文学作品中的中国科学家｜小说连载
作者/翻译｜马业勤
文学作品中的中国科学家
我们认识科学家，往往是从对他们工作的报道和人物传记，文艺或文学作品中则很少出现他们的身影；即使有，也多是以科学家的职业属性出发，形象刻板，而鲜有为科学家、尤其是中国科学家独立而独特的人格发声的作品。
我们从本周开始连载以中国科学家为主角的双语短篇小说《追忆》(英文原名：Nostalgia)，作者（和译者）为原香港求是科技基金会运营总监。求是基金会与杨振宁先生渊源颇深，在此前为杨先生祝寿的名家文章中屡次被提及。小说虽纯属虚构，然从文中不难看出作者是在向哪位科学巨匠致敬。
Nostalgia
追忆
Synopsis:
An extravagant dinner party to celebrate the birthday of a scientific legend, where three men, each born of a different and broken piece of modern China, reflect upon his own nostalgia: a meek young star soon to be set free, a “war lord” reminiscing the wilderness of his youth that was the Cultural Revolution, and an old man reliving the “divine and shuddering connection” between a scientist and science, culminating in the answer to why James Clerk Maxwell was never born in China.
摘要：
一场为一位传奇科学巨匠祝寿的盛大家宴，老中青三代中国科学家被勾起了各自的过往：一个即将展翅高飞却心生惘然的学术新星、一个“学阀”追忆他在那十年的时间荒野中浪荡的青春、一个老人重温了科学家与科学之间“神圣而令人战栗的联系”，最终生出了詹姆斯-克拉克-麦克斯韦为何没有出生在中国的答案。
【第一章：郭太太】
Mrs. Guo was adding final touches to one of the floral arrangements in her living room. She had ordered these weeks in advance, of roses, both Chinese and exotic, and peonies, and lilies and hydrangeas and tulips of all colors, gorgeously blooming forth in bouquets, buckets, and boxes. It was but one of a thousand chores she had tended herself to; tonight’s party shall be nothing short of perfect.
郭教授的太太正在悉心伺弄客厅里的一盆花。早在几周前她就置办好了一切：有国产和进口的玫瑰，有牡丹，有百合，有绣球，有五颜六色的郁金香，一束束、一盆盆、一盒盒姹紫嫣红的绽放。这只是她亲手操持的一千件杂事中的一件罢了；今晚的宴会只许成功，不许失败。
(Childe Hassam. The Sonata)
What a to-do! Lithely she turned on her heels like a ballerina doing half a pirouette, though there was no one around to watch. The guests won’t be here for hours and her helpers (handpicked from too many eager volunteers) had been sent to the kitchen to be with the waiters and caterers. Mrs. Guo’s living room was a large, west-facing, airy setting painted pastel blue. Many guests, some important, some less so, frequented here, all complimenting her on her taste and hospitality. She had fashioned the interior design with a clever juxtaposition of knickknacks and antiques, foiled against a splay of marble and crystals and deep-stained wood, indications at each turn and every corner that the masters of this abode had arrived, and were here to stay. Certainly Professor Guo, with a much more sensible palate, had wished for the minimum of trimmings, something more pared down, as he tactfully hinted at the start. But Mrs. Guo would have none of that. It was to make up for the exterior, she insisted, which was terrible, a cement box too hurriedly built, barely sanded down and still spilt and speckled at the edges.
不容易呵！她像个芭蕾舞演员似的打了个优美的旋，尽管身旁无人欣赏。宾客们还有好几个小时才会到，她的帮手们（从太多的积极分子中挑出来的）都已被支到厨房里，同侍应生和厨子们在一起。郭太太的客厅是一个宽敞、面西、充盈的粉蓝色所在，经常高朋满座——有些是贵客，有的好伺候些，都不约而同地赞美她的品味与殷勤。她的室内设计巧妙交错着小文玩与真古董，衬出背后满目琳琅的大理石、水晶和紫檀木，无处埋的不是这家主人早已功成名就、更将盛名不坠的伏笔。当然，郭教授以他更为谨慎的审美，并不希望如此奢华，“走走简约风格？”，一开始他曾委婉暗示过。但郭夫人是说一不二的。她坚持这是为了弥补房子的外观，一个偷工减料、粗制滥造的水泥盒子。
The house itself was big and square, with an enormous, tapering garden, sitting elbow to elbow in a tight row of identical constructions along a wide avenue lined by newly potted poplars. The street was carved out of the wilderness so recently that the back of these abodes faced literally nothing. The street was the outline, the edge of a large settlement ordered by the city for this army of scientists, staff and students, and Professor Guo was its commander.
