乔布斯传 第374期:在幕后彷徨(10)

 　　Woolard remembers Jobs being somewhat circumspect¹, saying that Amelio was not in the right job. 伍拉德记得乔布斯当时比较谨慎，只是说阿梅里奧不适合现在的工作。

　　Jobs recalled being more blunt: I thought to myself, I either tell him the truth, that Gil is a bozo, or I lie by omission². 而据乔布斯自己回忆，他当时更是直言不讳：我对自己说，我要不就告诉他实话，吉尔是个笨蛋，要不就避而不谈。

　　He's on the board of Apple, I have a duty to tell him what I think; 他是董事会成员，我有义务告诉他我的看法；

　　on the other hand, if I tell him, he will tell Gil, 另一方面，如果我告诉他，他会告诉吉尔，

　　in which case Gil will never listen to me again, and he'll fuck the people I brought into Apple. 那样吉尔就再也不会听我的了，而且还会把我带进苹果的那些人都灭掉。

　　All of this took place in my head in less than thirty seconds. 所有这些想法在30秒钟之内在我脑子里闪过。

　　I finally decided³ that I owed this guy the truth. I cared deeply about Apple. So I just let him have it. 我最后觉得我应该告诉他真相。我非常在乎苹果，所以我就给他真相。

　　I said this guy is the worst CEO I've ever seen, I think if you needed a license⁴ to be a CEO he wouldn't get one. 于是我说，这个家伙是我见过的最差劲儿的CEO，我想如果你需要拿个执照才能做CEO，那他都拿不到。

　　When I hung up the phone, I thought, I probably just did a really stupid thing. 等我挂上电话，我想，我可能刚刚做了件非常愚蠢的事。

　　That spring Larry Ellison saw Amelio at a party and introduced him to the technology journalist Gina Smith, who asked how Apple was doing.  那年春天，甲骨文的拉里·埃利森在一次聚会上见到阿梅里奥，把他介绍给了科技记者吉娜·史密斯，她问苹果情况如何。

　　"You know, Gina, Apple is like a ship," Amelio answered. “你知道，吉娜，苹果就像一条船，”阿梅里奥回答，

　　"That ship is loaded with treasure, but there's a hole in the ship. And my job is to get everyone to row in the same direction." “那条船满载着宝藏，但是船上有个洞。我的工作就是让所有人都朝同一个方向划船。”

　　Smith looked perplexed⁵ and asked, "Yeah, but what about the hole?" 史密斯看起来很迷惑地问，“是的，但是，那个洞怎么办？”

　　From then on, Ellison and Jobs joked about the parable⁶ of the ship. 从那时起，埃利森和乔布斯就一直拿这个关于船的比喻开玩笑。

　　"When Larry relayed this story to me, we were in this sushi place, and I literally⁷ fell off my chair laughing," Jobs recalled. “当拉里给我讲这个故事的时候，我们正在吃寿司，我真是笑得都直不起腰来了。”乔布斯回忆说，

　　"He was just such a buffoon⁸, and he took himself so seriously. “他就是那样一个小丑，还特别把自己当回事儿。

　　He insisted that everyone call him Dr. Amelio. That's always a warning sign." 他坚持让所有人称呼他为阿梅里奥博士，以此提醒别人尊重他。”

1 circumspect   

adj.慎重的，谨慎的

参考例句：

• She is very circumspect when dealing with strangers.她与陌生人打交道时十分谨慎。
• He was very circumspect in his financial affairs.他对于自己的财务十分细心。

2 omission   

n.省略，删节；遗漏或省略的事物，冗长

参考例句：

• The omission of the girls was unfair.把女孩排除在外是不公平的。
• The omission of this chapter from the third edition was a gross oversight.第三版漏印这一章是个大疏忽。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

5 perplexed   

adj.不知所措的

参考例句：

• The farmer felt the cow,went away,returned,sorely perplexed,always afraid of being cheated.那农民摸摸那头牛，走了又回来，犹豫不决，总怕上当受骗。
• The child was perplexed by the intricate plot of the story.这孩子被那头绪纷繁的故事弄得迷惑不解。

6 parable   

n.寓言，比喻

参考例句：

• This is an ancient parable.这是一个古老的寓言。
• The minister preached a sermon on the parable of the lost sheep.牧师讲道时用了亡羊的比喻。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 buffoon   

n.演出时的丑角

参考例句：

• They pictured their manager as a buffoon.他们把经理描绘成一个小丑。
• That politician acted like a buffoon during that debate.这个政客在那场辩论中真是丑态百出。