錢鍾書是博通古今中外的大學問家，你一定記得他的小說代表作《圍城》，其實先生不是只有國文好，其英文寫作更是堪稱一絕。
錢鍾書19歲被清華大學外文系錄取，入讀不久便「名震校園」，他的數學只考了15分，但是國文和英文都達到了讓老師嘆為觀止的水平，其中英文更是考到了不可思議的滿分。
為了讓大家領略一下大師的風採，以下分享先生寫的一封英文書信，文字典雅，幽默風趣，用詞考究，簡直都能做篇精讀課文了！
這封信是錢鍾書1938年從巴黎寫給外國友人司徒亞的，司徒亞是他在牛津大學的同院同學。
「 註：1935年，25歲的錢鍾書以第一名的成績87.95分——此為歷屆中美和中英庚款平均分最高，考取英國庚子賠款公費留學生，赴英國牛津大學艾克賽特學院英文系留學，與楊絳同船赴英。1937年錢鍾書隨妻子楊絳赴法國巴黎大學從事研究，女兒錢瑗出生。」
From：錢鍾書 To：Stuart
My Dear Stuart,
親愛的司徒亞，
We areoverjoyedat your generously long letter. We have been rather worried about you since yourreticentXmas card from Spain.
收到你這封慷慨的長信，我們真是喜出望外。上次你從西班牙寄來的聖誕賀卡語焉未詳，害得我們心裡一直忐忑不安。
We thought that yourindignationat the Fascist terrors might have made you join the Spanish Republican army on leaving Oxford.In that case, the world would certainly gain a hero, but we might (O horrible thought!) lose a friend. You can imagine our relief to hear from you again.
我們以為，由於你對法西斯的恐怖行徑出奇憤怒，或許會在牛津畢業後投入到西班牙共和軍的隊伍中。那樣的話，世界會多一位英雄，而我們或許會（啊，多可怕的想法！）失去一位朋友。我們收到你的信時的寬慰你可想而知了。
We are very, very sorry indeed to hear about your viva. We do hope that it will not be prejudicial to your chances of getting a job. As your favorite Walter Raleigh used to say, Oxford final schools and the Last Judgement are two examinations, not one. You are quite right to take the whole thing lightly.
關於你口語測試的事，我們感到十分遺憾，真希望這不會影響你找工作。正如你的Walter Raleigh曾說的，牛津的畢業考試不等於末日審判，而是兩回事兒，你不把這事放在心上是對的。
We shall be here for another four or five months yet. My scholarship expires this August, and we shall sail home in September. Not that we have homes to return to! Our houses, spared by the shell-fire, have been looted and gutted of all their valuable contents. Our respective families have taken refuge in mountains honeycombed with bandits.
我們在這兒還要待四五個月。我的獎學金在八月到期，九月份我們將坐船回家。可不是因為我們有家可歸！我們的房子雖免於戰火，但值錢的家當被洗劫一空。我們倆各自的家庭也都在滿是土匪的山上尋求避難之處。
My wife lost her mother, and I myself have no prospect whatsoever of getting decent jobs in China. Still, one's lot is with one's own people; I don't mind roughing it a bit. The revolution of the Fortune's wheel might bring us up, and, as Goethe was fond of saying, abwarten Sie. You see, I spare my own patriotic heroics.
我的妻子失去了她的母親，我對自己在中國找到體面的工作也不抱任何希望。但個人的命運是和民族的命運連在一起的，我並不介意生活得艱苦一些。會時來運轉的，像歌德常說的「等待吧」(abwarten Sie德語)。你看，我就不說那些愛國主義豪言壯語了。
Yes, my clairvoyant Stuart, I have been working entirely on my own. I have tried to read French literature systematically downwards, beginning with Villon, and already got as far as the mid-nineteenth century. I have also laboriously tackled the German romantics. I am reading Taine's novel Graindorge and Novalis's Fragmente. Besides, I have not neglected my English and Chinese studies. I am reading——no, I am not going to tell you my reading debauches. This paragraph reads already like a snippet from that model letter of a schoolboy to his parents ("or parent according to circumstances") in Anstey's Vice Versa.
得承認，你很有遠見。我目前完全在自學，我在系統地用心讀法國文學，從維龍開始，已經讀到十九世紀中期。我也在費力地啃一些德國小說，我在讀泰納的 Graindorge和諾瓦利斯的《哲學片段》。此外，我也並未荒廢英語和漢語的學習，我還在看——不，我還是不告訴你我讀的其它那些「墮落」的書了。這段文字讀來已然像是摘自安斯蒂的《父親的教訓》中學生給父母的（或其中之一的，視情況而定）範例書信了。
The baby is burstingly fat. She already boasts of six teeth (each tooth meaning a week or so of worries and sleeplessness on her part as well our own). She is very naughty and mutinous and self-willed , altogether an ugly customer to deal with. She will be able to walk a little next month.
小寶寶胖得要爆了。她已經了不起地有六顆牙了（每顆牙都代表我們和她一個星期左右的憂慮和失眠）。她淘氣，叛逆，任性，就是個難伺候的主，下個月她就會走路了。
You are a disquieting feller, my dear Stuart. You always give me the impression of some impending catastrophe. Why this sudden "treachery" to your "former interests"? You seem to have a "gout trop facilement degoute". Your mind seems to slough its idea as frequently as the snakes slough their skins. No doubt you will call me smug and incorrigible. Do keep me abreast of your latest developments.
親愛的司徒亞,，你是個不讓人放心的傢伙，總給人一種大難臨頭的感覺。這次你對「舊的愛好」的「叛變」是怎麼回事？仿佛你有種愛改變口味的習慣(gout trop facilement degoute法語)，你改變想法的頻率猶如蛇蛻皮。無怪乎你稱我是不可一世又不可救藥，請務必要讓我知道你的最新進展。
My wife sends you her best wishes, to which I say ditto. Write to me at your earliest convenience.
我妻子與我一併奉上最美好的祝願。期待你早日來信。（ditto：同上）
Yours ever,
Chung-shu Tchi'ien
你永遠的，
錢鍾書
P.S.My wife wants me to tell you that the baby is really "her father's daughter". She loves nothing so much as books——to tear and nibble at, certainly not to read. She has already destroyed a German primer, not to mention innumerable tradesmen's circulars and booklets. She throws away her toys to grab at the books we happen to be reading.
又：妻子讓我告訴你，小寶寶頗有「其父之風」，最愛的就是書——撕或咬，絕不是為了讀。她已毀掉一本德語入門書，更不要說不可計數的商家傳單和手冊。當我們讀書時，她常扔掉手上的玩具來抓我們的書。
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