房子本身又大又方，后院绵延而空旷，和一溜一模一样的建筑排排坐落在一条宽阔的林荫道上，道路两旁是新栽的杨树。这条街最近才从荒芜中开凿而成，以至于整排住宅的背后四下皆空。它勾勒出这座城市为一支由科学家、职工和研究生组成的大部队所建设的新区的边界线，而这支部队的司令员正是郭教授。
“Shi-niang!” A young, chirpy voice called from down the hall. They call her husband Lao-shi and her Shi-niang, for in this part of the world the teacher was his students’ father and his wife of course their niang, mother. Mrs Guo wasn’t born a mother. Back when she was a girl she too had a temper but now that she was Guo Shi-niang she had, not ungrudgingly, taken to curb all old urges and instincts. Thus her husband’s soldiers and their wives, knowing this, always came to her instead of him, and never was she without a sympathetic ear and unbridled solace to their troubles.
“师娘！”一个年轻清脆的声音从走廊上传来。他们称她的丈夫为老师，唤她作师娘，因为在地球的这一端，教师被当作学生的父亲，而他的妻子自然就是他们的母亲。郭太太并不是天生的母亲。她做姑娘时也是有脾气的，可如今她是郭师娘，只能耐着性子压抑所有旧的冲动与本能。她丈夫的部下和他们的妻子都深知这一点，有事便总来寻她，而不是他，她对他们的事情永远既贴心又热心。
“Yes, Xiao Zhao.” She smiled at the girl, just married last year to one of her husband’s younger students, holding an ugly mud yellow casserole dish and wide-eyed in her confusion.
“This came from my mother, a tofu stew of our hometown.” Xiao Zhao whined. “But then she says, it needs to be kept on low heat for another three hours or so before we can eat.”
Guo Shi-niang almost laughed. “Just give it to one of the caterers in the kitchen, tell them it’s from me.”
“Thank you, Shi-niang!” the young one broke into a toothy grin, satisfied now that the teacher’s wife was aware of her efforts. Mrs. Guo patted her slim shoulders. “Don’t think a thing about it.”
"怎么啦，小赵。"郭师娘对这个去年刚嫁给自己丈夫的一个年轻学生的姑娘微笑道，她双手捧着一个难看的土黄色砂锅，迷茫地睁大眼。
“这是我妈妈做的我们老家的炖豆腐。”小赵娇声说。“可她说，上桌前还得在小火上炖三个小时呢。"
郭师娘差点笑了出声。"去，让厨房里的师傅帮你看着火，就说是我让你送的。"
"谢谢师娘！"这孩子咧嘴一笑，因为师娘已经知晓了她的苦劳。郭太太拍了拍她的小肩膀。"这有什么。"
She watched the girl retreat into the kitchen, where close to a dozen other wives were making noise. The wife of a commander was preferably calm and wise, for she knew him most intimately, and would be his best advisor. Professor Guo betted his men’s futures on the virtues of their wives. He also preferred that his students marry. A married man is the only happy man, he used to say. But Professor Guo himself was never a happy man, as Mrs. Guo had observed thus far with much disinterest, though neither was he ever an unhappy man. He was half man and half perpetual machine, his precise, succinct life always one second ahead of the clock, slowing only in the karaoke lounge, his one indulgence, or alone with his children.
