李景端又將出版新散文集《與名家零距離》，這位快樂的文化漁人又一次收網(wǎng)了。在生活中他的文學(xué)觸覺神經(jīng)特別敏銳，我隨意翻翻各類報(bào)刊，常常就蹦出他的文章，這一二年他起碼在報(bào)刊上發(fā)表了五六十篇引人矚目的文章。

李景端是我老伴馮亦代的知交。他上北京來，少不了要來看亦代。我初次見他，高高的個(gè)子，拎著一包書，精神十足地來了。他一進(jìn)屋，仿佛把太陽帶了進(jìn)來。他先分書給我們，我遞給他一瓶礦泉水，他已經(jīng)和亦代天南地北地聊起來了。屋子小，我窩在床邊，看新書蹭聽他們有學(xué)問的談話。我這人還有點(diǎn)小本事干文學(xué)，一多半是聽蹭聽出來的。從他們倆的交談中，我聽到了不少以往都不知道的翻譯界的情況，有鼓舞人的，也有叫人泄氣的，尤其是談到施咸榮、董樂山這些老友去世太早，他們倆都顯得很傷感。隨著與李景端接觸多了，不僅使我對(duì)文學(xué)翻譯漸漸關(guān)心起來，而且對(duì)李景端也更加熟悉了。有一陣，我甚至產(chǎn)生過也搞翻譯的沖動(dòng)，曾托李景端幫我尋購(gòu)一種很難買到的英語詞典，他為此費(fèi)了不少心，還寄了好些英文雜志給我。我越來越發(fā)現(xiàn)，李景端辦什么事都是非常熱心認(rèn)真的。

前不久，李景端來信向我“討債”，說我欠他一筆文債，要我為他的新作寫篇序。我久居病房，哪里還有靈感為他人作序。但賴債又賴不掉，怎么辦?瞎琢磨之中，突然冒出一個(gè)“怪題目”，寫一篇李景端的“三次方”如何?

李景端學(xué)外貿(mào)出身，前半生長(zhǎng)期在經(jīng)濟(jì)部門工作；“文革”后進(jìn)入出版界，搞翻譯，辦《譯林》，當(dāng)社長(zhǎng)，成了翻譯出版的行家；退休后又“愛管閑事”，替季羨林等名家打維權(quán)官司，針對(duì)譯壇“專給名家挑刺”的不正?，F(xiàn)象仗義執(zhí)言，不斷寫文章為翻譯事業(yè)叫喊，還成了寫散文的熱心人。在這三種角色中，李景端都十分專心賣力，所以我把他人生的這三種經(jīng)歷，戲稱為李景端的“三次方”。這“三次方”的得數(shù)，亦代和我自然心中有數(shù)，但我不說：這個(gè)得數(shù)，是正數(shù)還是負(fù)數(shù)，是大數(shù)還是小數(shù)，就讓讀者看他做的事、讀他寫的書以后自己去評(píng)判吧。

2006年1月于上海

（這是作者為《與名家零距離》所寫的序，題為本刊編者所加）

Li Jingduan，a Cultural Explorer

By Huang Zongying

Li Jingduan is going to publish a new collection of essays， entitled Zero Distance from Cultural Celebrities. With a sharp eye for literary trends and phenomenon， the diligent essayist has written about sixty eye-catching essays and published them in newspapers across the country in the last 1 or 2 years.

Li was a friend of late my husband Feng Yidai (1913-2005). Every time he came to Beijing， he visited Feng. I still remember the first time I met him. A tall man， he strode in briskly， holding a bulging bag of new books. He seemed to radiate warmth in the room. He gave us the books and I handed him a bottle of mineral water. Then he and Feng began a bull session. Thumbing through new books， I listened to them. They were chatting about anecdotes of translators. After his more visits， I began to take interest in translation and even toyed with the idea of translating something myself. I asked him to find me a rare English dictionary. He also sent me some English magazines. I find Li a warm-hearted and earnest man.

Recently he wrote to ask me to do a preface for his latest book of essays. I thought of his three roles he has played in his life and got an idea for the preface. In the first half of his life， Li， a major of foreign trade， worked in the economic sector. After the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)， he took the post of director of the Nanjing-based Yilin Publishing House and devoted himself to publishing translated books. After his retirement， Li has warmheartedly helped some celebrated translators with the lawsuits to protect legitimate rights and interests. He has sharply criticized the unhealthy phenomenon that some fault-picking critics went shamelessly after big-name translators. His latest passion is to write essays. He has exerted his utmost to play the three roles and he has done well.

(Translated by David)