s*******h
发帖数: 3219 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: Silenus (海上怪兽), 信区: Military
标 题: 钱钟书的英语如何，看这信
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Fri Sep 5 20:18:53 2014, 美东)
My Dear Achilles,
Los Angeles is our last leg but one, & I seize the first spare evening a
fter so many hectic days to drop you a few lines by way of shaking your hand
& saying goodbye. I write now also because once I get home I shall be head
over ears in the arrears of various kinds of busy idleness, & it would be qu
ite some time before I could send you a decent letter.
Imagine our meeting again unexpectedly after a lapse of forty odd years!
It deeply moved me to see you, in your disinterested dedication to learning
, rise above worldly preferment & emoluments. It is a noble sight. Compared
with your academic nudity,the honors & titles of your colleagues seem tawdry
& philistine.
I have just received a letter from the director of the Indiana Universit
y Press about the publication of the translation of my novel. It enclosed fo
r correction a sort of curriculum vitae jazzed up with a number of apocrypha
l anecdotes - where on earth did the writer get them? For instance: "When a
student at Tsing Hua, he was an arrogant young man, publicly scorning such e
minent professors as Feng Yu-lan", etc. This, as you well know, is arrant &
harmful nonsense. I set record straight as follows: "...an arrogant young ma
n who cut lectures & kept very much to himself. Among his few intimate frien
ds was Achilles Fang, the 'word wizard', as Marianne Moore called him, who w
as then a student in the department of philosophy." I wish to give a public
testimonial to our friendship.
Goodbye & take good care of yourself. Give my love to Mrs. Fang. In case
you meet Miss Liu, please tell her that when I got her delightful letter I
had already mailed to her my poems.
Yours Ever, |
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