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2003年11月，人民教育出版社出版了《李嵐清教育訪談錄》。2004年金秋時節，不到一年的時間， 便有英譯本問世。英譯本取名《Education for 1.3 Billion 》（《為了13億人的教育》），是由我國的外語教學與研究出版社和英國的培生教育出版集團（Pearson Education） 共同出版的。
作者專為英譯本寫了一篇序言，對出版英譯本的背景和意圖作了說明，并且提到，鑒于讀者的文化背景和教育背景不同，而且中文和英文之間也存在差異，英譯本有一些變通的地方，但這不影響讀者了解本書的內容。
更多考慮外國讀者的不同情況而在譯文的文字上有所變通，這無疑代表一種新的翻譯思路，必將對我國譯界產生深遠的影響。這一方面的情況很值得進一步研究。本文只想利用以下幾個選段，以注釋的形式談一談有關漢譯英的一些基本問題的體會。
例1：
4.6 “尚方寶劍”和“借東風”
記者：高校宏觀結構調整和管理體制改革，幾乎涉及到所有高校。有的學校辦了幾十年被并掉了，有的高校的校名因合并被改掉了，但總體進展比較平穩。推動這樣大的改革，您有何感受？
4.6 Applying the 'imperial sword' and seizing the opportunities (1)
Interviewer:
Virtually all China's universities have been involved in the overall restructuring and administrative reform. Some have been merged despite the fact that they were around for decades. Some have been renamed after they were merged. Progress, however, has largely been smooth. How do you feel about orchestrating such massive reform?
注1. 這一節的題目非常生動，用了兩個典故。第一個典故，譯文保留了原文的形象，第二個典故則沒有保留。這是為什么？也許我們看到下面就明白了。
例2：
李嵐清：改革之所以能這樣平穩，我的體會主要有以下幾方面。
一是抓學習，講形勢，統一思想認識。鄧小平同志關于教育改革問題有許多科學論述。江澤民同志在接見四所交通大學負責人時指出：“我們的教育工作必須進一步解決好兩大重要問題，一是教育要全面適應現代化建設對各級各類人才培養的需要，而是要全面提高辦學的質量和效益。這也可以說是當前全國教育工作面臨的兩個重要轉變。”對于處在教育事業龍頭地位的高等教育來說，要實現這“兩個重要轉變”，必須進一步深化高等教育管理體制改革。中共中央和國務院印發的《中國教育改革和發展綱要》和黨的十四大、十五大報告，以及兩屆政府總理在全國人代會上所作的政府工作報告中，都有一系列關于教育改革的方針、政策，還有全國人大及其常委會通過的關于教育的法律，我們都抓住不放，組織大家認真學習，不厭其煩地反復講，目的就是為了統一各級領導干部的思想。這些重要的方針、政策、法律、文件，我把它們比作“尚方寶劍”。我們要善于運用這些“尚方寶劍”來統一思想。形勢發展呼喚著高等教育的改革。隨著社會主義現代化建設的不斷前進，社會主義市場經濟體制的逐步建立，科學技術的迅速發展，高等教育只有改革才能適應經濟和社會發展的要求，才能肩負起中華民族偉大復興的歷史使命。形勢任務搞清楚了，大家的認識就容易統一了。
Li Lanqing:
The smooth progress of reform can be attributed to the following factors. (2)
First, we have organized studies of government policies to clarify the situation and reach a consensus on what we wanted to accomplish. (3) Deng Xiaoping had put forward many scientific viewpoints on education reform. During a meeting with leaders of the four Jiaotong universities (Beijing, Shanghai, Southwest and Xi'an) (4), Jiang Zemin said, "In our work on education we must tackle two major issues. (5) One is that education must meet the demand of the modernization drive for qualified professionals at all levels and of all types; the other is that managerial quality and efficiency has to be raised across the board in school administration. These two issues may be seen as the two major changes essential to China's work on education." (6)
To effect the "two major changes" in higher education, which is pivotal to education as a whole, reform of the administrative system has to be deepened. (7) A series of principles and policies on education reform are featured in the Program for China's Education Reform and Development issued by the central government, the reports to the 14th and 15th National Congresses of CPC, and the reports on government work delivered by the premiers of the two successive central governments to the National People's Congress. The NPC and its Standing Committee have passed several laws on education. We have organized careful studies of all these principles, policies, documents and laws for the single purpose of reaching a consensus among leaders at all levels. (8) I likened these principles, policies, documents and laws to the "imperial sword" - symbols of supreme authority. (9) We need the "imperial sword" to focus our minds and actions. The situation cries for higher education reform. At a time when the socialist modernization drive is going strong, with the socialist market economy here to stay, and science and technology progressing apace, higher education has to be transformed - both to meet the demands of socioeconomic development and to shoulder the great historical mission of rejuvenating China. (10) Once the situation and tasks come into focus, reaching a consensus becomes simple.
