纯数学还是应用数学？

---- 给中国数学家们一个参考

著名数学家 Victor Isakov 在 “Sobolev Spaces in Mathematics III. Applications in Mathematical Physics”一书的序言中写了下面的话：

S.L. Sobolev, as many great mathematicians, was very much motivated by applications. He did not distinguished between pure and applied mathematics, but, in his own words, between “good mathematics and bad mathematics.” While he possessed a brilliant analytical technique, he most valued innovative ideas, solutions of deep conceptual problems, and not mathematical decorations, perfecting exposition, and “generalizations.”

   “正如许多伟大的数学家那样，S.L. Sobolev 也很多地受到来自应用的激励。他不区别是纯数学还是应用数学。而是，用他自己的话来说，要区别“是好的数学还是糟糕的数学”。虽然他有才华横溢的分析技能，他最看重的是新的思想，深邃概念性问题的解，而不是数学装饰、完美的展示、和“概而括之”。

                                 （翻译不当之处请于斧正！）