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赤兔马泣曰：“吾尝慕不食周粟之伯夷、叔齐之高义。玉可碎而不可损其白，竹可破而不可毁其节。士为知己而死，人因诚信而存，吾安肯食吴粟而苟活于世间？”言罢，伏地而亡。
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一叶知秋。仅此一段，便足令我们领略文言的典雅和飘逸。对偶，是如此工整而又洒脱：“玉可碎而不可损其白，竹可破而不可毁其节，士为知己而死，人因诚信而存。”简洁，是如此晓畅明白：“泣曰……言罢，伏地而亡。”
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当试图以同样典雅飘逸的英语文字来翻译上段文字，而发现不可能的时候，我们才能更真切地发出慨叹：典雅，非汉语莫属也！
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Chi-tu then said woefully, “I have long admired the noble Bo Yi and Shu Qi who refused food from their enemy and learnt that a jade, even if shattered, can never lose its purity and likewise a bamboo, even if cleaved, will remain straight. Since only for a bosom friend does a noble man choose to die and only for the virtue of honesty does a common man choose to live, how can I lick from my enemy’s finger and live an undeserved life?” With these words, it fell dead.
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文言英译，其结果不言自明。那么，若将近代的英语作品译成汉语，将是怎样的情况呢？比如16～17世纪的英国哲学家Francis Bacon（弗兰西斯·培根）的名篇“Of Studies”（《论读书》）的原文与其汉译，略作对比，结果又将如何？
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Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgement and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgement wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things.
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读书足以怡情，足以博彩，足以长才。其怡情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其博彩也，最见于高谈阔论之中；其长才也，最见于处世判事之际。练达之士虽能分别处理细事或一一判别枝节，然纵观统筹、全局策划，则舍好学深思者莫属。读书费时过多易惰，文采藻饰过盛则矫，全凭条文断事乃学究故态。读书补天然之不足，经验又补读书之不足，盖天生才干犹如自然花草，读书然后知如何修剪移接；而书中所示，如不以经验范之，则又大而无当。有一技之长者鄙读书，无知者羡读书，唯明智之士用读书，然书并不以用处告人，用书之智不在书中，而在书外，全凭观察得之。读书时不可存心诘难作者，不可尽信书上所言，亦不可只为寻章摘句，而应推敲细想。书有可浅尝者，可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼慢咽。换言之，有只须读其部分者，有只须大体涉猎者，少数则须全读，读时须全神贯注，孜孜不倦。书亦可请人代读，取其所作摘要，但只限题材较次或价值不高者，否则书经提炼犹如水经蒸馏，淡而无味矣。
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16～17世纪的英国文豪Francis Bacon若是地下有知，当会对此段之汉译而大发感慨！打个比方，文字飘逸古劲的《赤兔之死》译成英语，宛如一杯清醇的浓茶中兑了一桶水。那么，“Of Studies”的汉语今译，则是锦上添花！本已端庄的原文更加秀逸多姿，本已耐读的表达更加典雅精彩！语言的成功转换，令文章的内涵趋深、趋泛、趋秀、趋雅。
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试比较：
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To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation.
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此句并非perfect parallelism（完美的平行结构），而相应的汉译“读书费时过多易惰，文采藻饰过盛则矫”，却是形式更趋完美的对仗句式！
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Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgement and disposition of business.
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读书足以怡情，足以博彩，足以长才。其怡情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其博彩也，最见于高谈阔论之中；其长才也，最见于处世判事之际。
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若从形式和内容两个方面对原文和译文进行分析，无疑，汉译均有明显胜出。如for ornament, is in discourse一句，其汉译“其博彩也，最见于高谈阔论之中”，不仅文采灿烂，而且将原句的内涵做了深刻的阐扬和艺术的发挥。
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纵览今日之汉语，“借形”外来语（如WTO、CT、MTV、CD等）和“借音”外来语（如伊妹儿、丁克、舍宾、销品茂等）“比翼齐飞”；当“亲密接触”等网络文学新词和“零距离”等科技术语的活用闪亮登场，我们的汉语并没有“忘本”，并没有舍弃文言传统。相反，富有表现力和生命力的文言用词用语，在汉语的“流通领域”得到了空前的认可和正确运用。中华民族久受压抑的民族精神在改革开放以来的20多年中得到空前焕发，汉语如古木逢春，一派昂然生机！
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现代汉语没有忘本，且十分注重汲取文言精华，以致典雅美能够成为现代汉语的鲜明个性的现状，令我们语言工作者深感欣慰，特别是当我们把研究的目光投向大洋彼岸的时候。英语（特别是美国英语）在尊重语言传统、继承语言精华方面存在着各种问题。
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美国小说家Theodore Dreiser（西奥多·德莱塞）在长篇小说Sister Carrie（《嘉丽妹妹》）有以下一段：
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When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Without a counselor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions.
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一个18岁的姑娘离家出门，她无非有两种遭遇。要么落到好人手里，而过上好日子，要么马上接受了三教九流的道德标准，由好变坏。在这样的环境里，要保持中间状态是不可能的。大都市里到处是狡诈的骗局，其程度并不差于比它小得多的装着人样的诱惑者。有的力量巨大，会像修养到家的人那样用激情来骗人上当。万点灯火的闪耀和乞爱挑情的眼波，就影响人的道德而言，具有同样的魔力。天真未凿的心灵，多半是有压根儿超出人力之上的力量所败坏的。喧嚣的市声、沸腾的生活、鳞次栉比的楼房，用暧昧的言词叩击着受惊的心弦。倘使没有个有阅历的人在旁边，给她低声指点迷津。真不知这一切会把多少谎言妄语灌入这不知警惕的人的耳朵里呢！由于不明这花花世界的真相，它的美景就像音乐一般，往往会使一些头脑简单的人的知觉放松，然后削弱，然后堕入歧途。
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这是一段抒情议论文字，议论农村的姑娘入城以后等待她们的命运以及世俗大网。作者分析入木三分，文字却有些艰涩。笔者就其中的第四个句子请教了美国教授Bill Hofmann。他对此句提供了paraphrase（释意）：The city—the urban whole—has its own tempting allures which are no less (are greater) than any single man can exhibit. Bill Hofmann教授在解答了难句之后，还发表了以下令笔者惊诧的议论：
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When I first read your problem sentence, I had no idea what it meant. Its meaning became clear only within the context of the paragraph. 初读此句，Bill也竟坦言感到had no idea！
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Thus I doubt that most college students could make much sense of this paragraph without a lot of struggle—and most would hate it! （现今的美国大学生理解写成于100年之前的此段文字也要经过a lot of struggle！更不可思议的是：most would hate it!）
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And the prose of that paragraph is very dense and—by modern standards—difficult to read and understand. Our modern literature has all but abandoned the strong stylistic devices that were characteristic of writers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Just as our society has become streamlined, homogenized, “fast”, and focused on mass appeal, our prose literature has followed suit. Modern readers—the mass readers—like their prose quick and easy, simple and clear.
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Hofmann教授对当今美国读者对所谓prose literature的文字风格要求作了四字概括：quick and easy, simple and clear。并高屋建瓴地认为：Our modern literature has all but abandoned the strong stylistic devices that were characteristic of writers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 句中的动词abandoned多么痛快，多么坚决！同时又和我们对于传统文学作品和文言的所持的尊重、继承和“笑纳”态度，恰成鲜明对照！
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一年半以后的今日，笔者又和Hofmann教授旧事重新。笔者将他的上述言论重新发还给他，让他再证实一下以上观点。Hofmann教授有以下修正：
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