她看着那女孩退回厨房，里边还有十来个叽叽喳喳的妻子们。司令员的夫人最好端宁而贤明，她最理解他，也会是他最好的参谋。郭教授把他手下的前程押在他们妻子的资质上，他也更乐于看到学生早日成家。他常说，只有已婚的男人才是快乐的男人。但正如郭夫人迄今所冷眼旁观到的，郭教授本人从来都不是一个快乐的人，尽管他也不是个不快乐的人。他是个半人半永动机，精准而精简的生活永远比时钟快那么一秒，只有唱卡拉OK（他唯一的嗜好）或孩子们在他身边时才会慢下来。
It had been a quarter of a century since Du Lili of the Zhoushan Islands married Guo Zhiguo, her desk mate of six years in primary school, just six months after her graduation from vocational college. Her parents were municipal civil servants who frowned a little upon the young man at his first few proposal attempts, for he was at the time stringy and grey, a sufferer of long hours in the lab. They gave their approval at the insistence of their daughter, and after he promised he would take her overseas for the good life, as soon as they were married. It took him almost two years to complete her dependent visa application that would allow her to join him in Knoxville, Tennessee, and, by taking over the reins, of paperwork and otherwise, she had never left his side since. A scientist’s life is not unlike that of a nomad, and follow she did as he moved from continent to continent, lab to lab, never knowing when they might be packing up again when she signed on the lease for the latest apartment. She had been his wife, nurse, housekeeper, accountant, lab technician and PR specialist. Mrs. Guo was not ungrateful, for fortune had done them well. Science is but a harsh and stingy mistress and she knew many wives who had endured worse for far less in return.
舟山群岛的杜丽丽大专毕业刚半年就嫁给她小学六年的同桌郭志国，已经是四分之一个世纪前的事了。她的父母是县里的公务员，在这个年轻人头几次提亲时一直不太满意，因为他当时面黄肌瘦、印堂发黑，是长年献身科学的受害者。在女儿的坚持下，以及他保证婚后立刻带她出国去过好日子以后，他们才点了头。他花了近两年时间搞定她的家属签证，她才得以到田纳西州的诺克斯维尔与他团聚。从那时起，她掌管了包括填表的所有事务，再没有离开过他身边。科学家的生活与游牧民族其实没什么两样，当他从一片大陆迁徙到另一片大陆，从一个实验室转到另一个实验室时，她也如影随形。每当她在刚下定的公寓租约上签字时，从不知道他们几时又会开始打包行李。她是他的妻子、护士、管家、会计、实验室技术员和公关总监。郭太太并不是不知感恩的人，她清楚命运对他们夫妻俩的眷顾。科学是个苛刻而吝啬的女主人，她认识不少科学家的妻子，她们所付出的比她要多，收获却远比她少。
Mrs. Guo used to feel inferior to the wives of other commanders, women who found their husbands in college, graduate school, or even higher stations in their own careers. These “upper wives”, as she called them in private, were all snobs who could only bear to swallow their own strain of snobbishness. She never felt quite comfortable in their company, as she was sure the citation rates of certain almae matres and esoteric terminologies would soar for her particular benefit. Her husband was most pitying and indignant of her ordeals, and, in his infinite wisdom, told her she should hide her shortcomings behind some sort of an elusive feminine exclusivity. She tried, and it became her perfectly. Since then she had come to be known as “the Hostess”.
郭太太从前总自愧不如那些在读大学、研究生、甚至更高地位时与丈夫相识的司令太太们。背地里她管她们叫"上流太太"，全都自命不凡，谁也瞧不上谁。在她们身边总让她浑身不自在，她敢肯定，某些著名母校和刁钻术语的引用率会因她的存在而在谈笑间飙升。郭教授对夫人的遭遇最是怜惜和愤慨，并以他无限的智慧教她应当扬长避短，利用女性魅力打造属于她的“太太的客厅”。她只试了试水，便发现自己简直信手拈来。从那时起，“郭太太”这个称谓便添了一层心照不宣的深意。
Men attend Mrs. Guo’s parties for one of two reasons. The more junior ones came to join a fraternity of a higher order; the older ones mostly to maintain that order. They would arrive with eyebrows raised in cheery suspense, and leave content and heavy with meaty news and deserved gossip spiritedly traded over food and alcohol. Mrs. Guo’s living room, which she had made to be elegant and tranquil, was indeed whimsical, fussy and inducive to confessions, just like her person. She was endowed with the rare double gift of upfrontness and discretion, never blunt nor cocky, an exemplar of the good lady who knew her place. Even if the teller suspects she’s heard of a scandal previously, the bluff she put on was so real and satisfying one wouldn’t mind the recap. Mrs. Guo knew, for example, that on a certain night each year in the fall, which physicist would sit by his desk from dusk till dawn waiting for the Nobel Committee’s call. She was also made aware, for instance, of a certain engineer who had sent baskets of peaches for many years (not just any old peach but a rare specialty from his hometown, which in the olden times reserved for the Imperial Family) to each voting Academician in his field, stopping after he was at long last let into the National Academy. The Guos were popular with everyone and close to no one, for wasn’t it some female writer who once said that intimacy breeds silence? The Guos did not condone silences. Theirs was a small, rarified society where everyone knew the bare truth of everyone else. It was safer that their guests talked instead of listened.
