我少时，未进小学，在私塾读四书五经之类的古书和包括唐诗在内的诗词作品，并且学会如何写近体诗的律诗绝句等。我父亲是前清举人，在教我学诗方面帮助很大。
中学毕业，1936年我进入福建协和大学英文系，后转入上海沪江大学英文系，对英美文学，特别是诗，一直有较大的兴趣。
我一生在上海市邮政局工作，所从事的具体业务都与英语有密切的关系。特别是自20世纪60年代起，任邮件转运处秘书，负责与外国邮政的公文来往工作。1977年退休后，组织上派我去上海大学工学院，担任辅导青年英语老师之职达八年之久。
第二次退休后，为发挥余热，自娱自乐，我萌发翻译唐诗三百首之念。此时，正好一友人送我江西师范大学中文系陶今雁教授编写的《唐诗三百首详注》，对我很有帮助。译作断断续续，1999年完成初稿；又几经阅改，到2003年才全部定稿。是时，我已年届87岁。
我所译的是清代孙洙所编《唐诗三百首》。中国社会科学院外国文学研究所傅浩先生对本作品给予肯定的评价，提了一些建议，并积极推荐出版。在此，我谨向傅浩先生致意鸣谢。
对唐诗的理解，各人不尽相同；用英语诗句来表述其意，亦各有千秋。我希望在我的译作之后，有更多感兴趣者也来试译唐诗，陶冶情趣，使这一中华文化瑰宝的英译作品更臻完善。
附拙作汉英对照诗一首：
英译唐诗有感
三百唐诗绚丽篇，相传代代到今天。
不才忝试英诗译，引玉抛砖盼众贤。
Thoughts on Translating Tang Poems
into English Verse
The famous Three Hundred Tang Poems
have made very splendid display；
They have been appreciated from past
generations to today.
By my humble self， their translation
into English has been made
In the hope that my casting of a poor
brick might attract your jade.
王玉书
2004年8月
PREFACE
This book is my translation of Tang poems contained in “An Anthology of Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty”， compiled by Sun Zhu of the Qing Dynasty in 1764. The arrangement of the sequence of different forms of verse and the poems concerned is made with reference to the book “Detailed Annotations on the Three Hundred Tang Poems”， written by Prof. Tao Jinyan of Jiangxi Normal University.
When I was a child， I was under the guidance of a private tutor who knew very much in the domains of Chinese classic literary books including the well-known “300 Tang Poems”.
After I entered， in 1936， the English Department of the Fukien Christian University and later transferred to the University of Shanghai， my interest in English literature， especially English poetry， was more and more intensified. I often compared English poems with our Tang poems and began to form the idea that someday I would translate Tang poems into English， so that our foreign friends might enjoy reading them.
Now my idea has come true. I sincerely hope that our foreign friends will find pleasure and enjoyment in reading my translated “300 Tang Poems”.
Wang Yushu
August 2004