雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第1章6:返鄉之旅

This passage from India was a journey into a world of crisis. Strikes, suffragettes, and near civil war in Ireland had changed political Britain. The National Insurance Act, the Official Secrets Act, and what Churchill called 'the gigantic fleets and armies which impress and oppress the civilisation of our time,' all marked the death of Victorian certainties and the extended role of the state. The substance of Christian doctrine had long evaporated, and the authority of science held greater sway. Yet even science was feeling a new uncertainty. And new technology, enorMously expanding the means of expression and communication, had opened up what Whitman had eulogised as the Years of the Modern, in which no one knew what might happen next – whether a 'divine general war' or a 'tremendous issuing forth against the idea of caste'.

這次返鄉之旅，把這一家從印度帶到了一個危險的世界。英國已經不是那個英國了：大罷工，婦女運動，愛爾蘭內戰，國民年金保險法，官方機密法，還有丘吉爾說「踐踏現代文明的巨型四肢」，這一切都體現着維多利亞王權的喪失，和政府權力的擴張。宗教的地位也動搖了，取而代之的是同樣讓人迷茫的科學。新的技術改變了人們的溝通方式，就像惠特曼在《摩登時代》裏面說的一樣。沒有人知道接下來會發生什麼，是全面聖戰，還是階級清洗。

But this conception of the modern world was not shared by the Turings, who were no dreamers of the World-City. Well insulated from the twentieth century, and unfamiliar even with modern Britain, they were content to make the best of what the nineteenth had offered them. Their second son, launched into an age of conflicts with which he would become helplessly entangled, was likewise to be sheltered for twenty years from the consequences of the world crisis.

但是，世界的變化彷彿不關圖靈傢什麼事，他們對此一點興趣都沒有。他們與二十世紀是絕緣的，一心只想把十九世紀剩下的東西搞搞好。而他們第二個兒子，卻不得不降生在這個糾結的時代，他會措手不及地被捲入這場衝突，但同樣也會被這衝突的結果庇護20年。

He was born on 23 June 1912 in a nursing home in Paddington,* and was baptised Alan Mathison Turing on 7 July. His father extended his leave until March 1913, the family spending the winter in Italy. He then returned to take up a new posting, but Mrs Turing stayed on with the two boys, Alan a babe in arms and John now four, until September 1913. Then she too departed. Mr Turing had decided that his sons were to stay in England, so as not to risk their delicate health in the heat of Madras. So Alan never saw the kind Indian servants, nor the bright colours of the East. It was in the bracing sea winds of the English Channel that his childhood was to be spent, in an exile from exile.

1912年6月23日，他在帕丁頓的一間產房注裏誕生了。7月7日，他得名艾倫·馬西森·圖靈。朱利葉斯把假期延長到次年三月，他們一家前往意大利過冬。隨後，他回到印度的工作崗位，而艾賽兒則留下來陪着兩個孩子：初生不久的圖靈，和四歲的約翰。1913年9月，她也回到了印度。朱利葉斯已經充分領教了馬德拉斯的酷暑，於是決定讓兩個兒子留在英國。所以，艾倫從來沒有跟這位親切的印度官員一起生活過，也沒有見過東方的鮮豔色彩。朱利葉斯背井離鄉去印度，而艾倫卻在英吉利海峽的風中度過童年，儘管這裏是他的故土，但其實卻是雙重的背井離鄉。