男人来到郭太太的客厅只为着两个目的：年纪轻的来是为着上位，年长的则主要为了论资排辈。他们带着故作玄虚的微笑而来，又在酒足饭饱后，满载着杯觥间交换的八卦而归。郭太太本想把客厅打造得优雅静谧，而这屋子的氛围却像它的女主人一样精怪而局促，亲昵又可人，催得人无意间酒后吐真言。她拥有难得的双重美德——率真和讷言，从不刻薄或自恋，是最有自知之明的好女人的典范。即便是跟她讲八卦的人怀疑她已经听过了，她却能总迎合得如此情真意切，使人完全不介意炒了趟冷饭。郭太太知道，每年某个秋天的夜晚，哪位物理学家会在他的书桌前枯坐到天明，等待诺贝尔奖委员会的召唤。还有人告诉她，比如，那个多年风雨无阻地给他领域里每个有投票权的院士送桃子（不是一般的桃子，而是他家乡给皇上进贡的特产）的工程科学家，在他终于被选入国家工程院后就马上洗手不干了。郭家两口子跟所有人都关系热络却从不要好，不是有位女作家曾说过，亲密会滋生沉默吗？郭教授和郭太太不能容忍沉默。在这个高处不胜寒的圈子里，没人能逃得过周遭的眼睛。让客人们高谈，而不是听音，才是安全的。
Soundlessly she slipped off to the dining room, where the white light of summer came spilling through tall, broad windows. Mrs. Guo stood in the middle of the marble flooring admiring its lucent aura. The marble was put in just over a month ago. When the catering company came this morning toset up the rental tabletops and silverware and polyester linens, they left so many marks on the floor she just had to have it polished once more. “Careful! This is soft stone!” She’d bear down on each of them. But the sweaty young laborers had seen their fair share of scary hostesses to be daunted by one more.
轻轻的她走进饭厅，夏昼的白光透过玻璃窗大片洒落进来。郭太太站在大理石地板的中央，欣赏着它润白的亮泽。大理石是一个多月前才铺好的，今早餐饮公司进来布置租用的桌台、银器和化纤桌布时，在地上留下好多印子，她只得后来又打了一次蜡。"小心点！这地板不经磨！"早上她虎视眈眈地监着工。可这帮汗流浃背的小哥见多识广，根本唬他们不住。
Mrs. Guo hummed a light tune under her breath as she smoothed over crimps and wrinkles with her finger tips, setting a plate right here and there. Normally she was a humble woman but, just for tonight, she was allowed to feel vindication. Tonight in this room she would play hostess to a great man. One of the few remaining men and women in this country deserving of the honorific “xiansheng”, instead of just “Professor”. For anyone who taught in college could be a professor, but this man was a sage, a genius, a symbol so revered, his name was his epithet.
郭太太一边哼着小调，一边用指尖抚平这里那里的卷边和皱褶，把桌上的杯盘摆摆正。她一直是那么的谦虚恭谨，但今晚，只有今晚，她有了品尝胜利的资格。今晚，在这个房间里，她将以女主人的身份招待一位伟大的人物。他是这个国家能被称之为"先生"、而不仅仅是"教授"的硕果仅存的几个人之一。任何在大学教书的人都是个教授，但这位先生是个圣人，一个天才，一个如此受世人仰望的偶像，他的姓名已经喻意了所有。
It wasn’t just anyone who could host a party for old Professor Wen, it had taken both her and Lao Guo quite a bit of wriggling and politicking and then the longest letdown. Time was on her side this time: the previous hostess of Professor Wen’s birthday parties finally died last year.
