“I’m a Nobel Laureate, But I Still Have Regrets”“得了诺贝尔奖，遗憾仍然不少”

Regrets—I’ve had a few. I wish I could say they’re too few to mention， but that wouldn’t be true. If you have ambition， you have regrets. It comes with the territory.

说起遗憾，我曾有过一些。我希望我可以说，我的遗憾太少，不值一提，但那不是事实。倘若有追求，就会有遗憾。这是不可避免的。

I recently made the mistake of writing a memoir recounting adventures from my life and career as a physician and scientist. Naturally， the writing process led me to also meditate on my many regrets， which unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to detail in the book because my publisher wanted to “keep things positive.”

最近，我撰写了一本回忆录，讲述我的医生、科学家生涯中的冒险历程。这真是一个错误。在写作过程中，我自然而然地思考起我的许多遗憾。可惜我没有机会在书中一一详述，因为出版商希望我“保持积极乐观”。

One of my biggest regrets is that I never mastered a musical instrument. I played percussion as a student and also took piano lessons， but didn’t stick with it. I was in such a hurry as a young man to achieve my dream of becoming a doctor that other ambitions， such as my musical aspirations， fell by the wayside.

我最大的遗憾之一就是没有掌握一门乐器。在学生时代，我演奏过打击乐器，还上过钢琴课，但是没有坚持。年轻的时候，我急于实现自己成为一名医生的梦想，以至于音乐等其他的追求只能半途而废。

I constantly have Walter Mitty-esque2 fantasies of being an elite musician. Sometimes I even act these fantasies out. A few years ago， I took a visiting professor to an upscale restaurant on the Duke Medical Center campus in North Carolina. We had to wait a few minutes for our table， so I sat down on a bench in front of a piano. Suddenly， the piano sprang to life and began playing itself. Without missing a beat， I put my fingers on the keys and began swaying along as if I were playing. Many of the diners looked over at me， nodding appreciatively in the belief that I was spontaneously regaling them with some light dining music.

我时常会有沃尔特·米蒂式的幻想，想象自己成为一名出色的音乐家，有时候甚至会把这些幻想表演出来。几年前，我陪一位客座教授去北卡罗来纳州杜克大学医学中心的一家高档餐厅。我们得等候几分钟，所以我在一架钢琴前的长凳上坐了下来。突然，钢琴启动，开始自行弹奏起来。我把手指放在琴键上，一拍不漏，随着音乐开始摇摆身体，就像我在弹奏一样。很多就餐者看向我，赞许地点着头，以为我是在即兴为他们演奏一些轻松的用餐音乐。

After a few minutes， I sensed the piece was building to a climactic cres-cendo， so I threw my hands up with a flourish just as the song ended. The dining room erupted in applause， and I stood to take a bow. As I basked in the adulation and began heading to my table， the piano jolted to life again and began playing another song on its own， causing the entire room to burst into laughter. I’m not sure which I enjoyed more： the applause for my musical “performance” or the huge laugh I got afterwards when everyone realized that I was a complete phony.

过了几分钟，我感觉这首曲子渐入高潮，我夸张地把手扬起，恰好一曲终了。餐厅里爆发出热烈的掌声，我站起来鞠躬致意。我沉浸在人们的夸赞声中走向我的餐桌时，钢琴再次启动，开始自行弹奏另一首曲子，引起全场哄堂大笑。我不太确定我更享受哪个：是我的音乐“表演”收获的掌声，还是大家意识到我完全在假弹后发出的大笑。

Yet whenever people ask me what career I would have chosen if I hadn’t become a doctor and scientist， I always say that I would’ve been a stand-up comic. As a college student in New York City in the 1960s， I regularly hit the clubs in Greenwich Village to catch performances by edgy comedians like Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce.

然而，每当有人问我，如果我没有成为医生和科学家，我会选择什么职业，我总是说我会成为一名单口喜剧演员。20世纪60年代，我在纽约上大学时，经常去格林威治村的俱乐部观看莫特·萨尔和莱尼·布鲁斯等前卫喜剧演员的表演。

Regrettably， I lack the level of wildfire talent to make it as a professional stand-up， but that hasn’t stopped me from cracking jokes at every opportunity in my daily life. In fact， a core part of my philosophy of mentoring is that I believe humor and playfulness are great prods3 to creativity： the more people are laughing， the more creative they become. For this reason， I am constantly joking around in meetings with the trainees in my research lab at Duke， with the humorous tone hopefully setting the stage for inspiration.

遗憾的是，我缺乏成为一名专业单口喜剧演员的过人天赋。但这并没有妨碍我在日常生活中抓住每一个机会开玩笑。实际上，我做导师的核心准则之一就是我相信幽默和玩笑是激发创造力的巨大动力。人们笑得越多，就会越具有创造性。因此，我在杜克大学实验室和学生开会时经常开玩笑，希望幽默氛围能够激发他们的灵感。

My inner stand-up comic comes out sometimes when I’m invited to give presentations to scientific audiences. Some years ago， I was asked to deliver an after-dinner speech to all the board members and current investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute （HHMI）， which has funded my lab’s research for many decades. These days， HHMI is a well-run and buttoned-down4 organization， but my after-dinner talk focused on the wild early days of HHMI back in the 1970s.

当我应邀为科学界的听众做演讲时，有时我内心的单口喜剧演员身份就会亮相。几年前，我受邀为霍华德·休斯医学研究所的所有董事会成员和在职研究人员做餐后演讲。该研究所几十年来一直为我的实验室提供研究资金。目前，霍华德·休斯医学研究所运行良好，发展如常。但是我的餐后演讲内容主要集中在20世纪70年代研究所成立初期的峥嵘岁月。

The audience ate up my over-the-top5 stories， with every single joke slaying6. Legendary neuroscientist Eric Kandel was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face. Forget about winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry： the high point of my career came when my comedy routine killed7 at the HHMI dinner.

我讲着夸张的故事，观众们听得津津有味，每一个笑话都令人捧腹。著名神经系统学家埃里克·坎德尔笑得眼泪都流出来了。忘记我获得诺贝尔化学奖这件事吧，当我的笑话在霍华德·休斯医学研究所的晚宴上让人们笑得前仰后合时，我的职业生涯才迎来了高光时刻。

I love giving talks to student groups， and students are rarely shy in asking about my regrets. A common question I get is， “Do you regret that it took so long for you to win a Nobel Prize？” Most of the work for which I won the Prize was done decades ago， but I didn’t get the call from Stockholm until 2012. I tell the students that in some respects I do regret the long wait， especially because it meant that neither of my parents was alive to see me receive the Prize.