The end of the universe should have been a splendid challenge for a gifted worrier like me, but mostly it upset me in a new and worrisome way, because it made me realize that I was spread too thin. When I found the black-hole story, I hadn't nearly come to the end of an earlier wonderful worry of mine about the polar ice cap melting and raising the level of the Atlantic Ocean enough to submerge the entire East Coast. I had been thinking of moving my family to Saskatchewan, but now that I was falling behind in my worrying, I had to worry if Saskatchewan might be tastier for a black hole than Princeton. On the other hand, Princeton was closer to those African killer bees that have been inexorably moving north from Brazil —— the ones that made me decide not to visit Central America last winter. The bees are getting very close to Central America, and Panama may be the only place where there is a chance to turn them back. Of course, even if it had only butterflies, Panama would still be a worrisome vacation spot for me, because it is said to be riddled with as much anti-American feeling as Boston.
宇宙的末日對我這樣的天才的憂愁者本該是一種極好的挑戰,但它以一種新的令人焦慮的方式使我心煩意亂,因為它使我認識到,我的戰線拉得太長了。在我看到黑洞文章的時候,我還沒有來得及消除更早的一件頗為驚人的心事,這就是極地冰帽融化,引起大西洋水位升高而淹沒整個東海岸的問題。我一直思量著把家搬到薩斯喀徹溫去,但是既然我的發愁已跟不上形勢的發展,我不得不擔心薩斯喀徹溫會不會比普林斯頓更適合黑洞的口味??墒橇硪环矫妫樟炙诡D更加靠近那些非洲殺人毒蜂,這些毒蜂一直在無情地從巴西向北推進——就是這些毒蜂促使我決定去年冬天不去中美洲游覽。毒蜂已經非??拷忻乐蓿ㄒ坏臋C會是在巴拿馬將它們趕回去。當然,即使那里有的只是些蝴蝶,對我來說,巴拿馬依然是一個令人發愁的休假地,因為據說巴拿馬就像波士頓一樣充滿了反美情緒。
In these terrible days, I often think of my grandfather, who was a nervous wreck in a simpler and happier time. His worries were transient and nicely manageable: When would Mel Ott start hitting again? When would Eleanor Roosevelt collapse from too much traveling around? When would the Third Avenue "L" rust away? I miss him, but he is lucky not to be alive and worrying today. I don't think he could have handled all the terrors that keep testing mysanity; he might even have surrendered and become an optimist, thus forfeiting the hobby he loved.
在這些可怕的日子里,我常常想起我的祖父,他身處一個更單純更幸福的時代,竟也愁得不成樣子。他的憂愁是短暫的,容易對付的:梅爾·奧特何時重新開始擊球?埃莉諾·羅斯福什么時候會因旅行過多而垮下來?第三大街上的高架鐵路什么時候會銹掉?我真想念他,不過他沒有活在今天發愁是他的幸運。我認為他對付不了今天這一切不斷考驗著我的神智的種種恐怖。如果他活到今天,他甚至有可能繳械投降,變成一個樂天派,從而放棄他所珍視的業余愛好。
來源:可可英語 http://www.ccdyzl.cn/daxue/201701/467776.shtml