But there was still a problem.
但仍存有一個問題。
Late in the spring of '93 I was in this very awkward position
93年的暮春時分,我處于一個非常尷尬的境地,
and I thought I'd got most of the curves to be modular,
我認為我已將大多數的曲線化為模形式,
so that was nearly enough to be content to have Fermat's last theorem,
那對于證明費馬最后定理來說已幾近足夠,
but there was this, these few families of elliptic curves that had escaped the net.
但情況是,有少數橢圓曲線族仍無法納入證明體系。
I was sitting here at my desk in May of '93, still wondering about this problem,
93年的5月,我就坐在書桌這兒,仍在考慮這個難題,
and I was casually glancing at a paper of Barry Mazur's
而我無意間瞥見了巴里·梅休爾的一篇論文,
and there was just one sentence which made a reference to actually what's a 19th-century construction
其中只有一句話提及的實為19世紀時期的一個結構,
and I just instantly realised that there was a trick that I could use,
我當即意識到其中有個技巧我可以用上,
that I could switch from the families of elliptic curves I'd been using.
我可以將我正在使用的橢圓曲線族進行轉換
I'd been studying them using the prime three, I could switch and study them using the prime five.
以前是在用質數3來研究它們,我可以進行轉換,用質數5來研究它們。
It looked more complicated, but I could switch from these awkward curves that I couldn't prove were modular,
看起來是更復雜了,但我可以對這些棘手的我還不能證明其為模形式的曲線進行轉換
to a different set of curves which I'd already proved were modular
轉為我已證明為模形式的另一種曲線族,
and use that information to just go that one last step.
而且利用那信息來邁出最后一步。
I just kept working out the details, time went by and I forgot to go down to lunch.
我一直在鉆研細節,時間過去了,我忘記了下樓吃午飯。
It got to about teatime, I went down and Nada was very surprised that I'd arrived so late
到了下午茶時間,我下樓來,娜達非常驚訝我來得這么晚,
and then I told her that I, I believed I'd solved Fermat's last theorem.
于是我告訴她,我相信我已經破解了費馬最后定理。