《尤利西斯》在1922年全书发表以前,有部分篇章先后在美国《小评论》杂志连载,一开始就引起争议,使它还没出版就成了禁书。由于在英、美、爱尔兰都无人敢于承印,结果,初版不得不在法国由不懂英语的法国工人排印。出版后的十多年中,英、美、爱尔兰都将此书列为禁书。直到1933年,由于此书的艺术价值,受到越来越多人的重视与肯定,才得以相继开禁。此后,名气越来越大,至今已被译成十多种文字在世界上出版。多年来,《尤利西斯》的爱好者,把书中所写的那一天——6月16日,定为“布卢姆日”。届时,在都柏林街头,到处再现小说中的人物、道具和情节。1984年,一批学者经过7年的努力,运用计算机对《尤利西斯》老版本进行了校勘,纠正了五千多处错误,解决了长期以来难以理解的不少矛盾和疑难,使此书出版六十多年之后,又以“新书”的面貌重新问世。本书没有复杂的情节,主要描写主人公布卢姆6月16日这一天,在都柏林那种不可思议而又耐人寻味的奇特经历。全书共3部18章。书名取自史诗《奥德修记》中的英雄尤利西斯。这部小说,就是在英美,能全部看懂的人也不很多,因此,好些国家出现了《尤利西斯》考证学。我国至今仅节译出版过本书的少数几章。为填补我国文学翻译史上的这一空白,译林出版社已约请萧乾、文洁若同志合译这部世界名著。早在1940年6月,萧老在英国时就曾经阅读和研究过《尤利西斯》(见《胡适来往书信选》中萧乾致胡适的信)。1942年,萧乾在剑桥大学皇家学院当研究生时,主攻心理派小说,乔伊斯的意识流小说就是他的研究对象之一。萧乾的夫人文洁若,早年曾就读于清华大学外文系,日文和英文的译著甚丰,是位有经验的翻译家和外国文学研究学者。现征得萧老夫妇同意先将他们译的《尤利西斯》的第一章“帖雷马科”的译文及注释在本刊发表,使读者了解此书的出版动向,并希望专家和读者们把读后的意见告诉我们,以便更好地完善本书的出版工作。 Before the book was published in 1922, “Ulysses,” some of the chapters were serialized in the “Small Review” magazine in the United States. From the very beginning, it was controversial that it had become a banned book before it was published. As no one dared to print in Britain, the United States and Ireland, the first edition had to be printed in French by French workers who did not know English. More than a decade after its publication, Britain, the United States and Ireland classified it as a forbidden book. Until 1933, due to the artistic value of this book, by more and more people’s attention and affirmation, have been able to open the ban one after another. Since then, more and more famous, has been translated into more than 10 kinds of text published in the world. Over the years, Ulysses fans, the day written in the book - June 16, as “Bloom Day.” By then, in the streets of Dublin, full of characters, props and plots reproduced in the novel. In 1984, after seven years of hard work, a group of scholars used computers to collate the older versions of Ulysses, corrected more than 5,000 mistakes and solved many contradictions and difficulties long difficult to understand. Sixty years after the publication of the book, it reappears in the face of “new book.” This book is no complicated plot, mainly describes the protagonist Bloom on June 16 this day, in Dublin that incredible and intriguing strange experience. The book a total of three 18 chapters. The title is taken from the hero Ulysses in Epic. This novel, that is, in the Anglo-American, can understand all the people are not many, therefore, appeared in many countries, “Ulysses” textual research. To date, only a few chapters of this book have been translated and published in our country. In order to fill this gap in the history of Chinese literary translation, Yilin Press has invited Xiao Qian and Wen Jiejie to translate this masterpiece in the world. As early as June 1940, Xiao had read and studied “Ulysses” when he was in England (see Xiao Qianzhi Hu Shih’s letter in Hu Shi’s correspondence). In 1942, when Xiao Qian was a graduate student at the Royal College of Cambridge, he focused his psychological novels and Joyce’s stream of consciousness novels was one of his subjects. Xiao Qing’s wife Wen Jieruo, who had studied at the Department of Foreign Languages ​​of Tsinghua University in his early years, has very rich translations in Japanese and English. He is an experienced translator and a foreign literary research scholar. It is hereby claimed that the translation and annotation of the first chapter of “Ulysses”, translated by the elders of the Xiao couple, are published in the journal to enable readers to understand the publication of the book and hope that the experts and Readers tell us what they read to improve the book’s publication.