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The 'real' mathematics of the 'real' mathematicians, the mathematics of Fermat and Euler and Gauss and Abel and Riemann, is almost wholely 'useless' (and this is true of 'applied' as of 'pure' mathematics).
真正的数学家的真正的数学，比如费马，欧拉，高斯，阿贝尔和黎曼的数学，几乎都是完全没有用的（无论是应用数学还是纯数学，都是这样的）。
It is not possible to justify the life of any genuine professional mathematician on the ground of the 'utility' of his work.
不能以用途为标准，来评价真正专业的数学家
… The great modern achievements of applied mathematics have been in relativity and quantum mechanics, and these subjects are, at present at any rate, almost as 'useless' as the theory of numbers.
……在现代，应用数学最伟大的成就，就是相对论和量子力学，而目前无论在哪个层面，这些科目都几乎和数论一样没用。
It is the dull and elementary parts of applied mathematics, as it is the dull and elementary parts of pure mathematics, that work for good or ill.
这是应用数学最基本的部分，也是纯数学最基本的部分，正是这个部分，才是最重要的。
In making explicit his response to the growing separation of mathematics from applied science, Hardy attacked the shallowness of the current 'left-wing' Lancelot Hogben interpretation of mathematics in terms of social and economic utility, an interpretation based on the 'dull and elementary' aspects of the subject.
面对数学和应用科学的不断分化，哈代用这种基本性，来攻击现行的左派观点——兰斯洛特·霍格本从社会和经济效益来诠释数学。
Hardy spoke more for himself, however, in holding that 'useful' mathematics had in any case worked more for ill than for good, being preponderantly military in application.
哈代说了很多，他坚持认为，有用的数学在任何情况下都是弊大于利，因为它总是被用于军事。
He held the total uselessness of his own work in the theory of numbers to be a positive virtue, rather than a matter for apology:
他认为，数论领域的一切无用研究，都是一种美德，而不是什么羞愧：
No-one has yet discovered any warlike purpose to be served by the theory of numbers or relativity, and it seems very unlikely that anyone will do so for many years.
目前还没有人发现数论有什么军事用途，但是这似乎也不会维持很久。
Hardy's own near-pacifist convictions stemmed from before the Great War, but no one touched by the Anti-War movements of the 1930s could fail to be unaware of a view that military applications were to be shunned.
在一战之前，哈代就有着和平主义的坚定思想，但是接触过30年代反战运动的人都知道，军事应用也可以用来避免战争。
If Alan had now discovered something like a 'warlike purpose' in the play of symbols, he was faced, at least in embryo, with a mathematician's dilemma.
艾伦现在发现了一些东西，比如符号游戏的军事用途，他开始陷入数学家的困境了。
Behind the off-hand, teasing words to his mother, there lay a serious question.
他用轻松的语言对母亲诉说，但这背后却存在着很严肃的问题。
Meanwhile the English students were brightening the Graduate College life with amusements of their own:
在这个时期，英国的学生们自娱自乐，来使研究生生活更加有趣：
