《色戒》英譯本出自Julia Lovell 女士之手。Lovell女士是劍橋大學中國歷史和文學教授，已出版多部中國題材的著作和譯作。比如最新的《長城：中國面對世界》（The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC-AD 2000）以及韓少功的《馬橋詞典》英譯本等。

　　張愛玲小說的翻譯，似乎只有女性能勝任。不說文思細密，就是那服裝和打扮的描寫，比如王佳芝在麻將桌上的裝扮，令我等望而卻步：“云鬢蓬松往上掃，后發(fā)齊肩，光著手臂，電藍水漬紋緞齊膝旗袍，小圓角衣領只半寸高，像洋服一樣。領口一只別針，與碎鉆鑲藍寶石的‘紐扣’耳環(huán)成套。”

　　Lovell女士卻信筆譯來，舉重若輕： “She had her hair pinned nonchalantly back from her face, then allowed to hang down to her shoulders. Her sleeveless cheongsamof electric blue moiré satinreached to the knees, its shallow, rounded collar standing only half an inch tall, in the western style. A brooch fixed to the collar matched her diamond-studded sapphire button earrings.”

　　我另外摘錄小說中關鍵場景譯文如下，作為漢譯英范例，與英語同好們共同學習：

　　在珠寶店，王佳芝心神不寧，在鉆戒的璀璨里，為情而傷。

　　“這個人是真愛我的，她突然想，心下轟然一聲，若有所失。”

　　He really loves me, she thought. Inside she felt a raw tremorof shock―then a vague sense of loss.

　　易先生脫險后，余悸未消，心系紅顏，悔愧交加。

　　“她臨終一定恨他。不過‘無毒不丈夫’.不是這樣的男子漢，她也不會愛他。”

　　She must have hated him at the end. But real men have to be ruthless. She wouldn't have loved him if he'd been the sentimental type.

　　“得一知己，死而無憾。他覺得她的影子會永遠依傍他，安慰他。雖然她恨他，她最后對他的感情強烈到是什么感情都不相干了，只是有感情。他們是原始的獵人與獵物的關系，虎與倀的關系，最終極的占有。她這才生是他的人，死是他的鬼。”

　　But now that he had enjoyed the love of a beautiful woman, he could die happily-without regret. He could feel her shadow forever near him, comforting him. Even though she had hated him at the end, she had at least felt something. And now he possessed her utterly, primitively-as a hunter does his quarry, a tiger his kill. Alive, her body belonged to him; dead, she was his ghost.