第7章 LETTER TO MR A.J.FOWLER
March 23, 1934
Dear Sir:
I cannot thank you enough[1] for the patience and frankness with which you answered my letter to your late brother.What a shock it gives me to learn that he who had been hale enough to work and write letters as late as the latter part of last November should have passed away[2] before the end of the year! I received his letter on January 6 and replied to it on January 9, little dreaming[3] that its writer was no more.[4] I do not know what to say to condole with you upon this irreparable loss except that your brother must have considered himself fortunate in being survived by a brother of your qualifications, to whom the lot now falls to[5] complete the dictionary that he left in the forming[6] when he died.As you probably know, I have for a long time been such a whole-hearted admirer of your brother's works as to take a personal interest in him; and now that[7] he is dead, I very sincerely hope that you are going to succeed[8] him in writing books on advanced studies in English.To tell the truth[9], I did not know he had another brother than the famous F.G.Fowler[10] till I got your letter, and I take pleasure in the thought that after all he had another.
I have now contributed an article entitled "To the Memory of Mr H.W.Fowler"[11] to one of the most popular English magazines in China, and am enclosing a copy of it, which I trust you will read with great interest.If you find anything wrong in the biographical information contained therein, please let me know.The Chinese couplet at the end of the article may be roughly paraphrased as:
The greatest of all scholars is no more, but it is highly gratifying to think that he has left behind a worthy brother to carry on a work that is of permanent value.
That his letter to me should have been among the last things he wrote is a fact on which I cannot but reflect with a heavy[12] heart.
I cannot claim much literary skill in Chinese, but I flatter myself that this couplet may pass muster[13], hope that you can find men in England, such as Professor Herbert A.Giles[14], who know enough Chinese to read and explain it to you.By the way, if it seems to you to be foolish of me to write a Chinese couplet on the death of an English scholar, please attribute my foolishness to the high esteem in which I hold your brother and his works.
I wonder what is the nature of the new dictionary on which you were working with your brother previous to his death, and how far it has got.
In the Acknowledgements of the revised edition of C.O.D.[15], your brother mentioned a man, "known to me only by correspondence, who for years sent me fortnightly packets of foolscap[16] devoted to perfecting a still contingent[17] second edition".If I could find time to do the same for all the Fowler books![18] As a matter of fact, I hardly ever go through the day without consulting one or more of them several times, and it is merely owing to[19] pressure of office and private affairs that I cannot now send you a large number of comments and notes.The two sheets of such that I enclose herewith I hope will meet with your careful consideration.
Finally, though I am well aware that it would be very impolite to inquire of an Englishman about such purely personal things as name and age, yet I cannot help[20] being curious about your full name and age, as I begin to feel personally interested in you as I used to do in your brother.And I should also like to know if you think you could ever come over to China.
Yours very truly,
Hertz C.K.Kê
注释
[1]cannot thank you enough:谢君不尽
[2]passed away:死去
[3]little dreaming:未尝梦想
[4]was no more:已故
[5]the lot now falls to...:今有……之责任
[6]left in the forming:未完；未竟
[7]now that:既
[8]succeed:继
[9]to tell the truth:实言之
[10]F.G.Fowler:按此人卒于1918年
[11]“To the Memory of Mr H.W.Fowler”:此文见本集中
[12]heavy:忧伤的
[13]pass muster:尚过得去
[14]Professor Herbert A.Giles:英国人，通中文，生于1845年，卒于1935年
[15]C.O.D.= The Concise Oxford Dictionary
[16]foolscap:一种纸之大小之称
[17]contingent:未定的
[18]If I could...:我恨不能……
[19]owing to:因
[20]cannot help:不能免；不禁