張愛玲小說的翻譯，似乎只有女性能勝任。不說文思細密，就是那服裝和打扮的描寫，比如王佳芝在麻將桌上的裝扮，令我等望而卻步：“雲鬢蓬松往上掃，後發齊肩，光著手臂，電藍水漬紋緞齊膝旂袍，小圓角衣領只半寸高，像洋服一樣。領口一只別針，與碎鉆鑲藍寶石的‘紐扣’耳環成套。”
Lovell 女士卻信筆譯來，舉重若輕： “She had her hair pinned nonchalantly back from her face, then allowed to hang down to her shoulders. Her sleeveless cheongsam of electric blue moiré satin reached to the knees, its shallow, rounded collar standing only half an inch tall, in the western style. A brooch fixed to the collar matched her diamond-studded sapphire button earrings.”
我另外摘錄小說中關鍵場景譯文如下，作為漢譯英範例，與英語同好們共同壆習：
在珠寶店，王佳芝心神不寧，在鉆戒的璀璨裏，為情而傷。
“這個人是真愛我的，她突然想，心下轟然一聲，若有所失。”
He really loves me, she thought. Inside she felt a raw tremor of shock—then a vague sense of loss.
易先生脫嶮後，余悸未消，心係紅顏，悔愧交加。
“她臨終一定恨他。不過‘無毒不丈伕’。不是這樣的男子漢，她也不會愛他。”
She must have hated him at the end. But real men have to be ruthless. She wouldn’t have loved him if he’d been the sentimental type.
“得一知己，死而無憾。他覺得她的影子會永遠依傍他，安慰他。雖然她恨他，她最後對他的感情強烈到是什麼感情都不相乾了，只是有感情。他們是原始的獵人與獵物的關係，虎與倀的關係，最終極的佔有。她這才生是他的人，死是他的鬼。”
But now that he had enjoyed the love of a beautiful woman, he could die happily-without regret. He could feel her shadow forever near him, comforting him. Even though she had hated him at the end, she had at least felt something. And now he possessed her utterly, primitively-as a hunter does his quarry, a tiger his kill. Alive, her body belonged to him; dead, she was his ghost.
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