Fortune's veteran technology writer Brent Schlender was leaving the magazine that December,
《财富》杂志的资深科技记者布伦特·施伦德那年12月就要离职了，
and his swan song was to be a joint interview with Jobs, Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Michael Dell.
他的告别作品将是同时采访乔布斯、比尔·盖茨、安迪·格鲁夫和迈克尔·戴尔。
It had been hard to organize, and just a few days before it was to happen, Jobs called to back out.
这样一次采访很难组织，然而就在采访日的前几天，乔布斯打来电话声明退出。
"If they ask why, just tell them I'm an asshole," he said.
“如果他们问为什么，就说我是个混蛋。”他说。
Gates was annoyed, then discovered what the health situation was.
盖茨一开始很不高兴，后来发现了乔布斯健康状况的实情。
"Of course, he had a very, very good reason," said Gates. "He just didn't want to say."
“当然，他有非常非常好的理由，”盖茨说，“他就是不想说出来。”

That became more apparent when Apple announced on December 16 that Jobs was canceling his scheduled appearance at the January Macworld,
当12月16日苹果宣布乔布斯将取消出席1月份Macworld大会的计划的时候，他的健康状况更加明了，
the forum he had used for big product launches for the past eleven years.
过去11年来他都是在这个论坛上发布重量级产品。
The blogosphere erupted with speculation about his health, much of which had the odious smell of truth.
网络上充斥着对乔布斯健康状况的各种猜测，其中很多都接近事实。
Jobs was furious and felt violated. He was also annoyed that Apple wasn't being more active in pushing back.
乔布斯为之愤怒，感觉自己的隐私遭到了侵犯，他也因为苹果没有更积极地反击而感到不悦。
So on January 5, 2009, he wrote and released a misleading open letter.
因此在2009年1月5日，他撰写并发布了一封误导公众的公开信。
He claimed that he was skipping Macworld because he wanted to spend more time with his family.
他宣称他不出席Macworld是因为想有更多时间跟家人在一起。
"As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008," he added.
“如大家所知，2008年全年我的体重一直在下降，”他补充说。
"My doctors think they have found the cause -- a hormone imbalance that has been robbing me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy.
“我的医生们认为他们已经找到了原因--是荷尔蒙失调导致我维持身体健康所需的蛋白质流失。
Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis. The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple."
精密的血液检验已经证实了这个诊断。这个营养问题的解决办法是相对简单的。”