《周策纵致罗素夫人的信，1979年5月30日》修改版

原文为英文版，是表爷爷（我爷爷的表兄）周策纵教授1979年写给罗素夫人的信。我曾在祖父的遗物中找到过这封信的复印件，大概是当年周寄给祖父交流和参考用的。昨天我又在这本新买的书《周策纵论学书信集》（中华书局2020年1月第1版）第248页找到了这封信，完全一模一样，真是有点意思。当年一直感觉这封信用语不太合现代英语规范，有些晦涩，现我用现代英语稍加改写，并附上有道机器翻译的中译文（已稍微修改，可以看懂）如后。

30 May 1979

Dear Mrs. Russell,

Thank you very much for sending me your marvelous autobiography, The Tamarisk Tree, and two letters. I’m sorry to reply so late because of my trip to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Hong Kong in March and April, and a short visit to Ohio. I supervised the honor students as an external examiner at the University of Singapore and made a lecture tour in Malaysia.

In Hong Kong, I met a number of Chinese intellectuals and students, who were planning to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement. Sixty years make a full time circle according to traditional Chinese calendar, so quite a few student groups and editors of journals and newspapers interviewed me about the Movement. In an interview, I mentioned your letter sent to me last winter. Many intellectuals and young students, who admire you and Mr. Russell greatly, asked me to exhibit some parts of your first letter, particularly your remarks about Chinese youth of the May Fourth period. Feeling obligated to quote from your letter in their commemoration issues on May 4, they published my interview together with some of your statements without your permission in advance. Besides, they also reprinted a photograph in your younger days, probably taken from Mr. Russell’s autobiography. Now this interview and my several poems on the May Fourth Movement have been reprinted in quite a few overseas journals and newspapers… I must apologize to you for failing to inform you about this issue on time. I hope you will not mind it as these young Chinese are very keen and anxious to promote free thinking, democracy, science, human rights, and progress for China——goals literally you have pursued for a long time. Your remarks have encouraged Chinese new generation greatly. I enclosed a few samples of the publications with your photograph.

I wonder if you have realized that in my second volume, Research Guide to the May Fourth Movement (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), I list a few works of yours (some in Chinese translation) concerning China. Copies of its pages are also enclosed.

The Tamarisk Tree is certainly a very fascinating and inspiring book, and will be translated into Chinese someday. I hope I can have the chapter “on the China trip” translated first.

I’d like to hear from you again, particularly about your China trip.

My best regards.

Very sincerely,

Chow tse-tsung.

有道词典机器翻译：

非常感谢您给我寄来您精彩的自传《红柳树》和两封信。由于我在3、4月份的新加坡、吉隆坡、香港之行，以及对俄亥俄州的短暂访问，所以很抱歉这么晚才回复您。我在新加坡大学担任外部主考，指导优秀学生，并在马来西亚进行巡回演讲。

在香港，我遇到了一些计划庆祝五四运动六十周年的中国知识分子和学生。按照中国传统的历法，60年是一个完整的周期，所以很多学生团体和报刊编辑采访了我。在一次采访中，我提到了您去年冬天给我的信。许多仰慕您和罗素先生的知识分子和青年学生，请我展示您第一封信的部分内容，特别是您对“五四”时期中国青年的评论。他们觉得有必要在5月4日的纪念刊物上引用您的信，所以在没有得到您的允许的情况下，他们把我的采访和您的一些说法一起发表了。此外，他们还转载了一张您年轻时的照片，可能是从罗素先生的自传中摘抄的。现在这篇采访和我的几首关于五四运动的诗，已经在国外好几家报刊上转载了。没有及时通知您这件事，我必须向您道歉。我希望您不会介意，因为这些中国年轻人非常热衷于并渴望促进中国的自由思想、民主、科学、人权和进步，而这些正是你们长期以来追求的目标。您的话极大地鼓舞了中国的新一代。我随信附上几本附有您照片的出版物样品。

不知道您有没有注意到，在我的第二卷《五四运动研究指南》(剑桥，马萨诸塞州：哈佛大学出版社，1963)，我列出了您的一些关于中国的著作(有一些是中文译本)。随信附上一些页面的复印件。

《红柳树》当然是一本非常精彩和鼓舞人心的书，总有一天会被翻译成中文。我希望能找人先把“on the China trip”这一章翻译出来。

我希望再次收到您的来信，特别是关于您的中国之行。