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My brother once gave the Professor a toy, a bird that balanced on the edge of a bowl of water and repeatedly dunked its head in the water. Einstein watched it in delight, trying to deduce the operating principle. But he couldn't.
我兄弟曾送給教授一個玩具，那是一只立在盛水的碗邊保持平衡并把腦袋反復浸入水中的鳥。愛因斯坦高興地注視著它，一邊試圖推斷出它的運動原理。
The next morning he announced, "I had thought about that bird for a long time before I went to bed and it must work this way ..." He began a long explanation. Then he stopped, realizing a flaw in his reasoning. "No, I guess that's not it," he said. He pursued various theories for several days until I suggested we take the toy apart to see how it did work. His quick expression of disapproval told me he did not agree with this practical approach. He never did work out the solution.
第二天早晨他宣布說：“關于那只鳥我想過了，它一定是這樣運轉的……”他開始做起了長篇解釋。后來他意識到自己推理中的一個漏洞便停了下來。“不，我想不是那么回事。”他連續幾天試著用各種理論來加以解釋，后來我建議把玩具拆開來看看它是怎樣運轉的。他迅速現出的不贊成的表情告訴我，他并不同意這種實際操作的做法。他一直沒有研究出這個答案。
Another puzzle that Einstein could never understand was his own fame. He had developed theories that were profound and capable of exciting relatively few scientists. Yet his name was a household word across the civilized world. "I've had good ideas, and so have other men," he once said. "But it's been my good fortune that my ideas have been accepted." He was bewildered by his fame: people wanted to meet him; strangers stared at him on the street; scientists, statesmen, students, and housewives wrote him letters. He never could understand why he received this attention, why he was singled out as something special.
愛因斯坦一直沒能理解的另一個謎是他自己的名望。他提出的理論都是些非常深奧、只能使比較少的科學家感到興趣的理論。然而他的名字在整個文明世界卻家喻戶曉，盡人皆知。有一次他說：“我有一些很好的思想，別人也有一些很好的思想。但由于我運氣好，我的思想才被接受了。”他的名望使他迷惑不解：人們都想會見他；陌生人在街上盯著他看；科學家、政治家、學生和家庭主婦都給他寫信。他一直不能理解，為什么他會受到這種注意，為什么單單把他挑出來當作特殊人物對待。
