1999年一个初冬的日子，著名英籍翻译家戴乃迭女士（Gladys Tayler）在北京阜外医院终于摆脱了折磨她十年的病魔，默默地离开了这纷扰的人世，留给人们多少遗憾和惋惜――她还是没能等到杨家幸存的亲人们祝贺她与杨宪益结婚满60年的这一天！她为相懦以沫的丈夫献出了一生，但她所经历的风风雨雨却摧毁了她的健康！在清理遗物时，杨宪益在抽屉里找到一份她未完成的自传草稿，大概还是20世纪90年代开始时写的，以后显然因为著者身体每况愈下，便从此尘封在抽屉里了。这自传的第一句便提到她母亲当年的警告，即：如果她执意嫁给中国人，一定会后悔的……估计戴乃迭写下这句话时，会忍不住她的眼泪，因为下面的一句话恰恰是“一语便成谶”……

杨宪益先生是中外驰名的大学者。他将西方古典名著《荷马史诗》译成中文；又将《楚辞》、《聊斋志异》、《儒林外史》、《红楼梦》以及部分《史记》与《资治通鉴》译成英文，在外国广为流传。本书辑录了杨宪益在20世纪40年代所写的文史考证，特别是中西交通史方面的文章和笔记。 　　从《零墨新笺》到《译余偶拾》 前面谈过，北碚国立编译馆时期是杨宪益一生中的“高产”期之一。近有天津南开大学教授王敦叔先生在所著《贻书堂文集》中专辟一章论述杨宪益在《译余偶拾》中的有关中国和拜占廷帝国（即东罗马帝国）关系史的研究。 　　朋友要我把过去发表过的文史考证笔记，整理一下，编成一集出版。这些笔记都是旧作。在付印之前，有必要作些说明，交代一下。我开始写这类笔记是在抗日战争期间。当时寄居重庆北碚，在国立编辑馆做英译《资治通鉴》工作，同卢冀野、杨荫浏、杨仲子等朋友来往很熟。在他们几位的鼓励下，写过一些文史考证文章，寄给上海的《新中华》杂志发表。在一九四七年把其中的二十几篇编成一个集子，卢冀野兄给它起了一个名字，叫做《零墨新笺》，编入“新中华丛书”，只发行了一版。后来在解放战争期间，又陆续写过一些笔记。一九四九年南京解放后，又把这些后写的稿子编成一集，自己出钱印了一本，起名叫《零墨续笺》，分送一些朋友。后来就再没有这种闲情去写这些东西了。有些朋友认为这些考证，虽是我青年时期不成熟的读书笔记，也许还有些参考价值，要我再编一下，重新付印，因为原来的《零墨新笺》和《零墨续笺》，今天已很难找到了。去年有些老朋友要我再写几篇这类笔记，由于他们的蛊情难却，曾写过几篇，连同一些旧稿在报刊上登载过，起了一个新名，叫做“译余偶拾”。 ——杨宪益

The celebrated Chinese classic novel is a masterpiece of realism written in the middle of the-eighteenth century. Taking as its background the decline of several related big families and drawing much from his own experiences, the author Cao Xueqin (?-c.1763) focused on the tragic love between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu and, in the meantime, provides a panorama of the lives of people of various levels in the degenerating empire. But he left the work unfinished (or the last 40 chapters lost). Gao E (c.1738-c.1815) completed the work some years later in much of Cao's spirit and also put in his own revelation, which aroused protracted controversy throughout centuries. Exposing social evils, the book cries out denunciation against the feudal system. All techniques of literary merit developed in previous periods have been incorporated into the great work with much originality. It stands out in the world literature ranking with Hamlet and War and Peace.

It all began with a dream. A young woman saw a white tiger leap into her lap. It was both auspicious and unlucky—her son, the fortune-teller said, would grow up with no brothers, and his father's health would be endangered by his birth. That son, however, would have a distinguished career, after going through many misfortunes and dangers. The dream was prophetic. The child was his mother's only male child and his father died of illness when the boy was only five. He grew up during the wartime and period of political turmoil in China, passing through many troubles, and he has had a very distinguished career. He is Yang Xianyi, renowned scholar, translator and interpreter of Chinese and Western literature. This delightful memoir of Yang Xianyi gives a candid and entertaining account of himself as a lighthearted and mischievous young man who immersed himself in the learning of European culture, ancient and modern, when he studied at Oxford in the 1930s. But it is also the illuminating self-portrait of a deeply patriotic intellectual living in a China under the throes of change, giving rare insight into the survival of a courageous, witty and principled individual during the harsh century of Chinese liberation.

曼菲斯城瑞亚神庙的门口。光线阴暗。在漆黑的神庙里，一个庄严的、自身发着光浑的鹰头神人隐约可见。他非常轻蔑地向这些现代的观众扫了一眼，最后向他们致辞……。

月日　本书收录《诗经》主要篇目，并译成中（白话）、英两种诗体，每篇配有精美插图。　　《诗经》的艺术成就，充分体现在民歌的艺术特色上。双声叠韵的词汇，四言为主的句式，回环重叠的章法，赋比兴的手法，无一不是民歌天然本色的表现。《诗经》是我国文学的光辉起点。中国文人的忧患意识，中国文学的现实主义精神，中国文论中的“风雅”、“比兴”，无一不是《诗经》开创的优良传统。《诗经》的出现，《诗经》是思想性和艺术成就，是中国文学悠久的标志，是我们民族的骄傲。