《红楼梦》翻译（三十八）

twin05

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twin05 2010-08-16 09:53 | 只看楼主 树型| 收藏| 小中大 1 ^#

《红楼梦》翻译（三十八）

原著
　　谁想黛玉见宝玉此番果断而去，故以寻袭人为由，来视动静．袭人笑回：“已经睡了。”黛玉听说，便要回去．袭人笑道：“姑娘请站住，有一个字帖儿，瞧瞧是什么话。”说着，便将方才那曲子与偈语悄悄拿来，递与黛玉看．黛玉看了，知是宝玉一时感忿而作，不觉可笑可叹，便向袭人道：“作的是玩意儿，无甚关系。”说毕，便携了回房去，与湘云同看．次日又与宝钗看．宝钗看其词曰：

　　无我原非你，从他不解伊．肆行无碍凭来去．茫茫着

　　甚悲愁喜，纷纷说甚亲疏密．从前碌碌却因何，到如今

　　回头试想真无趣！看毕，又看那偈语，又笑道：“这个人悟了．都是我的不是，都是我昨儿一支曲子惹出来的．这些道书禅机最能移性．明儿认真说起这些疯话来，存了这个意思，都是从我这一只曲子上来，我成了个罪魁了。”说着，便撕了个粉碎，递与丫头们说：“快烧了罢。”黛玉笑道：“不该撕，等我问他．你们跟我来，包管叫他收了这个痴心邪话。”三人果然都往宝玉屋里来．一进来，黛玉便笑道：“宝玉，我问你：至贵者是`宝'，至坚者是`玉'．尔有何贵？尔有何坚？"宝玉竟不能答．三人拍手笑道：“这样钝愚，还参禅呢。”黛玉又道：“你那偈末云，`无可云证，是立足境'，固然好了，只是据我看，还未尽善．我再续两句在后。”因念云：“无立足境，是方干净。”宝钗道：“实在这方悟彻．当日南宗六祖惠能，初寻师至韶州，闻五祖弘忍在黄梅，他便充役火头僧．五祖欲求法嗣，令徒弟诸僧各出一偈．上座神秀说道：`身是菩提树，心如明镜台，时时勤拂拭，莫使有尘埃． '彼时惠能在厨房碓米，听了这偈，说道：`美则美矣，了则未了．'因自念一偈曰：`菩提本非树，明镜亦非台，本来无一物，何处染尘埃？"五祖便将衣钵传他．今儿这偈语，亦同此意了．只是方才这句机锋，尚未完全了结，这便丢开手不成？"黛玉笑道：“彼时不能答，就算输了，这会子答上了也不为出奇．只是以后再不许谈禅了．连我们两个所知所能的，你还不知不能呢，还去参禅呢。”宝玉自己以为觉悟，不想忽被黛玉一问，便不能答，宝钗又比出"语录"来，此皆素不见他们能者．自己想了一想：“原来他们比我的知觉在先，尚未解悟，我如今何必自寻苦恼。”想毕，便笑道：“谁又参禅，不过一时顽话罢了。”
霍克斯译文
Curious to know the sequel to Bao-yu’s departure, Dai -yu, on the pretext of wanting to see Aroma about something, eventually came round herself to have a look. Aroma told her that Bao-yu was already in bed asleep. She was on the point of going back again when Aroma smilingly detained her:
‘Just a moment, Miss! There’s a note here. Would you like to see what it says?’
She handed her the sheet of ** containing Bao-yu’s gāthā
and the ‘Clinging Vine’ poem. Dai-yu could see that they must have been written under the influence of their recent quarrel and could not help feeling both amused by them and a little sorry. But all she said to Aroma was:
‘It’s only a joke. Nothing of any consequence.’
She took it with her back to her own room and showed it to Xiang-yun. Next day she showed it to Bao-chai as well. Bao-chai glanced at the second poem. This is what Bao-yu had written:

You would have been at fault, if not for me;

But why should I care if they disagree?

Free come, free go, let nothing bar or hold me!

No more I’ll sink and soar between gloom and elation,

Or endlessly debate the depth of our relation.

What was the point of all of that past pother?

When I look back on it, it seems scarce worth the bother.

Then she read the gāthā. She laughed.
‘I’m afraid this is all my fault. It must have been that aria I told him about yesterday which started it all. Those Taoist writings and Zen paradoxes can so easily lead people astray if they do not understand them properly. I shall never forgive myself if he is going to start taking this sort of nonsense seriously and getting it fixed in his head. It will all be because of that aria!’
She tore the ** into tiny pieces and gave them to one of the maids:
‘Here, burn this - straight away!’
Dai-yu laughed at her.
‘You needn’t have torn it up. If you will both come with me and wait while I put a question to him, I can guarantee to drive this nonsense from his mind once and for all.’
The three girls went round to Bao-yu’s room together.
‘Bao-yu,’ said Dai-yu, addressing him in a heavily mock- serious manner, ‘I wish to propound a question to you: “Bao” is that which is of all things the most precious and “yu” is that which is of all things the most hard. Wherein lies your preciousness and wherein lies your hardness?’
Bao-yu was unable to think of an answer. The girls all laughed and clapped their hands.
‘Ha, ha, ha! He can’t reply. For a student of Zen he does seem remarkably obtuse!’
‘You say in your gāthā,’ Dai-yu continued,
‘ “... It would be best
Words unexpressed
To understand,
And on that ground
To take our stand.”

Now that’s all right as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. I should like to add a few lines to it. Like this:

But, I perpend,
To have no ground
On which to stand
Were yet more sound.
And there’s an end!’

