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李景端又将出版新散文集《与名家零距离》，这位快乐的文化渔人又一次收网了。在生活中他的文学触觉神经特别敏锐，我随意翻翻各类报刊，常常就蹦出他的文章，这一二年他起码在报刊上发表了五六十篇引人瞩目的文章。
李景端是我老伴冯亦代的知交。他上北京来，少不了要来看亦代。我初次见他，高高的个子，拎着一包书，精神十足地来了。他一进屋，仿佛把太阳带了进来。他先分书给我们，我递给他一瓶矿泉水，他已经和亦代天南地北地聊起来了。屋子小，我窝在床边，看新书蹭听他们有学问的谈话。我这人还有点小本事干文学，一多半是听蹭听出来的。从他们俩的交谈中，我听到了不少以往都不知道的翻译界的情况，有鼓舞人的，也有叫人泄气的，尤其是谈到施咸荣、董乐山这些老友去世太早，他们俩都显得很伤感。随着与李景端接触多了，不仅使我对文学翻译渐渐关心起来，而且对李景端也更加熟悉了。有一阵，我甚至产生过也搞翻译的冲动，曾托李景端帮我寻购一种很难买到的英语词典，他为此费了不少心，还寄了好些英文杂志给我。我越来越发现，李景端办什么事都是非常热心认真的。
前不久，李景端来信向我“讨债”，说我欠他一笔文债，要我为他的新作写篇序。我久居病房，哪里还有灵感为他人作序。但赖债又赖不掉，怎么办?瞎琢磨之中，突然冒出一个“怪题目”，写一篇李景端的“三次方”如何?
李景端学外贸出身，前半生长期在经济部门工作；“文革”后进入出版界，搞翻译，办《译林》，当社长，成了翻译出版的行家；退休后又“爱管闲事”，替季羡林等名家打维权官司，针对译坛“专给名家挑刺”的不正常现象仗义执言，不断写文章为翻译事业叫喊，还成了写散文的热心人。在这三种角色中，李景端都十分专心卖力，所以我把他人生的这三种经历，戏称为李景端的“三次方”。这“三次方”的得数，亦代和我自然心中有数，但我不说：这个得数，是正数还是负数，是大数还是小数，就让读者看他做的事、读他写的书以后自己去评判吧。
2006年1月于上海
（这是作者为《与名家零距离》所写的序，题为本刊编者所加）
Li Jingduan,a Cultural Explorer
By Huang Zongying
Li Jingduan is going to publish a new collection of essays, entitled Zero Distance from Cultural Celebrities. With a sharp eye for literary trends and phenomenon, the diligent essayist has written about sixty eye-catching essays and published them in newspapers across the country in the last 1 or 2 years.
Li was a friend of late my husband Feng Yidai (1913-2005). Every time he came to Beijing, he visited Feng. I still remember the first time I met him. A tall man, he strode in briskly, holding a bulging bag of new books. He seemed to radiate warmth in the room. He gave us the books and I handed him a bottle of mineral water. Then he and Feng began a bull session. Thumbing through new books, I listened to them. They were chatting about anecdotes of translators. After his more visits, I began to take interest in translation and even toyed with the idea of translating something myself. I asked him to find me a rare English dictionary. He also sent me some English magazines. I find Li a warm-hearted and earnest man.
Recently he wrote to ask me to do a preface for his latest book of essays. I thought of his three roles he has played in his life and got an idea for the preface. In the first half of his life, Li, a major of foreign trade, worked in the economic sector. After the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), he took the post of director of the Nanjing-based Yilin Publishing House and devoted himself to publishing translated books. After his retirement, Li has warmheartedly helped some celebrated translators with the lawsuits to protect legitimate rights and interests. He has sharply criticized the unhealthy phenomenon that some fault-picking critics went shamelessly after big-name translators. His latest passion is to write essays. He has exerted his utmost to play the three roles and he has done well.
(Translated by David)