【原文】

LOSS OF UNITY

Dances of love intertwine

such graceful girls

lit by the moon

on these clear nights. (I, 4)

THE SLOWING DOWN OF TIME

Let’s begin with a simple fact: time passes faster in the mountains than it does at sea level.

The difference is small but can be measured with precision timepieces that can be bought today on the internet for a few thousand dollars. With practice, anyone can witness the slowing down of time. With the timepieces of specialized laboratories, this slowing down of time can be detected between levels just a few centimeters apart: a clock placed on the floor runs a little more slowly than one on a table.

It is not just the clocks that slow down: lower down, all processes are slower. Two friends separate, with one of them living in the plains and the other going to live in the mountains. They meet up again years later: the one who has stayed down has lived less, aged less, the mechanism of his cuckoo clock has oscillated fewer times. He has had less time to do things, his plants have grown less, his thoughts have had less time to unfold… Lower down, there is simply less time than at altitude.

这一段教会你最重要的一件事是：时间不是宇宙的时钟，引力的本质就是时间的不均匀。 带着这个全新的认识继续往下走，你已经不再是翻开这本书之前的那个读者了。