上周三，乔布斯辞去苹果公司首席执行官一职，全世界都意识到一个时代终结了。

 

　　Since then, discussion of his resignation has lapsed into hysteria. After all, he is the man who rescued Apple from near-death experience.

 

　　从那天起，有关他辞职一事的热议已陷入了一种失控的状态。毕竟，他是那个让苹果公司起死回生的救世主。

 

　　After he and Steve Wozniak financed the original Apple Computer with 1,300 dollars (8,296 yuan) in 1976, Jobs left Apple when he lost a boardroom showdown in 1985. When Jobs came back in 1996, Apple was a corporate minnow and seemed headed for oblivion. Now, 15 years later, Apple has become one of the most valuable companies in the world.

 

　　1976年，乔布斯和史蒂夫?沃兹用1300美元（合人民币8296元）创立了苹果公司的原型。1985年，乔布斯与董事会夺权失败从而离开苹果公司。1996年乔布斯重返苹果公司时，苹果已沦为一家无足轻重、似乎即将被遗忘的过气公司了。而在15年后的今天，苹果公司已经成为了全球市值最高的企业之一。

 

　　If you ask people what Steve Jobs is best remembered for, most will name a particular product: the iPod and the iTunes Store hastened the move from CDs to downloadable singles; the iPhone turned the cell phone into an uninterrupted online pipeline of content; and the iPad opened a convenient, portable window into the growing trove of media online.

 

　　如果你问人们乔布斯最令人难忘的是什么，大多数人都会说出一个产品：iPod 与iTunes Store 加速了从CD到可下载单曲这一过程的转变；iPhone则让手机成为一个源源不断输送网络内容的信息渠道；iPad则向那些不断增长的在线媒体宝库了敞开一扇舒适便捷之窗。

 

　　None of these devices or services were the first of its kind. Indeed, they all arrived years after their pioneering competitors – but they were the first to be embraced by the masses. And that’s one of Jobs’ unique contributions to Apple – a phenomenal sense of timing – an ability to recognize when the public may finally be ready to adopt such a technology.

 

　　这些产品或服务中没有一项是苹果首创推出的。事实上，往往是苹果的竞争对手率先研发出这些产品，几年后苹果公司才推出同类产品。但这些产品却是最受大众拥戴的。此外，乔布斯为苹果做出的诸多无可替代的贡献之一便是：对于时机的非凡掌控，也就是瞧准大众何时准备好接受这类新科技。

 

　　Jobs is also famously fanatical about design. When the rest of the industry was building computers as grey, rectangular metal boxes, he was looking for design metaphors. For a time he thought the Mac should be like a Porsche.

 

　　此外，众所周知乔布斯对于设计极为狂热。当其他业内人士正循规蹈矩的把电脑设计成灰色的长方形金属盒子时，他却一直在寻找设计上的隐喻手法。他曾一度认为苹果电脑的形状应该像保时捷汽车那样。

 

　　In that sense he is the opposite of the MBA-trained executives. “The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting,” he said in 1996, when the company was on the rocks. “The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.”

 

　　从某些层面来讲，他与那些接受MBA课程培养的执行官们完全不同。1996年苹果公司陷入困境时，他曾表示：“削减成本并不能拯救苹果公司，苹果需要的是一条走出当前困境的创新之路。

 

　　Another time he said: “When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it.”

 

　　还有一次他曾这样说：“如果你是名正在制作一个漂亮衣柜的木匠，纵然柜子后面是面墙，没人会看到，你也不会在柜子后面使用胶合板。”

 

　　His love of good design has always been the most striking aspect of Jobs’ celebrated speeches introducing new Apple products. As he introduced the iMac, iPhone and iPad, words like “beautiful”, “amazing” and “awesome” *tumbled out. For once they didn’t sound like corporation-speak. He spoke from the heart.

 

　　乔布斯在苹果新品发布会上发表的那些著名演说中，他本人对于优秀设计的那份热爱已成为最引人注目的一个环节。当他介绍iMac, iPhone 和 iPad时，“太美了”，“真迷人”，“棒极了”这些词语就会脱口而出。这时这些词汇听上去并非像一位公司发言人那样的场面话。都是他发自内心说出来的。

 

　　Granted, Apple’s success has hindered the companies whose ideas didn’t jibe with Jobs’ notion of what the public wanted. For example, subscription music services struggled for years because Jobs disliked them and Apple’s iPods didn’t support them.

 

　　当然，苹果公司的成功也成为一些公司的阻碍，在大众需求方面，这些公司与乔布斯的理念相悖。比如，订购音乐服务就痛苦挣扎了多年，原因则是乔布斯不喜欢这些服务所以苹果推出的iPod不支持此类服务。

 

　　On the other hand, Apple wouldn’t be where it is today without Jobs’ singular vision – as well as the company’s ability to translate it into their products.

 

　　另一方面，没有乔布斯的非凡眼力，没有本公司将其转化为现实的能力，苹果公司就达不到现在的成就。

 

　　Last Wednesday’s announcement wasn’t surprising, considering Jobs’ long struggle with pancreatic cancer.

 

　　鉴于乔布斯已与胰腺癌斗争多年，上周三他的辞职声明也就没有那么令人震惊了。

 

　　It was, however, a reminder that the Steve Jobs era won’t last forever. Luckily, he will remain chairman of Apple’s board. Here’s hoping that it’s not over yet.

 

　　不管怎样，此次事件提醒我们“乔布斯时代”不会永远存在。幸运的是，他还会保留董事会主席一职。希望这一切还没有结束。