偶检旧箧，竟找到《世界文艺》1981年创刊号。杂志已泛黄，但还是令我着实激动了一阵子，因为我清楚地记得里面有一篇苗怀新的译作《华氏451》《Fahrenheit 451》（Ray Bradbury）。初读此文，只觉译者笔下的文字飞转流动，似有鬼神驱使。后对照原文再读 ，更觉得译者对原文把握细致入微、体贴备至；译来也亦步亦趋，步步紧逼，毫厘不爽。拈出头一段欣赏一下：

The autumn leaves blew over the moonlit pavement in such a way as to make the girl who was moving there seem fixed to a sliding walk, letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward. Her head was half bent to watch her shoes stir the circling leaves. Her face was slender and milk white, and in it was a kind of gentle hunger that touched over everything with tireless curiosity. It was a look, almost, of pale surprise, the dark eyes were so fixed to the world that no move escaped them. Her dress was white and it whispered. He almost thought he heard the motion of her hands as she walked, and the infinitely small sound now, the white stir of her face turning when she discovered she was a moment away from a man who stood in the middle of the pavement waiting.

　（苗的译文）秋风吹落叶，卷过月光流照的人行道，袅袅婷婷的一位姑娘仿佛并未移步，而是乘风履叶，若飞若扬。她低着头，望着脚下随风转的乱叶；颜容瘦削而洁白，温柔之中含有渴望，显出一种不知疲倦地探索一切的神情，一种近乎惊异的神情，一双黑眼睛好象时刻注视着世界，观察着人间的变动，一身素服，走起路来瑟瑟如私语。蒙特咎似乎连她双手摆动的声音也能听到，甚至听到她微微转过脸来时很轻很轻的声音：她已经发现自己距离在人行道中间止步的男人不过咫尺之遥。

把‘moonlit' 译成‘月光流照’，可谓神来之笔；更神得是把下一句‘letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward’译成‘乘风履叶，若飞若扬’,真令人击节三叹。这该是钱钟书所谓的‘化境’。在苗的笔下，这位异国女子虽已‘投胎转世’,但其风韵神采,‘依然故我'，令人心旌摇曳，心驰神往。读这样的译文真有‘如坐春风’之感。