注2. 這句譯文值得注意的是attribute一詞。英語需要表達“歸功于……”之類的意思是，經常用這個詞。
注3. 這句原文像個小標題，用分詞來譯也是可以的。但譯文加了東西，比較長，更像一個句子，所以還是用we作主語較好。此外，“抓學習”若只譯作organized studies，不夠具體，所以譯文加了of government policies。 這也不是隨便加的，看一看下文就明白了。加在這里，也可以與下文有所呼應。consensus后面加了on what we wanted to accomplish, 也是因為同樣的道理。
注4. 這句譯文在four Jiaotong universities 后面略作解釋，就是照顧外國讀者的需要。
注5. 原文以“我們的教育工作”為主語，但在英文里，以we作主語更便于和動詞搭配。
注6. 中文的段落比較長，而英文不太喜歡很長的段落。因此，中譯英時，常需在適當的地方將一段分為兩段，甚至分為更多的段落。
注7. 這句原文無主語，譯文沒有加we，而是用了被動語態。這也是常見的一種譯法。
注8. 這里原文是一句，而譯文分成了三句，這樣譯比較清楚。
注9. 這一句把“尚方寶劍”之所指作了說明，譯者更對其含義作了解釋。有這句話在這里與本節的題目相呼應，意思就很清楚了，因此題目的譯文保留了原文的形象。其實，即使沒有這句話，題目這樣譯，意思也是清楚的。
注10. 原文“隨著”后面有三個名詞詞組，譯文若只用with來引導，顯得結構過于單調?，F在譯文先用At a time when引出一個從句，然后再用with，就比較靈活。
例3：
二是向前看，不爭論，少宣揚，多實干。改革之初，有些同志曾提出，要改革，首先就要批判過去高等教育體制的弊端。對此我堅決不同意，并說服這些同志要用歷史唯物主義的觀點看問題，否則我們就永遠沒有正確的是非標準。中國共產黨之所以是個成熟的政黨，其中重要的一條就是我們善于用辯證唯物主義和歷史唯物主義來正確地處理“繼承與發展”的關系問題。不管你的成就多大，都有歷史的局限，不能當事后諸葛亮。我們今天的改革，大家認為是正確的，甚至是很有前瞻性的。但過多少年以后，用那時的標準來看今天的改革，也許會被后人認為是難以理解的“古董”。但你能否認今天的改革成果嗎？所以，不必要的爭論不但對推進改革無益，反而會影響改革進程。我們只有從實際出發，針對現存的問題進行改革，盡量做好在當前時代條件下能做到的事。
Second, we must look forward, waste absolutely no time on unnecessary arguing and hype, and work more in a down-to-earth way. (11) In the beginning, some people had suggested criticizing the drawbacks in higher education prior to reform. (12) I said no and persuaded them to look at things from the perspective of historical materialism, otherwise we could never find the criteria for telling right from wrong. (13) A major reason why the Communist Party of China is a mature party is because we are good at applying dialectical materialism and historical materialism when handling the relationship between inheriting and developing. All achievements, no matter how big, have historical limits, and the "I told you so" attitude gets us nowhere. (14) Today, everyone is saying the reform is correct and rather farsighted. However, many years in the future, if people use their contemporary standards to judge the reform of today, they may see it as some sort of unfathomable "antique". But can you negate the reform and its results today because of that? Therefore, unnecessary arguments can do nothing for the progress of reform but hinder it. (15) We can only proceed from reality, carry out reform to redress existing problems, and do what we can under the circumstances. (16)
