美国印象：爱迪生（2015）

He was never there to welcome you.
他会从某处走来 穿着实验室外套
He would come in from elsewhere,like with his lab coat,
脖子上总缠着头巾
and he always wrapped a kerchief around his neck
脸上总有点污迹
and he always had,like,smudges on his face,
像是出汗
or like,you know,perspiration,
或前额或某处有擦痕
or be mopping his brow or something.
很快请你就坐
Chairs were quickly offered,
提供点心 雪茄扔在桌子上
slices of pie handed round,cigars thrown on the table
请大家自取
and everyone invited to help themselves.
同时爱迪生滔滔不绝
Edison meanwhile kept up a steady stream of jovial patter,
讲笑话和吹嘘很快
cracking jokes and touting the myriad wonders
门洛帕克将出现各种奇迹
that soon would emerge from Menlo Park.
他有无比的自信心
He had immense self-confidence.
他有幽默感
He had a sense of humor.
他会把别人想不到的东西空想出来
And he would pull things out of the air that people weren't thinking about
当他们问问题
when they asked a question,
他会这么回答
and then he'd answer it in a way that,
“哇 我从没想到这点”
"Wow,I never thought of that."
这个家伙某些方面
There was something about this guy
似乎符合他们认为的
that seems to have fit their vision
伟大的美国发明家应该有的样子
of what the great American inventor ought to be like.
自学成才 擅长讲故事
Self-taught,good storyteller,
他两样都做到了极致
you know,he's both down-to-the-earth
同时还是天才
and also at the same time the genius,right?
他如此完美地把这些因素结合起来
He combines those elements so nicely.
接下来几个月
Over the next several months,
带设备示范模型的销♥售♥代理遍布各地
as sales agents fanned out across the country with demonstration models of the device,
留声机的发明者成为一个全面的轰动新闻
the phonograph's inventor became a full-fledged press sensation.
爱迪生一个助手把它评判为“癫狂”
One of Edison's associates judged it a "mania."
女学生写爱迪生的作文
"School girls write compositions on Edison.
“漫画报刊出版针对爱迪生的讽刺
"The funny papers publish squibs on Edison.
“日报刊登他的人生
"The daily papers write up his life.
我们什么时候会消停?“
When shall we get a rest?"
爱迪生的公众形象是个混合物
Edison's public image is a mixture of things.
一方面他有超然的大脑
He is on the one hand a transcendent brain
具备约束和专注的超然能力
with a transcendent ability to discipline and focus.
一方面在地板上午睡
And then he takes naps on the floor
着装不整
and rumples up his suit.
他不摆架子
He doesn't put on airs.
爱迪生显然是美国本土人
Edison is clearly a home-grown American,
自学成才霍雷肖·阿尔杰一类的普通人
self-taught Horatio Alger sort of fellow,an everyman.
这是他有吸引力的部分
That was part of his appeal.
不是科学天才
Not a scientific genius,but somebody who was succeeding
而是成功于智力的原生火花
because he had a native spark of intelligence
和大量艰苦工作
and a lot of hard work.
他是一个伟大的美国故事
He's a great American story.
这不像他有个媒体顾问团队
You know,it's not like he had a team of spin doctors
让整个故事按一定方式进展
making this whole story work a certain way.
而是很多组件以合适的方式出现
But a lot of pieces fell the right way
在那个重大但常有畏惧变化的时代
in terms of his accessibility and his appeal to the American public
在他被接受程度和他对美国公众的诉求方面
at a time of,you know,great,often frightening,formidable change.
最后在1878年愚人节
Finally,on April Fool's Day,1878,
记者威廉克罗夫特赞颂爱迪生
reporter William Croffut credited Edison
可以'用地窖拿出来的泥污'做出午餐
with having made lunch "out of the dirt taken from the cellar,"
用’机器给人类供食‘
using a "machine that would feed the human race."
恶搞失去许多好读者
The spoof was lost on a good many readers.
大众已经把爱迪生
Already,the public had come to regard Edison
当成预言家和魔法师
as equal parts visionary and magician,
克罗夫特对他的称呼广为人知
or as Croffut famously dubbed him,
“门洛帕克的巫师”
"The Wizard of Menlo Park."
发明是一个想法
An invention is an idea.
一个有用的想法
It's an idea that's useful.
有人想出些东西给我们带来新设备
Somebody thinks of something and gives us a new device,
新方法和新技术
a new approach,a new technique.
