this passage from india was a journey into a world of crisis. strikes, suffragettes, and near civil war in ireland had changed political britain. the national insurance act, the official secrets act, and what churchill called 'the gigantic fleets and armies which impress and oppress the civilisation of our time,' all marked the death of victorian certainties and the extended role of the state. the substance of christian doctrine had long evaporated, and the authority of science held greater sway. yet even science was feeling a new uncertainty. and new technology, enormously expanding the means of expression and communication, had opened up what whitman had eulogised as the years of the modern, in which no one knew what might happen next – whether a 'divine general war' or a 'tremendous issuing forth against the idea of caste'.

这次返乡之旅，把这一家从印度带到了一个危险的世界。英国已经不是那个英国了：大罢工，妇女运动，爱尔兰内战，国民年金保险法，官方机密法，还有丘吉尔说「践踏现代文明的巨型四肢」，这一切都体现着维多利亚王权的丧失，和政府权力的扩张。宗教的地位也动摇了，取而代之的是同样让人迷茫的科学。新的技术改变了人们的沟通方式，就像惠特曼在《摩登时代》里面说的一样。没有人知道接下来会发生什么，是全面圣战，还是阶级清洗。

but this conception of the modern world was not shared by the turings, who were no dreamers of the world-city. well insulated from the twentieth century, and unfamiliar even with modern britain, they were content to make the best of what the nineteenth had offered them. their second son, launched into an age of conflicts with which he would become helplessly entangled, was likewise to be sheltered for twenty years from the consequences of the world crisis.

但是，世界的变化仿佛不关图灵家什么事，他们对此一点兴趣都没有。他们与二十世纪是绝缘的，一心只想把十九世纪剩下的东西搞搞好。而他们第二个儿子，却不得不降生在这个纠结的时代，他会措手不及地被卷入这场冲突，但同样也会被这冲突的结果庇护20年。

he was born on 23 june 1912 in a nursing home in paddington,* and was baptised alan mathison turing on 7 july. his father extended his leave until march 1913, the family spending the winter in italy. he then returned to take up a new posting, but mrs turing stayed on with the two boys, alan a babe in arms and john now four, until september 1913. then she too departed. mr turing had decided that his sons were to stay in england, so as not to risk their delicate health in the heat of madras. so alan never saw the kind indian servants, nor the bright colours of the east. it was in the bracing sea winds of the english channel that his childhood was to be spent, in an exile from exile.

1912年6月23日，他在帕丁顿的一间产房注里诞生了。7月7日，他得名艾伦·马西森·图灵。朱利叶斯把假期延长到次年三月，他们一家前往意大利过冬。随后，他回到印度的工作岗位，而艾赛儿则留下来陪着两个孩子：初生不久的图灵，和四岁的约翰。1913年9月，她也回到了印度。朱利叶斯已经充分领教了马德拉斯的酷暑，于是决定让两个儿子留在英国。所以，艾伦从来没有跟这位亲切的印度官员一起生活过，也没有见过东方的鲜艳色彩。朱利叶斯背井离乡去印度，而艾伦却在英吉利海峡的风中度过童年，尽管这里是他的故土，但其实却是双重的背井离乡。