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.
宇宙的末日对我这样的天才的忧愁者本该是一种极好的挑战,但它以一种新的令人焦虑的方式使我心烦意乱,因为它使我认识到,我的战线拉得太长了。在我看到黑洞文章的时候,我还没有来得及消除更早的一件颇为惊人的心事,这就是极地冰帽融化,引起大西洋水位升高而淹没整个东海岸的问题。我一直思量着把家搬到萨斯喀彻温去,但是既然我的发愁已跟不上形势的发展,我不得不担心萨斯喀彻温会不会比普林斯顿更适合黑洞的口味。可是另一方面,普林斯顿更加靠近那些非洲杀人毒蜂,这些毒蜂一直在无情地从巴西向北推进——就是这些毒蜂促使我决定去年冬天不去中美洲游览。毒蜂已经非常靠近中美洲,唯一的机会是在巴拿马将它们赶回去。当然,即使那里有的只是些蝴蝶,对我来说,巴拿马依然是一个令人发愁的休假地,因为据说巴拿马就像波士顿一样充满了反美情绪。
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.
在这些可怕的日子里,我常常想起我的祖父,他身处一个更单纯更幸福的时代,竟也愁得不成样子。他的忧愁是短暂的,容易对付的:梅尔·奥特何时重新开始击球?埃莉诺·罗斯福什么时候会因旅行过多而垮下来?第三大街上的高架铁路什么时候会锈掉?我真想念他,不过他没有活在今天发愁是他的幸运。我认为他对付不了今天这一切不断考验着我的神智的种种恐怖。如果他活到今天,他甚至有可能缴械投降,变成一个乐天派,从而放弃他所珍视的业余爱好。
来源:可可英语 http://www.kekenet.com/daxue/201701/467776.shtml