《怀旧》是鲁迅最早的一篇小说，但因为是用文言所写，且直到鲁迅身后才收入《集外集拾遗》，所以远不如他的白话小说那样受到英译者的关注。

海外学者最早将《怀旧》译成英文的是美国汉学家威廉·莱尔（William A.Lyell）。莱尔的译文作为附录发表于他1976年出版的研究专著《鲁迅的现实观》（Lu Hsun's Vision of Reality），后又收入他1990年出版的鲁迅小说全译本——《狂人日记和其他小说》（Diary of a Madman and Other Stories）。总体来说，莱尔的译文比较准确。但也有几处问题，最为严重的是两处。

第一处的原文是：“予……知耀宗曾以二十一岁无子，急蓄妾三人，而秃先生亦云以不孝有三，无后为大，故尝投三十一金，购如夫人一，则优礼之故，自因耀宗纯孝。”莱尔的译文是：

I remembered that in the past Yao-tsung, having reached the ripe old age of twenty-one without having sired a son, had taken three pretty concubines into his household.Baldy had also started mouthing the saying “There are three things that are unfilial and to lack posterity is the greatest of these” as if to justify Yao-tsung's conduct.The latter was so moved by this that he gave Baldy twenty-one pieces of gold so that he too could buy a secondary wife.Thus I concluded that Baldy's reason for treating Yao-tsung with such unusual courtesy was that the latter had shown himself to be thoroughly filial.

这里莱尔将“三十一金”译成twenty-one pieces of gold（二十一金）显然是笔误。更大的错误则在于，他认为这三十一金是耀宗因为感激秃先生的知遇之恩（was so moved）而送给秃先生用以购买小妾的。根据原文，我们知道“尝投三十一金，购如夫人一”的主语是承前句的“秃先生”，这里丝毫看不出他接受耀宗馈赠的意思。

第二处的原文是：“王翁曾言其父尝遇长毛，伏地乞命，叩额赤肿如鹅，得弗杀，为之治庖侑食，因获殊宠，得多金。逮长毛败，以术逃归，渐为富室，居芜市云。时欲以一饭博安民，殊不如乃父智。”莱尔的译文是：

Old Wang too had once said that when his father encountered the Long Hairs, he kowtowed to them and begged for his life.In order to thoroughly convince them of his submission he had kept knocking his head on the ground until he had raised a big, ugly lump on it.But at least the Long Hairs had not killed him.El