不是什么人都有资格为文老先生做东，此前她和老郭为此上下打点，软磨硬泡，早就以为没了指望。然而时间站在了她这边：为文先生办寿宴的上一个女主人终于在去年去世了。
The quiet had grown so lovely in here that she was almost sorry for its finale. In her head a hundred scenes were playing, each ending with her blushing and bowing to a standing ovation. Lately, for no sure reason, Mrs. Guo had been mulling often over her own legacy. Her husband was no doubt a man of influence, but his influence wouldn’t outlast him, alas. Perhaps, the children! She’d seen the way Guo would push them towards some laureate or other at parties. Maybe, Mrs. Guo mused dreamily at a family portrait hanging over the electric fireplace, in a century this house would be known as the Former Residence of the Guo Family, preserved for posterity like former residences of other famous people in history. That so many famous people, at least in their circles, had made and left such tales and trivia in these rooms and grounds would certainly help in its esteem.
这动人的宁静就快要被打破，她竟有些怅然了。她的脑子里上映着有一百个场景，每一个的结尾都是她羞红着脸面对全场的起立鼓掌，深深鞠躬。最近，不知何故，郭太太老是琢磨自己的后世名声。她的丈夫无疑是有名望的，这名望在他身后恐怕不会支撑太久。或许，还有孩子们呢！她看到郭是如何在宴会上将他们推向那些大师与名流。郭太太对着电壁炉上的一幅全家福发怔，也许一百年后这幢房子会成为"郭氏家族故居"，像其他名人的故居一样留存后世。有那么多（至少在他们圈子里算）大人物在这些房间和庭院内留下的趣事轶闻，历史价值是不言而喻的。
The bare, bright light had picked up all of the flaws which eluded her before: a stain by the foot of a tablecloth, a running thread off the cushion on one of the chairs, a badly smeared glass. She raised her eyes towards a corner of the ceiling, frowning at a long, malicious crack on the wall that over the past year had been snaking its way down towards the window. The crack had spread, she could see tiny swells and fissures in the cream-colored plaster over it. Damned if this cement box could stand past fifty years! She cursed silently.
日光茫茫，照得之前隐蔽的瑕疵一览无余：一块桌布边沿的污渍，一张脱了线的椅垫，一只脏污的玻璃杯。她抬眼望向天花板的一角，皱起眉盯着墙上一条细长、丑恶的裂缝，在过去的一年里，它一直在向窗户蜿蜒而下。裂缝已然扩张，她看得到乳白色石膏上布满了浮点和裂痕。这个豆腐渣工程要能撑五十年，那才真见了鬼了！她无声地骂道。
The doorbell rang. Quickly, Mrs. Guo made her way to the intercom by the door. She was surprised.
“Xiao Tian?” She said to the grainy image of the young man, just as his neck, too long and too thin for his large head, was springing guiltily away from the camera. “This is a surprise. Where is your wife?”
“She’s got a rehearsal, Shi-niang.” The young man’s woeful voice came through the speaker. “She sent me over instead. Don’t worry, she’ll be here in time for the dinner banquet, Shi-Niang.”
门铃响了，郭太太快步走向门禁。没想到，是他。
"小田？"她对屏幕上那个青年男子模糊的头像说道。男子过于细长的脖子（对他的大脑袋来讲）正心虚地往回缩。"怎么是你来了？你太太呢？"
"师娘好，她下午还有个彩排。"喇叭里传来年轻人为难的声音。"她把我派来了。您别担心，晚宴前她肯定能赶到的，师娘。"
“What am I to do with a man in my kitchen?” Mrs Guo laughed as she pushed a button to let him in. Before Mr. Guo was given legions, he hadled a commando. Mr Guo ran his team like he would a circus. He picked the boys bright and young, drilled them with discipline, whipped them till they would holler and bleed and let his wife feed them with good food and dollops of maternal fondness. He guided them in their everything, sending them off to enviable positions in the best of places around the world, making things happen for their wives and other concerned parties, and in return founded an army within an army and became the source of envy of all his friends.
"我的厨房里要男人干什么？"郭太太笑着摁下解锁，放他进来。在郭教授得以指挥大部队之前，他带领的只是一支突击队。郭教授带兵如经营马戏团。他专挑年少聪明的男孩，苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，再让他的妻子用好菜好饭和母性的温情把他们喂饱。他指挥他们的一切，用最响的名头把他们派往全世界最顶尖的科研院所，为他们的妻子和其他关系户运筹帷幄。他因此收获了一支铁军，并成为他所有朋友的羡慕对象。
（未完待续）
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