Diary details Einstein's last years
In the last years of Albert Einstein's life, he amused himself by telling jokes to his parrot, and avoided visitors by feigning1 illness, according to a newly discovered diary written by the woman as his last girlfriend.
While Einstein also talked about the travails2 of his continuing work in physics, most of Johanna Fantova's diary recalls his views on world politics and his personal life.
The writings are an unvarnished portrait of Einstein struggling bravely with the manifold inconveniences of sickness and old age, said Freeman Dyson, a mathematician3 at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
The 62-page diary, written in German, was discovered in February in Fantova's personnel files at Princeton University's Firestone Library, where she had worked as a curator. The manuscript is the subject of an article to be published next month in The Princeton University Library Journal.
According to the article, the new manuscript is the only one kept by someone close to Einstein in the final years of his life.
Fantova wrote that she recorded her time with the renowned4 physicist5 to cast some additional light on our understanding of Einstein, not on the great man who became a legend in his lifetime, not on Einstein the renowned scientist, but on Einstein the humanitarian6.
Fantova was 22 years younger than Einstein. Although the two spent considerable time together starting in the 1940s, her journal only records their relationship from October 1953 until his death in April 1955 at age 76. She died in 1981 at age 80.
The diary also recounts how, on his 75th birthday, Einstein received a parrot as gift. After deciding the bird was depressed7, Einstein tried alter its mood by telling bad jokes.
At times, Einstein would pretend to be sick in bed so he would not have to pose with visitors who wanted photographs. Einstein still enjoyed himself even when real illness did take hold.
Einstein also wrote Fantova poems, some of which are in the diary.
Einstein, with his second wife Elsa, had arrived in Princeton in 1933 at the newly formed Institute for Advanced Study. Elsa died three years later.
Fantova first met Einstein in 1929 in Berlin. She arrived in the United States alone in 1939 and, at Einstein's urging, attended library school at the University of North Carolina.
爱因斯坦最后一位女朋友所写的日记近期被发现，其中披露了爱因斯坦晚年的生活，他给鹦鹉讲笑话来逗自己高兴，还假装生病闭门谢客。
尽管爱因斯坦也谈论他长期从事物理研究工作的辛苦，在女朋友乔安娜范多娃的日记中，大多数内容都是回忆爱因斯坦对于世界政治和个生活活的怎么看。
美国普林斯顿大学高级研究院的数学家福里曼戴森说：这本日记真实地再现了爱因斯坦与疾病和年迈等很多不便顽强抗争的情景。
2月，在普林斯顿大学火石图书馆中珍藏的乔安娜范多娃个人档案中发现了这本长达62页、用德语书写的日记。乔安娜范多娃曾担任该图书馆的馆长。在下月马上出版的《普林斯顿大学图书馆杂志》中，有一篇文章的主题就是这篇原稿。
据这篇文章说，这部新发现的原稿是唯一一部由爱因斯坦晚年身边最亲近的人保留的原稿。
乔安娜范多娃写道，她记录与这位著名物理学家一块度过的时光是为了叫人们对爱因斯坦有新的认识，不是纪录一位伟人的传奇一生，也没把他看作一名世界闻名的科学家，而是一个人道主义者。
乔安娜范多娃比爱因斯坦小22岁。尽管从20世纪40年代开始，他们两个就常常在一块，但她的日记只不过记录了从1953年十月到1955年爱因斯坦76岁过世的这一段时间。乔安娜范多娃于1981年过世，享年80岁。
日记还记录了爱因斯坦75岁过生日时是怎么样收到了他的过生日礼物一只鹦鹉。在他感到鹦鹉心情沮丧之后，爱因斯坦试图通过讲绝妙的笑话来改变它的情绪。
爱因斯坦常常会假装卧病在床，如此他就不必摆姿势与访客拍照周旋。即便真的生病了，爱因斯坦仍然自得其乐。
爱因斯坦还给乔安娜范多娃写诗，其中的一些保存在日记中。
爱因斯坦和他的第二任老婆埃尔莎于1933年来到新成立的普林斯顿高级研究院的。三年后埃尔莎过世。
乔安娜范多娃和爱因斯坦1929年在柏林相识。1939年，她只身来到美国，并在爱因斯坦的强烈需要下，进入北卡罗莱纳大学的图书馆学院学习。
feign: 假装
travail: 辛苦
unvarnished: 原样的、质朴的
manifold: 多方面的
curator: 馆长
manuscript: 原稿、原稿
