談 歐本海默喜歡的詩人詩歌三首。Nolan導演《奧本海默》2023The English Poems of George Herbert劍橋大學出版社在出版THE TEMPLE 400年之後的英文詩歌全集。AMERICAN PROMETHEUS：The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a 2005 biography of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer． 《宇宙波瀾》( Disturbing The Universe by Freeman Dyson (1923~2020) (英文本1979 )《牧師項圈?/領圈?......為1633年發表的一首詩，收錄於赫伯特詩集《聖殿》--這詩集生前託摯友評判是否值得出版。American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a 2005 biography of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer 公私二場合二處引用 GEORGE HERBERT 的詩
看果電影 談 三本英文《奧本海默》傳記的優缺點 續上週直播作些"《奧本海默》的觀影前必讀重點 & 歷史背景知識整理"補充。https://www.facebook.com/hanching.chung/videos/291925083448717
Einstein and Oppenheimer, 1930s.
“Though I knew Einstein for two or three decades, it was only in the last decade of his life that we were close colleagues and something of friends. But I thought that it might be useful, because I am sure that it is not too soon—and for our generation perhaps almost too late—to start to dispel the clouds of myth and to see the great mountain peak that these clouds hide. As always, the myth has its charms; but the truth is far more beautiful.
Late in his life, in connection with his despair over weapons and wars, Einstein said that if he had to live it over again he would be a plumber. This was a balance of seriousness and jest that no one should now attempt to disturb. Believe me, he had no idea of what it was to be a plumber; least of all in the United States, where we have a joke that the typical behavior of this specialist is that he never brings his tools to the scene of the crisis. Einstein brought his tools to his crises; Einstein was a physicist, a natural philosopher, the greatest of our time.
Einstein is often blamed or praised or credited with these miserable bombs. It is not in my opinion true. The special theory of relativity might not have been beautiful without Einstein; but it would have been a tool for physicists, and by 1932 the experimental evidence for the inter-convertibility of matter and energy which he had predicted was overwhelming. The feasibility of doing anything with this in such a massive way was not clear until seven years later, and then almost by accident. This was not what Einstein really was after. His part was that of creating an intellectual revolution, and discovering more than any scientist of our time how profound were the errors made by men before then. He did write a letter to Roosevelt about atomic energy. I think this was in part his agony at the evil of the Nazis, in part not wanting to harm any one in any way; but I ought to report that that letter had very little effect, and that Einstein himself is really not answerable for all that came later. I believe he so understood it himself.”
-Robert Oppenheimer, 1965
愛因斯坦和奧本海默，20世紀30年代。
諾貝爾獎
“我開始認為物理學是一項永無止境的探索。”
艾薩克·伊西多·拉比發現了一種測量原子核磁性的方法——這項研究後來被用於磁振造影（MRI）和原子鐘的研發。在他的同儕和導師中，有許多名字至今仍出現在今天的物理教科書中。提名拉比獲得諾貝爾獎的人包括阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦、沃爾夫岡·泡利和恩里科·費米。
二戰期間，拉比參與了原子彈的研發，但戰後，他直言不諱地批評核武器，並主張限制核武器的使用。作為國際合作的倡導者，他還在布魯克海文和歐洲核子研究中心建立大型研究實驗室方面發揮了重要作用。
他於1944年榮獲諾貝爾物理學獎。
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例如片中奧本海默跟女友啪啪啪，導演讓他突兀地唸出《薄伽梵歌》金句「Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds（我成了死神，世界的毀滅者）」，之後這句話也在電影反覆出現，其作用除了埋下女友之死的伏線，諾蘭顯然也想借此點出主題，隱喻奧本海默的命運——變成製造原子彈的「死神」。
然而諾蘭看過奧本海默的傳記，怎麼仍捕捉不到奧本海默思想中的曖昧，只按字面理解這金句呢？這句話在《薄伽梵歌》的原意，根本不是諾蘭呈現出來的樣子，也不是大眾望文生義就能掌握的——也許這也是奧本海默引用這句話的原因。
奧本海默引這句《博伽梵歌》，是在1965年一部紀錄片中，他當時談到「Trinity」原爆測試，說：
「我們知道世界會不一樣。有人笑，有人哭，大多數人沉默。我記起印度教經典《博伽梵歌》的一句話。毘濕奴嘗試說服王子履行義務（Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty），為了震懾他，現出多臂形相，並說：『現在我變了死神，世界的毀滅者。』我認為，我們所有人都以某種方式這樣想。」（注1）
奧本海默真的認為自己成了毀滅世界的「死神」，由是深感懺悔嗎？聰明絕頂的他，很可能希望紀錄片觀眾有此錯覺。但奧本海默讀通梵文原典，還特地說明是「毘濕奴嘗試說服王子履行義務」，心裏根本就不可能自視為「死神」。
《薄伽梵歌》是王子阿周那（Arjuna，俱盧之戰的主將）與黑天（Krishna，印度教的神，是毗濕奴的化身）在古印度戰場上的對話（所以印度有些原教旨信徒認為，諾蘭在床戲插入神的說話，是褻瀆）。阿周那身為士兵，猶豫不決，不想參與戰爭，黑天（即奧本海默所說的毘濕奴）於是勸導阿周那，要「履行義務（do his duty）」——士兵的義務即打仗。至於奧本海默背誦的金句，原文是這樣的：
kālo ’smi loka-kṣaya-kṛt pravṛddho
直譯：「我是時間，世界的偉大毀滅者。」
下一句是：
lokān samāhartum iha pravṛttaḥ
「我來這裏是要毀滅所有人。」
留意兩點：第一，原文不是說「我是死神」，而是「我是時間 (kālo ’smi)」；第二，這句話是至尊神黑天所說的，旨在說服阿周那作戰，為什麼要這樣講呢？按《薄伽梵歌》的脈絡理解，黑天的意思是：時間毀滅一切，你就算不參戰，對方也會死，這是至上神的意旨，你無論如何也阻止不了；既然那些人橫豎要死，你只管履行士兵職責，做戰鬥機器就是了。
看懂嗎？奧本海默引那句《薄伽梵歌》，並非表示他以「死神」自居，而是恰恰相反，用來卸責：唯有神才能決定人的生死，凡人則受命運約束，無法控制事情的結果，只能履行自己的義務。言下之意，奧本海默認為自己和參與曼哈頓計劃的科學家，均無需為原子彈引發的災難負責。
我這個解讀，不單符合《薄伽梵歌》原意，也跟奧本海默的言論一致——他曾告誡科學家，若想干預別人怎樣利用自己的科研成果，注定是徒勞無功的，所以科學家不該嘗試為「他的工作成果（the fruits of his work）」負責，他只該做好自己的工作。
奧本海默所用的「fruits of his work」一語，其實也出自《薄伽梵歌》，如第18章有一句說：「放棄一切活動的成果（sarva-karma-phala-tyāgaḿ）」，智者稱之為「棄絕」。《薄伽梵歌》提倡的人生哲學，就是只管做好自己的本分，不要追求成果，也不要理會後果。
電影也沒告訴你，奧本海默一直向政府提供「技術性」意見，主張一定要把原子彈投在日本城市，因為在無人居住的地區引爆原子彈，就像「沙漠上的爆竹（firecracker over the desert）」，是不能嚇怕日本人的。 《薄伽梵歌》在奧本海默生命中之所以這麼重要，說穿了，就是因為他在古印度經文中找到一套神聖理論，讓他可超然地入世，即使殺人，也總會得到安慰。
注
1
奧本海默原話：
We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed; a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multiarmed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
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