《色戒》英译本出自Julia Lovell 女士之手。Lovell 女士是剑桥大学中国历史和文学教授，已出版多部中国题材的著作和译作。比如最新的《长城：中国面对世界》（The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC-AD 2000）以及韩少功的《马桥词典》英译本等。

　　张爱玲小说的翻译，似乎只有女性能胜任。不说文思细密，就是那服装和打扮的描写，比如王佳芝在麻将桌上的装扮，令我等望而却步：“云鬓蓬松往上扫，后发齐肩，光着手臂，电蓝水渍纹缎齐膝旗袍，小圆角衣领只半寸高，像洋服一样。领口一只别针，与碎钻镶蓝宝石的‘纽扣’耳环成套。”

　　Lovell 女士却信笔译来，举重若轻： “She had her hair pinned nonchalantly back from her face, then allowed to hang down to her shoulders. Her sleeveless cheongsam of electric blue moiré satin reached to the knees, its shallow, rounded collar standing¹ only half an inch tall, in the western style. A brooch fixed² to the collar matched her diamond-studded sapphire³ button earrings⁴.”

　　我另外摘录小说中关键场景译文如下，作为汉译英范例，与英语同行们共同学习：

　　在珠宝店，王佳芝心神不宁，在钻戒的璀璨里，为情而伤。

　　“这个人是真爱我的，她突然想，心下轰然一声，若有所失。”

　　He really loves me, she thought. Inside she felt a raw tremor⁵ of shock—then a vague sense of loss.

　　易先生脱险后，余悸未消，心系红颜，悔愧交加。

　　“她临终一定恨他。不过‘无毒不丈夫’。不是这样的男子汉，她也不会爱他。”

　　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 sentimental⁶ type.

　　“得一知己，死而无憾。他觉得她的影子会永远依傍他，安慰他。虽然她恨他，她最后对他的感情强烈到是什么感情都不相干了，只是有感情。他们是原始的猎人与猎物的关系，虎与伥的关系，最终极的占有。她这才生是他的人，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 possessed⁷ her utterly⁸, primitively-as a hunter does his quarry⁹, a tiger his kill. Alive, her body belonged to him; dead, she was his ghost.