alto with only his sister, the writer Mona Simpson.
他在帕洛奧圖的家中，陪伴他的只有他的妹妹，作家莫娜·辛普森（MonaSimpson)。
His wife and their three children had taken a quick trip to go skiing, but he was not healthy enough to join them.
妻子勞倫和三個孩子去滑雪了，身體狀況讓他未能成行。
He was in a reflective mood, and we talked for more than an hour.
他追思往事，跟我聊了一個多小時。
He began by recalling that he had wanted to build a frequency counter when he was twelve,
他先是回憶自己12歲的時候曾經想要做一個頻率計數器，
and he was able to look up Bill Hewlett, the founder of HP, in the phone book and call him to get parts.
當時他在電話簿上查到了惠普的創始人比爾·休利特（BillHewlett)的號碼，并給他打電話，想要得到一些零部件。
Jobs said that the past twelve years of his life, since his return to Apple, had been his most productive in terms of creating new products.
喬布斯說，他重新回到蘋果公司的這12年，從創造新產品的角度來說，是他最髙產的一個階段。
But his more important goal, he said, was to do what Hewlett and his friend David Packard had done,
但他還有一個更重要的目標，他說，就是像休利特和戴維·帕卡德（DavidPackard)—樣，
which was create a company that was so imbued with innovative creativity that it would outlive them.
建立一家充滿了革命性創造力的公司，而且這家公司要比惠普更能經受歲月長河的滌蕩。
“I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics,”
“我小的時候，一直都以為自己是個適合人文學科的人，但我喜歡電子設備，”
he said. “Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences,
他說，“然后我看到了我的偶像之一，寶麗來創始人埃德溫·蘭德（EdwinLand)說的一些話，是關于既揎長人文又能駕馭科學的人的重要性的，
and I decided that’s what I wanted to do.”
于是我決定，我要成為這樣的人。
It was as if he were suggesting themes for his biography (and in this instance, at least, the theme turned out to be valid).
”這好像是他在向我暗示這本傳記的主題（這一次，這個主題至少是合理的）。
The creativity that can occur when a feel for both the humanities and the sciences combine in one strong personality was the topic that most interested me in my biographies of Franklin and Einstein,
在我寫的富蘭克林以及愛因斯坦的傳記中，最讓我感興趣的話題就是，一個具有強烈個性的人身上集合了人文和科學的天賦后所能產生的那種創造力，
and I believe that it will be a key to creating innovative economies in the twenty-first century.
我相信這種創造力也是在21世紀建立創新型經濟的關鍵因素。
| 重點單詞 | 查看全部解釋 | |||
| fascinating | ['fæsineitiŋ] |
想一想再看 adj. 迷人的 |
聯想記憶 | |
| frequency | ['fri:kwənsi] |
想一想再看 n. 頻繁，頻率 |
||
| influential | [.influ'enʃəl] |
想一想再看 adj. 有權勢的，有影響的 |
||
| restored | [ri'stɔ:d] |
想一想再看 adj. 精力充沛的；精力恢復的 v. 修復（resto |
聯想記憶 | |
| committed | [kə'mitid] |
想一想再看 adj. 獻身于某種事業的，委托的 |
聯想記憶 | |
| counter | ['kauntə] |
想一想再看 n. 計算器，計算者，柜臺 |
||
| creativity | [.kri:ei'tiviti] |
想一想再看 n. 創造力，創造 |
聯想記憶 | |
| privacy | ['praivəsi] |
想一想再看 n. 隱私，隱居，秘密 |
聯想記憶 | |
| string | [striŋ] |
想一想再看 n. 線，一串，字串 |
||
| reflective | [ri'flektiv] |
想一想再看 adj. 反射的，反映的;沉思的 adj. 【語】反身的 |
聯想記憶 |
