π节快乐Pi fans to meet March 14
This is a story about love. About inscrutable complexity and remarkable simplicity, about the promise of forever. It is about obsession and devotion, and grand gestures.这是一个有关爱的故事，有关变幻莫测的复杂和超凡脱俗的简单，有关一个永远的承诺，有关蛊惑、虔诚和伟大。
It is about a curious group of people with an almost religious zeal for a mind-numbing string of numbers. Actually one number, made up of a chain that is known — so far — to be more than one trillion digits long. They are the acolytes of the church of pi.
一群好奇的人以近乎宗教崇拜的热忱追捧着令人头晕目眩的数列。事实上，这是一个，到目前为止，拥有1万亿位的数字。他们是π圣殿下的信徒。
And once a year many of them gather to talk about pi, rhapsodize about it, eat pi-themed foods , have pi recitation contests and, just maybe, feel a little less sheepish about their unusual passion.
每年一度，他们聚集在一起高谈阔论有关π，吃以π为主题的食物（真正的派，当然了，还有很多其他食品），举行π背诵比赛，也许他们稍稍为自己的特殊兴趣感到有点害羞。
The question is why, of course. And if you ask the fans of pi why, a startling number of them will come back with the same question: "Why climb Mount Everest?" Because it's there.
当然了，问题是为什么呢？如果你问π粉丝为什么，绝大多数人会回问你同样的问题：“为什么要爬珠穆朗玛呢？”因为它就在那儿。
That day falls on Wednesday this year: March 14. Or 3.14. Obviously.
显然，今年的节日为3月14日，星期三。或者说3.14。
But then they start talking about some very simple ideas. Like the beauty of a number that seems to go on forever and yet has no discernible pattern to it. Or about the valor of the memorization gymnastics, challenging oneself always to know more.
然后他们会开始谈论一些特别简单的话题。例如数字的美是永久而无形的。或者记忆体操是么多地英武，挑战你不断探索未知。
This is how Akira Haraguchi, a 60-year-old mental health counselor in Japan, puts it: "What I am aiming at is not just memorizing figures. I am thrilled by seeking a story in pi."60岁的日本精神健康顾问Akira Haraguchi说：“我的目标并非要记住这些数字。在其中寻找一个故事才是令我兴奋的事情。”
He said this one day last fall after accurately reciting pi to 100,000 decimal places. It took him 16 hours. He does not hold the Guinness world record, only because he has not submitted the required documentation to Guinness. But he has his story.
去年秋天他说这句话的时候刚刚花费16个小时背诵到小数点后10万位。他并没有因此赢得吉尼斯世界纪录，因为他没有将必需的文件发送给吉尼斯。反正他是这样讲的。
（顺便说，世界纪录保持者是中国一名学习化学的学生，叫吕超。他曾于2005年用了24个小时多背诵67890位数。他递交给吉尼斯的录像带就有26盘。）A brief math refresher: Pi a simple concept, the relationship between a circle's circumference and diameter: Multiply the diameter by pi — 3.14159, to use a crude approximation that would make many of the people in this story blanch — and you get the circumference.
我们稍微复习一下：π是一个简单的概念，代表圆周长和直径之间的关系：周长等于直径和π（3.14159）的乘积。用近似值肯定会遭到那些“信徒”的不满。
Supercomputers have computed pi to more than a trillion decimal places, looking always for a pattern to unlock its mystery. And for centuries the number has fascinated mathematicians.
超级计算机已经计算到小数点后1万亿位，一直试图寻找一个规律来解开这个谜团。数百年来，这个数字令无数数学家着迷。
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