‘Ah, that’s better!’ said Bao-chai. ‘That sounds like a real “insight”. When the Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng first came to Shao-zhou looking for a teacher, he heard that the Fifth Patriarch Hong-ren was living at the monastery on Yellow -plum Mountain, so he found employment there in the monas tery kitchen. When the Fifth Patriarch wanted to choose a successor, he ordered each of the monks to compose a gāthā; The Elder Shen-xiu recited this one:

“Our body like the Bo-tree is,

Our mind’s a mirror bright.

Then keep it clean and free from dust,

So it reflects the light!”

Hui-neng happened to be hulling rice in the kitchen at the time, and he shouted out, “That’s not bad, but it’s still not quite right.” Then he recited this gāthāof his own:

“No teal Bo-tree the body is,

The mind no mirror bright.

Since of the pair none’s really there,

On what could dust alight?”

The Fifth Patriarch at once handed him his robe and bowl as a sign that he was to succeed him. Your improvement on Cousin Bao’s gāthāis on very much the same lines, Dai. There’s just one thing, though: what about that “koan” of yours he couldn’t answer? Surely you’re not going to let him get away with it?’
‘Failure to answer means defeat,’ said Dai-yu. ‘In any case, if he were to answer now, it would hardly count. The only condition I impose as victor is that he should henceforth be forbidden to talk any more about Zen. You see,’ she told Bao-yu, ‘even Bao-chai and I know more about it than you do. It’s too ridiculous that you should set yourself up as a Zen authority!’
Bao-yu had in fact believed that he had attained an En lightenment; but now suddenly here was Dai-yu propounding koans he couldn’t answer and Bao-chai quoting with easy familiarity from the Saying of the Patriarchs — though neither had shown any evidence of these accomplishments in the past. It was clear that their understanding of these matters was far in advance of his own. He consoled himself with the reflection that if they, whose understanding was so superior, were mani festly still so far from Enlightenment, it was obviously a waste of time for him to go on pursuing it. Having reached this comfortable conclusion, he accepted Dai-yu’s condition with a laugh:
‘Who wants to be an authority on Zen? It was only a joke, any way!’
杨宪益译文

Now some time after Baoyu’s abrupt departure Daiyu came, ostensi bly to see Xiren, to find out how things were. Told that he was asleep she was turning to leave when Xiren said with a smile:
“Just a minute, miss! He wrote something you might like to look at.” She quietly fetched and handed Baiyu the verses Baoyu had just writ ten, and the girl was both touched and amused to see what he had tossed off in a fit of pique.
“It’s just a joke, nothing serious,” she told Xiren.
She took it back to her own room and showed it to Xiangyun. Next day she showed it to Baochai as well. Baochai read the second verse. It ran:
If there’s no “I,” then neither is there “you,”
If she misunderstands you then why rue?
Freely I come and freely too I go.
Giving myself to neither joy nor woe,
Close kin or distant it’s the same to me.
What did it serve, my assiduity?
Today I see its true futility.

Having read this she read the first verse then laughed.
“So that’s the enlightenment he’s attained! This is all my fault for reciting that song to him yesterday. There’s nothing so apt to lead people astray as these Taoist teachings and Chan paradoxes. If he really starts taking such nonsense seriously and gets it fixed in his head just because of that song I quoted, I’m the first to blame.”
She tore up the verses and told her maids to burn them at once.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” protested Daiyu with a smile. “I’ve
some questions to ask him. Come with me, both of you. We’ll soon cure him of this nonsense.”
So the three girls went together to Baoyu’s rooms. Daiyu opened the attack by saying:
“Listen, Baoyu. Bao means that which is most precious, and yu that which is most solid. But in what way are you precious? In what way are you solid?”
When Baoyu could not answer, the girls clapped their hands and laughed.
“And this stupid fellow wants to dabble in metaphysics!”
Daiyu continued, “The last two lines of your verse are all very well
When nothing can be called a test
My feet can find a place to rest.
But it seems to me they still lack a little something. Let me add two more:
When there’s no place for feet to rest,
That is the purest state and best.
“Yes, that shows real understanding,” put in Baochai. “In the old days when the Sixth Patriarch Huineng of the Southern Sect went to Shaozhou in search of a teacher, he heard that the Fifth Patriarch Hongren was in the monastery on Mount Huangmei, so he took a job as cook there. The Fifth Patriarch, on the look-out for a successor, ordered each of his monks to compose a Buddhist gatha. His senior disciple Shenxiu recited:
‘The body is a Bodhi tree, The mind a mirror clear;
Then keep it cleaned and polished —Let no dust settle there.’
“Huineng heard this as he was hulling rice in the kitchen and com mented. ‘Very fine, but it needs rounding off.’ With that he declaimed:
‘The Bodhi tree is no tree, The mirror no mirror clear;
Since nothing actually exists, Where can any dust appear?’
Then the Fifth Patriarch passed on his robe and alms bowl to him. Your
verse amounts to much the same thing. But what about the conundrum you set him just now? He hasn’t answered it yet. How can you leave it at that?”
“Failure to answer promptly means defeat,” said Daiyu. “And even if he answered it now it would hardly count. But you mustn’t talk about Chan any more. You know even less about it than the two of us yet you dabble in metaphysics.”
Baoyu had in fact fancied that he had already attained enlightenment, but now that he had been floored by Daiyu, and Baochai had quoted Buddhist lore that he had never suspected her of knowing, he thought to himself, “They understand more about these things than I do, yet still they haven’t attained full enlightenment. Why should I trouble my head over such matters?” Thereupon he said with a laugh:
“I wasn’t dabbling in metaphysics. I just wrote that for fun.”
So the four of them made it up.

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《红楼梦》翻译 （三十八）

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《红楼梦》翻译（三十八）

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