《红楼梦》翻译（七十一）

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twin05 2010-07-30 08:51 | 只看楼主 树型| 收藏| 小中大 1 ^#

《红楼梦》翻译（七十一）

原著
第十三回　　　　秦可卿**封龙禁尉　王熙凤协理宁国府
　　话说凤姐儿自贾琏送黛玉往扬州去后，心中实在无趣，每到晚间，不过和平儿说笑一回，就胡乱睡了．

　　这日夜间，正和平儿灯下拥炉倦绣，早命浓薰绣被，二人睡下，屈指算行程该到何处，不知不觉已交三鼓．平儿已睡熟了．凤姐方觉星眼微朦，恍惚只见秦氏从外走来，含笑说道：“婶子好睡！我今日回去，你也不送我一程．因娘儿们素日相好，我舍不得婶子，故来别你一别．还有一件心愿未了，非告诉婶子，别人未必中用。”

　　凤姐听了，恍惚问道：“有何心愿？你只管托我就是了。”秦氏道：“婶婶，你是个脂粉队里的英雄，连那些束带顶冠的男子也不能过你，你如何连两句俗语也不晓得？常言`月满则亏，水满则溢'，又道是`登高必跌重'．如今我们家赫赫扬扬，已将百载，一日倘或乐极悲生，若应了那句`树倒猢狲散'的俗语，岂不虚称了一世的诗书旧族了！"凤姐听了此话，心胸大快，十分敬畏，忙问道：“这话虑的极是，但有何法可以永保无虞？"秦氏冷笑道：“婶子好痴也．否极泰来，荣辱自古周而复始，岂人力能可保常的．但如今能于荣时筹画下将来衰时的世业，亦可谓常保永全了．即如今日诸事都妥，只有两件未妥，若把此事如此一行，则后日可保永全了。”

　　凤姐便问何事．秦氏道：“目今祖茔虽四时祭祀，只是无一定的钱粮，第二，家塾虽立，无一定的供给．依我想来，如今盛时固不缺祭祀供给，但将来败落之时，此二项有何出处？莫若依我定见，趁今日富贵，将祖茔附近多置田庄房舍地亩，以备祭祀供给之费皆出自此处，将家塾亦设于此．合同族中长幼，大家定了则例，日后按房掌管这一年的地亩，钱粮，祭祀，供给之事．如此周流，又无争竞，亦不有典卖诸弊．便是有了罪，凡物可入官，这祭祀产业连官也不入的．便败落下来，子孙回家读书务农，也有个退步，祭祀又可永继．若目今以为荣华不绝，不思后日，终非长策．眼见不日又有一件非常喜事，真是烈火烹油，鲜花着锦之盛．要知道，也不过是瞬间的繁华，一时的欢乐，万不可忘了那`盛筵必散'的俗语．此时若不早为后虑，临期只恐后悔无益了。”凤姐忙问：“有何喜事？"秦氏道：“天机不可泄漏．只是我与婶子好了一场，临别赠你两句话，须要记着。”因念道：

　　三春过后诸芳尽，各自须寻各自门．凤姐还欲问时，只听二门上传事云板连叩四下，将凤姐惊醒．人回：“东府蓉大奶奶没了。”凤姐闻听，吓了一身冷汗，出了一回神，只得忙忙的穿衣，往王夫人处来．
霍克斯译文
CHAPTER 13

Qin-shi posthumously acquires the status
of a Noble Dame
And Xi-feng takes on the management
of a neighbouring establishment

After Jia Lian’s departure for Yangchow Xi-feng felt bored and unhappy, particularly in the evenings when, apart from chatting with Patience, there seemed little to do but sleep. On the occasion of which we write she had sat beside the lamp with Patience until late into the evening; then, the bedding having been well warmed, the two women had gone to bed, where they lay until after midnight discussing the stages of Jia Lian’s journey and attempting to calculate what point he was likely to have reached in it. By this time Patience was fast asleep and Xi-feng herself was on the point of dropping off when she became dimly aware that Qin-shi had just walked into the room from outside.

