雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:面朝大海(150)

For most gay men, the question of who knew would be of colossAl significance,

對於絕大多數男同性戀者來說，"誰知道"這個問題是意義重大的，

and life would be rigidly divided into two compartments, one for those who knew, and one for those who did not.

他們的生活會因此劃分成兩面，一面是與知道的人來往，另一面是與不知道的人來往。Blackmail depended as much upon this fact as upon the legal penalties.

勒索正是利用了這種劃分，當然也利用了法律制裁。

The question was important to Alan too, but in a rather different way:

圖靈也不例外，對他來說，這個問題同樣重要，只是表現得不太一樣。

it was because he did not wish to be accepted or respected as the person he was not.

他不願意看到，人們接受並尊敬另外一個自己，

He was likely to drop a remark about an attractive young man, or something of the kind, on a third or fourth meeting with a generally friendly colleague.

所以他總是對同事或見過幾次的朋友，評論某個誘人的小夥子。

To be close to him, it was essential to accept him as a homosexual;

要想和圖靈交往，接受他的同性戀身份是很重要的，

it was one of the stringent conditions he imposed.

這是他的擇友標準。

Exposure, therefore, held no intrinsic terror for him.

因此對圖靈來說，同性戀身份的曝光，並沒什麼實質性的威脅。