这个电话立时引起我一 阵感慨：美国编辑的年轻（及其对时事历史知识的简陋）反映了我白 己的老年。
It struck me immediately, for the young American editor with ignorance of current affairs and historical events Was a reflection of own old age.
我的文中所讨论的是市上一本新出版的埃德加．斯诺传记。
The article I had written was about a recently published biography of Edgar Snow.
那位青年编辑的不解此词用意，令我憾惜那份大报资深老编辑的 逐一消逝。
The young American editor's failure to understand the said phrase made me lament the fading out of elderly senior members on the editorial staff of the renowned newspaper.
美国新一代编辑对中国现代史的生疏并不是近年来的事。
That the new generation of American newsmen are unfamiliar with modern Chinese history is by no means something new.
Years ago, after I sent in an article for the OP-ED page of The New York Times recounting experiences of my first visit to my motherland, the editor phoned me to ask about the meaning of "the French Concession".
我的解释不能说服他的犹疑。
My explanation, however, failed to bring him round.
他说读者不会了 解，为了安全起见，他要把"法租界"改为"法侨区"(French Quarter o)，我勉强的同意。
He said readers had difficulty understanding it and therefore suggested, for safety's sake, French Quarter" as a substitute for "the French Concession".
该报的认真态度是名闻世 界的，但是编辑的缺乏常识是不是我们所可谅解？
The New Yoxk Times Is world-famous for its conscientiousness.
But a lack of general knowledge on the part of its editors is nevertheless unpardonable.
美国一般报刊当事者对中国情况（即使是现在，到处多的是"中 国通"）的无知是相当普遍的，例如他们常把中国人的姓氏名字前后 倒置，至于电视新闻广播员更是缺乏时事修养，不只一次，我听到他 们把"中华人民共和国〞与"中华民国〞混为一谈。
Those in charge of the American press are often found ignorant of things in China although the country is said to abound in "China hands".
当然，1949年以后出生的人现在也有四十岁了•。
US editors born after 1949, the year when the People's Republic of China was founded.
Are now in their forties.
有的则根本不 能体会上海在解放前的情况。
Some of them have little knowledge of what Shanghai was like in China's pre-liberation days.
有一个杂志编辑与我争论"外滩"一词的英文字。
One American editor got into a heated argument with me about the English equivalent of Waitan\ in Shanghai.
他不解我为何 要用 Bund（他说 Bund 对他而言，是战前美国一个仿德国纳粹团体的 取名)。
He wondered why should insist On using the word "Bund", saying that as far as he knew, it referred exclusively to a pro-Nazi organization in the pre-war US.
殊不知英国经商者早已在印度殖民地用了这个字，后来用在 上海的外滩，意谓"沿着江海的河堤"。
He didn't that the word, first used by British merchants in India during its colonial days to mean "an embanked road along a waterfront'", was later also used to refer to Waitan in Shanghai.
这位编辑终把 Bund 改为 Waterfront， 把我所要想形容的昔年上 海繁华的外滩，一改而子人以冷落零乱印象的"码头"，完全失却了 凡此种种，只不过表明新闻界也是后浪推前浪，老的退休，新的 当家。
He finally chose "'the Waterfront"" in preference to the Bund" which was a misrepresentation giving the picture of a desolate and messy dock instead of the erstwhile thriving Shanghai Bund as describe.
Had intended to Evidently the young have replaced the old to play a leading role in the US press.
And ageing newspaper contributors like me seem to have lost.
Much to Our regret.
Our understanding friends.