这种新想法骤然改变了世界
And that new idea suddenly changes the world.
'科学美国人'
They were published in Scientific American
在19世纪后期每周
each and every week throughout the late 19th century:
发表新发明
lists of new inventions
和最近获得专利的名单
and announcements of patents recently awarded.
美国人作为整体把自己
Americans as a whole were thinking of themselves
想成发明家的国家
as a nation of inventors.
有人开玩笑说 一个年轻美国人
Some joked that a young American man
如果没赢过自己的专利
would feel guilty going to his grave
进坟墓时会感到内疚
without having won a patent of his very own.
这是每个人都向往的事情
This was something that everybody aspired to do.
纽约的W.B.奥斯汀有烟囱通风设备
To W.B.Austin of New York,for his Chimney Ventilator;
北卡罗莱纳的约瑟夫·B.·安德伍德
to Joseph B.Underwood of North Carolina,
有新奇的咖啡烘焙机
for a newfangled Coffee Roaster;
伊利诺伊的约翰·塞恩
to John Senn of Illinois,
改进了猪瘟治疗
for his improved remedy for Hog Cholera.
你看到报纸社论
The newspapers,you see editorials
描述现在是专利局
about how it was the patent office now
而不是国会山
that represented American greatness,
代表美国的伟大
not the capitol.
我认为这漂亮地捕捉了
And I think that beautifully captures
美国对自己的看法
the way in which America thought about itself,
其日益增长的工业能力
this growing industrial power
在改变世界的前沿
on the verge of transforming the world.
美国常感到逊色于欧洲
Americans often felt a little inferior to Europeans.
他们没有伟大的大学
They didn't have the great universities,
他们没有伟大的艺术和文学传统
they didn't have the great arts and literature tradition.
但19世纪末美国人说
But in the late 19th century,Americans said,
“这是我们在做的
"This is what we do.
我们是发明家“
We are inventors."
1878年春天
In the spring of 1878,
爱迪生在首都引起轰动
Edison made a splash in the U.S.capital,
他在那里向海斯总统和国会议员
where he gave back-to-back demonstrations of the phonograph
背靠背做了留声机演示
for members of Congress and President Rutherford B.Hayes
并让著名摄影师马修·布雷迪拍摄肖像
and sat for a portrait by celebrated photographer Mathew Brady.
此时爱迪生神奇装置的新闻
By then,news of Edison's miraculous device
已在世界各地传播开
had spread around the world.
每天都有成群结队好奇的人来门洛帕克
Hordes of the curious were daily descending on Menlo Park.
被报刊誉为“时代发明人”的爱迪生
And Edison,hailed in the press as "Inventor of the Age,"
已开始因为他的知名而恼火
already was beginning to chafe at his celebrity.
陌生人♥大♥量来信
He is deluged with letters from strangers
想从他那里讨要些东西
who want things from him.
内心里他让这类乞讨信恼火
He creates this category in his mind of the begging letter.
它可能是金钱
It might be money.
也可能是其它东西
It can be other things.
他发现自己每天要写几十封回信
So he found himself writing several dozen letters a day.
他还发现当有记者写了篇马屁长文
He's also discovering when one reporter writes a long,flattering profile,
就会有十个其他记者
there are going to be ten others
希望写他的文章
who want to write profiles of him,
他花费越来越多的时间
and he is spending more and more time
做“玛丽有只小羊羔”的重复演示
doing the same "Mary Had a Little Lamb" demonstrations
因此完成不了其他事情
and not getting any work done.
(鸣笛)
(chugging and whistling)
“来这里的记者
"The reporters who come down here
已经使我非常伤神“
have already unstrung my nerves so much,"
爱迪生向一个朋友抱怨
Edison groused to a friend,
“我想躲到树林里”
"that I think of taking to the woods."
到7月他终于这么做了
Finally,in July,he did just that,
西去怀俄明州参加研究日蚀的科学家聚会
heading west to Wyoming with a party of scientists to study an eclipse.
当时第三次怀孕的玛丽·爱迪生
Mary Edison,now pregnant for the third time,
留在家里
was left behind at home.
玛丽出生于工薪阶层
Mary was a working-class girl.
16岁遇见爱迪生时
She was 16 when he met her.
他24岁
He was 24 years old
还是靠下一个合同或发明或别的过活
and living for the next contract,the next invention,whatever it might be.
他在成长中
He was on the ascendancy,
她几乎立刻发现