He loved playing the violin – but was terrible
他喜歡拉小提琴——但是拉得不好

Einstein liked to play the violin at night. He did not play pieces of music but "his own improvisations as he did his thinking to them". He played in the kitchen because he liked the way the tiles made the music resonate. Alas, he wasn't that good. Fellow scientist Professor Walter Frierich said of Einstein's playing that he "bowed like a lumberjack".
愛因斯坦喜歡在晚上拉小提琴。他不拉奏音樂作品，而是“他自己的即興創(chuàng)作，想到什么拉什么”。他在廚房里拉小提琴，因?yàn)樗矚g墻磚與音樂共鳴的聲音。可是啊，他拉得并不好。科學(xué)家沃爾特?弗瑞爾里希說愛因斯坦的演奏就像“伐木工人在鋸樹”。

Einstein was not a party animal
愛因斯坦不喜歡派對

He hated attending social events and "he often railed against it very angrily". He did sometimes have dinner parties and special nights in with stars such as Charlie Chaplin.
他討厭參加社交活動，并且會“經(jīng)常非常生氣地抱怨”。不過他確實(shí)參加過幾次宴會，與查理?卓別林等明星度過了幾個特別的夜晚。

He liked to wander round starkers
他喜歡光著身子游蕩

"Herr professor just liked to look at beautiful women, he always had a weakness for lovely ladies," said Waldow. The woman he called Fraulein Herta was 21 when she first started working for the 48-year-old Einstein. Waldow remembered that she blushed when she saw him naked. "It was very embarrassing for me. Either Herr Professor had not bothered putting on his bathrobe, or he was too lost in thought to remember wearing it". Ah, the old absent-minded professor excuse.
沃爾多說：“教授先生喜歡看漂亮的女人，對她們總是沒有抵抗力。”愛因斯坦48歲時雇傭了一個21歲的叫做赫塔的姑娘。沃爾多回憶稱，當(dāng)她看到愛因斯坦沒穿衣服的時候臉都紅了。“我那時很尷尬，教授先生要么是懶得穿浴袍，要么是沉迷于思考忘了穿。”啊哈，什么年紀(jì)大了心不在焉，都是借口。

Vocabulary

beyond the pale: 超出范圍，出格
lorgnette: 長柄眼鏡
penny-pinching: 小氣的，吝嗇的
grubby: 骯臟的，邋遢的
whipped cream: 生奶油
inveterate: 根深的；積習(xí)的；成癖的
pipe smoker: 煙斗客
improvisation: 即興創(chuàng)作；即席演奏
lumberjack: 伐木工人
starkers: 一絲不掛地，赤身裸體地

英文來源：每日電訊報
譯者：實(shí)習(xí)生孫美真
審校&編輯：丹妮