雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第5章:解謎接力賽(157)

Alan's 'great patience' was not usually his most conspicuous characteristic, nor his approachability.

實際上，艾倫並不是真的對誰都耐心。

But Peter Hilton was in fact the fastest thinker of the new Fish group, and drew out the most rewarding aspects of the 'creative anarchy' that was Alan Turing.

彼得·希爾頓是魚機工作組最聰明的人，而且他在某些方面和艾倫·圖靈非常相似。

It was pure joy to achieve something new, and show him, and have him grunt, gasp, brush back his hair, and exclaim, stabbing with his strange fingers, 'I see! I see!'

他從研究中得到純粹的快樂，用力地抓頭髮，並驚叫：我知道了！我知道了！

But there again, he began to be beset by the bureaucrats who wanted him to be in at a certain time and work till five o'clock and leave.

有一次，領導讓他每天在固定的時間上班，並工作到五點。

His procedure—and that of many others of us, let me say, not only he, who were really fascinated by the work—would be maybe to come in at midday and work until midnight the next day.

這讓他非常懊惱。我們的習慣是，可能會中午過來，然後一直工作到深夜，

And then, the problem being essentially solved, go off and rest up and not come back for 24 hours perhaps ... they were getting much more work out of Alan Turing that way.

一直到把問題解決了爲止，然後去休息，可能一整天都不會再過來……他們拿到的成果，都是我們這樣搞出來的，

But, as I say, the bureaucrats came along and wanted forms to be filled in and wanted us to clock in, and so on.

但是他們卻拿着考勤表，讓我們每天記錄上班時間。

Once he ordered a barrel of beer for the office, but it was 'disallowed'.

還有一次，他爲辦公室申請了一桶啤酒，結果卻被駁回了。

Such questions were trivial, but behind them lay more serious confrontations with the old mentality.

這些都是雞毛蒜皮的問題，但在這背後，卻體現着他們與舊體制的衝突。

One day in 1942 he, Gordon Welch-man and Hugh Alexander were suddenly summoned to the Foreign Office and awarded 200 pounds each.

1942年的一天，艾倫、戈登·威爾奇曼還有休·亞歷山大，突然被傳喚到外交部，每人得到了200英鎊獎金。

Alan told Joan that they could not be given decorations, so had been given money instead.

艾倫告訴瓊說，外交部不給他們授勳，只用錢來代替。

He probably found it more useful.

不過對於艾倫來說，他也許覺得錢更有用。