‘So fond of sleep, Auntie?’ said Qin-shi with a gentle smile. ‘I shall have to begin my journey today without you to see me off. But never mind! Since you cannot come to me, I have come to you instead. We two have always been so close, I could not have borne to leave you without saying good-bye. Besides, I have a last wish that you alone must hear, because I cannot trust anyone else with it.’

‘What is your wish?’ Xi-feng heard herself asking. ‘You can trust me to carry it out for you.’

‘Tell me, Auntie,’ said Qin-shi, ‘how is it that you who are such a paragon among women that even strong men find more than their match in you can yet be ignorant of the ** truths expressed in homely proverbs? Take this one:
The full moon smaller grows,
Full water overflows.

Or this:
The higher the climb, the harder the fall.

Our house has now enjoyed nearly a century of dazzling success. Suppose one day “joy at its height engenders sorrow”. And suppose that, in the words of another proverb, “when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter”. Will not our reputation as one of the great, cultured households of the age then turn into a hollow mockery?’

Qin-shi’s question made Xi-feng feel uneasy, though at the same time inspiring a deep respect in her for her niece’s fore sight.

‘You are quite right to show concern,’ she said. ‘Is there any means by which we can keep permanently out of danger?’

‘Now you are being silly, Auntie!’ said Qin-shi somewhat scornfully. ‘“The extreme of adversity is the beginning of prosperity” --- and the reverse of that saying is also true. Honour and disgrace follow each other in an unending cycle. No human power can arrest that cycle and hold it permanently in one position. What you can do, however, is to plan while we are still prosperous for the kind of heritage that will stand up to the hard times when they come.

‘At the moment everything seems well looked after; but in fact there are still two matters that have not been properly taken care of. If you will deal with them in the way that I shall presently suggest, you will be able to face the future without fear of calamity.’

‘What two matters?’ Xi-feng asked her.

‘Though the seasonal offerings at the ancestral burial-ground are at present regularly attended to,’ said Qin-shi, ‘no special income has been set aside to pay for them. That is the first matter. The second matter concerns the clan school. There again, there is no fixed source of income. Obviously there will be no lack of funds either for the seasonal offerings or for the school as long as we enjoy our present prosperity. But where is the money for them coming from in the future, when the family has fallen on hard times?

‘I am convinced that the only way of dealing with these two matters is to invest now, while we are still rich and powerful, in as much property as possible—land, farms, and houses—in the area around the burial-ground, and to pay for the seasonal offerings and the running of the school entirely out of the income from this property. Moreover the school itself ought to be situated on it. The whole clan, old and young alike, should be convened and a set of regulations drawn up whereby each family is made to administer the estate and look after the financing of the seasonal offerings and the clan school for one year in turn. By making the responsibility rotate in a fixed order you will remove the possibility of quarrels about it and also lessen the danger of the property getting mortgaged or sold.

‘Then even if the clan gets into trouble and its possessions are confiscated, this part of its property, as charitable estate, will escape confiscation; and when the family’s fortunes are in decline, it will be a place where the young people can go to farm and study, as well as a means of maintaining the ancestral sacrifices in unbroken succession. To refuse to take thought for the morrow on the grounds that our present prosperity is going to last for ever would be extremely short-sighted.

‘Quite soon a happy event is going to take place in this family, bringing it an even greater glory than it has enjoyed up to now. But it will be a glory as excessive and as transitory as a posy of fresh flowers pinned to an embroidered dress or the flare-up of spilt cooking-oil on a blazing fire. In the midst of that brief moment of happiness never forget that “even the best party must have an end”. For if you do, and if you fail to take precautions in good time, you will live to regret it bitterly when it is already too late.’

‘What is this happy event you speak of?’ Xi-feng asked her eagerly.

‘That is a secret which may not be revealed to mortal ears. However, for the sake of our brief friendship on this earth, I leave you these words as my parting gift. Be sure that you remember them well!

When the Three Springs have gone, the flowering time will end,

And each one for himself as best he may must fend.’

Xi-feng was about to ask her another question when she was interrupted by the sound of the iron chime-bar which hung in the inner gate.

