第一封信

My Dear Shu-Wu, May 14

Your letter gives me a joyful¹ surprise. Your English is astonishingly good. This is not "flannel²" or "butter" 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. Perhaps your hand is recovering some of its old cunning momentarily lost through long lack of practice. At any rate, it would be a pity-nay, a sin, a crime-to let your English get rusty³ & become finally unserviceable.

Yours in haste

By a slip of pen, you wrote "allocation" instead of "Collocation". This is a mere⁴ peccadillo⁵. Don't let meticulousness⁶ about such trifles cramp⁷ 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