钱钟书是我国博通古今中外的大学问家、作家。学术巨著《管锥篇》博大精深；长篇小说《围城》脍炙人口。他还是《毛泽东选集》英译本定稿人。为了使读者进一步欣赏钱钟书的英语文采，现把钱钟书给林书武的三封英语信刊登出来，边加汉译，同时，做些必要的注解，以飨读者。
第一封信
My Dear Shu-Wu（1）, May 14
Your letter gives me a joyful surprise（2）. Your English is astonishingly good. This is not “flannel ”nor“ butter”（3） but my sincere opinion (my hand upon my heart!). The idea found from your version of Chairman’s statement is, to say the least, quite unjust（4）. Perhaps your hand is recovering some of its old cunning momentarily lost through long lack of practice（5）. At any rate, it would be a pity-nay, a sin, a crime（6）-to let your(7) English get rusty & become finally unserviceable.
Yours in haste
By a slip of pen, you wrote “allocation” instead of “Collocation”(8).This is a mere peccadillo. Don’t let meticulousness about such trifles cramp your style.
书武：
看了来信，又惊又喜。你的英语之好，出人意外。这不是兜圈子的奉承话，而是真诚的意见(我手按在胸前发誓!)。你以前翻译主席文章的段落，我看了以后有些想法。现在看来，那些想法至少是很不公正的。你长期以来缺乏实践，一时失去的原有的灵巧手法，也许逐渐得到恢复。不管怎么样，让你的英语生锈，最终变得无法利用，那是件憾事——不，是罪过，是犯罪。
钱钟书匆匆
5月14日
又及，由于笔误，你把collocation写成allocation.这只是一个小错。别把这些小事看得过重，变得谨小慎微，妨碍你写作方式的完善。
注解：
1、My Dear ……是英语书信的一种格式，并不非译出来不可。这里可译作：书武。林书武当时是中国社会科学院语言研究所研究人员。1970年冬，下放河南息县劳动锻炼，在那段时间跟钱钟书有过一段交往。此信写于1971年5月。
2、a joyful surprise: 又惊又喜。英语的短语，译成汉语时往往变成动词短语。
3、flannel, 花言巧语。此信中用双引号有两处。第一处有“所谓的”的意思，注8为第二处，意指原词。
4、这是一个复杂句，但并不难分析。要说的是：“to say the least”,是个插入语；英语句子常用插入语。例如：Your composition, to put it bluntly, is ill written.你的作文，坦率地说，写得很不好。
5、momentarily lost修饰cunning; through long lack of practice, 这里又是名词短语变作译文中动词短语的例子。
6、sin和crime, 几乎是同义词。这里连用，旨在加强语气。
7、词底下划一横线，表强调之意。
8、Co 底下加二道短横线，意为要注意。
第二封信
My Dear Lin(1) May
Excuse this belated reply to your very kind May Day greetings(2). Its almost literally “a day after the fair”. What with fixing the mosquito net, queuing for sweets at the co-op store, fetching & distributing letters, & the thousand and one odds and ends which eat away ones time, the red letter day was over before I know where I was(3). Well(4), here go my best wishes in which my wife joins. Your letter makes me ashamed. I feel guilty like a swindler who has won your “gratitude ”without doing anything to earn it. Your characteristic generosity has led you to overestimate the aids to study I gave. Yes, vocabulary is important. Pedagogues used to distinguish a pupils active or (5) writing & speaking vocabulary. As you know, the latter is far more extensive than the former. How to turn the supinely passive into the nimbly active—that’s the big problem(6). However, enough of shop talk. Tomorrow to the battle & more power to your elbow!(7)
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编辑：丽丽 作者：本站整理 时间：2007-6-15 17:00:00 来自：
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