Four strokes. The signal of death!

She woke with a start to hear a servant announcing, ‘Mrs Rong of the Ning-guo mansion is dead.’ A cold sweat broke out over her body and for a while she lay too stunned to move. Then forcing herself to get up she pulled on her clothes and went round to Lady Wang’s.
杨宪益译文
Chapter 13

Keqing Dies and a Captain of the Imperial

Guard Is Appointed

Xifeng Helps to Manage Affairs

in the Ning Mansion

Xifeng found life excessively dull after her husband’s departure with Daiyu for Yangzhou. She passed the evenings as best she could chatting with Pinger before retiring listlessly to bed.
One evening, tired of embroidering, she sat nursing her hand-stove by the lamp and told the maid to warm her embroidered quilt early, after which they both went to bed. When the third watch sounded they were still reckoning on their fingers the stage Jia Lian must have reached on his journey. Soon after that, Pinger fell fast asleep. And Xifeng’s eyelids were drooping drowsily when to her astonishment in came Keqing.
“How you love to sleep, aunt!” cried Keqing playfully. “I’m going home today, yet you won’t even see me one stage of the way. But we’ve always been so close, I couldn’t go without coming to say goodbye. Besides, there’s something I’d like done which it’s no use my entrusting to anyone else.”
“Just leave it to me,” replied Xifeng, rather puzzled.
“You’re such an exceptional woman, aunt, that even men in official belts and caps are no match for you. Is it possible you don’t know the saying that ‘the moon waxes only to wane, water brims only to overflow,’ and ‘the higher the climb the harder the fall’? Our house has prospered for nearly a hundred years. If one day it happens that at the height of good fortune the ‘tree falls and the monkeys scatter’ as the old saying has it, then what will become of our cultured old family?”
Quick to comprehend, Xifeng was awe-struck. “Your fears are well- founded,” she said. “But how can we prevent such a calamity?”
“Now you’re being naive, aunt,” Keqing laughed caustically. “For tune follows calamity as disgrace follows honour. This has been so from time immemorial. How can men prevent it? The only thing one can do is to make some provision for lean years in times of plenty. All’s well at present except for two things. Take care of them and the future will be secure.
Xifeng asked what she had in mind.
“Although seasonal sacrifices are offered at the ancestral tombs there’s no fixed source of income for this, and although we have a family school there’s no definite fund for it. Of course, while we’re still prosperous, we don’t lack the wherewithal for sacrifices, but where’s it to come from once we fall on hard times?
“I’d like to suggest that while we’re still rich and noble we should invest in some farms and estates near our ancestral tombs to provide for sacrifices. The family school should be moved to the same place.
“Let the whole family, old and young alike, draw up rules whereby each branch of the family will take it in turn to manage the land, income and sacrifices for a year. Taking turns will prevent disputes and malprac tices like mortgages or sales.
“Then even if the family property were confiscated because of some crime, the estate for ancestral worship would be exempted and in those hard times the young people could go there to study and farm. They’d have something to fall back on, and there would be no break in the sacri fices.
“It would be very short-sighted not to take thought for the future in the belief that our present good fortune will last for ever. Before long something marvelous is going to happen which will really ‘pour oil on the flames and add flowers to brocade.’ But it will simply be a flash in the pan, a brief moment of bliss. Whatever happens don’t forget the prov erb, ‘Even the grandest feast must have an end.’ Take thought for the future before it is too late.”
“What marvelous thing is going to happen?” asked Xifeng.
“Heaven’s secrets mustn’t be divulged. But because of the love be tween us let me give you some parting advice, and do remember it, aunt!” With that she declaimed:
“After the three months of the spring, all flowers will fade And each will have to find his own way out.”
Before Xifeng could ask more she was woken with a start by four blows on the chime-bar at the second gate. And a servant announced, “Madam Jia Rong of the East Mansion has passed away.”
Xifeng broke into a cold sweat. When she had recovered from her stupefaction, she dressed quickly and hurried over to Lady Wang.

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《红楼梦》翻译（七十一）

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