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《红楼梦》翻译（五十五）

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twin05 2010-09-15 10:38 | 只看楼主 树型| 收藏| 小中大 1 ^#

《红楼梦》翻译（五十五）

原著
　　说着早已来至门前．那老姑子见宝玉来了，事出意外，竟象天上掉下个活龙来的一般，忙上来问好，命老道来接马．宝玉进去，也不拜洛神之像，却只管赏鉴．虽是泥塑的，却真有"翩若惊鸿，婉若游龙"之态，"荷出绿波，日映朝霞"之姿．宝玉不觉滴下泪来．老姑子献了茶．宝玉因和他借香炉．那姑子去了半日，连香供纸马都预备了来．宝玉道：“一概不用。”便命茗烟捧着炉出至后院中，拣一块干净地方儿，竟拣不出．茗烟道：“那井台儿上如何？"宝玉点头，一齐来至井台上，将炉放下．

　　茗烟站过一旁．宝玉掏出香来焚上，含泪施了半礼，回身命收了去．茗烟答应，且不收，忙爬下磕了几个头，口内祝道：“我茗烟跟二爷这几年，二爷的心事，我没有不知道的，只有今儿这一祭祀没有告诉我，我也不敢问．只是这受祭的阴魂虽不知名姓，想来自然是那人间有一，天上无双，极聪明极俊雅的一位姐姐妹妹了．二爷心事不能出口，让我代祝：若芳魂有感，香魂多情，虽然阴阳间隔，既是知己之间，时常来望候二爷，未尝不可．你在阴间保佑二爷来生也变个女孩儿，和你们一处相伴，再不可又托生这须眉浊物了。”说毕，又磕几个头，才爬起来．

　　宝玉听他没说完，便撑不住笑了，因踢他道：“休胡说，看人听见笑话。”茗烟起来收过香炉，和宝玉走着，因道：“我已经和姑子说了，二爷还没用饭，叫他随便收拾了些东西，二爷勉强吃些．我知道今儿咱们里头大排筵宴，热闹非常，二爷为此才躲了出来的．横竖在这里清净一天，也就尽到礼了．若不吃东西，断使不得。”宝玉道：“戏酒既不吃，这随便素的吃些何妨。”茗烟道：“这便才是．还有一说，咱们来了，还有人不放心．若没有人不放心，便晚了进城何妨？"若有人不放心，二爷须得进城回家去才是．第一老太太，太太也放了心，第二礼也尽了，不过如此．就是家去了看戏吃酒，也并不是二爷有意，原不过陪着父母尽孝道．二爷若单为了这个不顾老太太，太太悬心，就是方才那受祭的阴魂也不安生．二爷想我这话如何？"宝玉笑道：“你的意思我猜着了，你想着只你一个跟了我出来，回来你怕担不是，所以拿这大题目来劝我．我才来了，不过为尽个礼，再去吃酒看戏，并没说一日不进城．这已完了心愿，赶着进城，大家放心，岂不两尽其道。”茗烟道：“这更好了。”说着二人来至禅堂，果然那姑子收拾了一桌素菜，宝玉胡乱吃了些，茗烟也吃了．

　　二人便上马仍回旧路．茗烟在后面只嘱咐：“二爷好生骑着，这马总没大骑的，手里提紧着。”一面说着，早已进了城，仍从后门进去，忙忙来至怡红院中．袭人等都不在房里，只有几个老婆子看屋子，见他来了，都喜的眉开眼笑，说：“阿弥陀佛，可来了！把花姑娘急疯了！上头正坐席呢，二爷快去罢。”宝玉听说忙将素服脱了，自去寻了华服换上，问在什么地方坐席，老婆子回说在新盖的大花厅上．

　　宝玉听说，一径往花厅来，耳内早已隐隐闻得歌管之声．刚至穿堂那边，只见玉钏儿独坐在廊檐下垂泪，
一见他来，便收泪说道：“凤凰来了，快进去罢．再一会子不来，都反了． "宝玉陪笑道：“你猜我往那里去了？"玉钏儿不答，只管擦泪．宝玉忙进厅里，见了贾母王夫人等，
众人真如得了凤凰一般．宝玉忙赶着与凤姐儿行礼．贾母王夫人都说他不知道好歹， "怎么也不说声就私自跑了，这还了得！明儿再这样，等老爷回家来，
必告诉他打你。”说着又骂跟的小厮们都偏听他的话，说那里去就去，也不回一声儿．一面又问他到底那去了，可吃了什么，可唬着了．宝玉只回说：“北静王的一个爱妾昨日没了，给他道恼去．他哭的那样，不好撇下就回来，所以多等了一会子。”贾母道：“以后再私自出门，
不先告诉我们，一定叫你老子打你。”宝玉答应着．因又要打跟的小子们，众人又忙说情，又劝道：“老太太也不必过虑了，他已经回来，大家该放心乐一回了。”贾母先不放心，自然发狠，如今见他来了，喜且有余，那里还恨，也就不提了，还怕他不受用，
或者别处没吃饱，路上着了惊怕，反百般的哄他．袭人早过来伏侍．大家仍旧看戏．当日演的是《荆钗记》．贾母薛姨妈等都看的心酸落泪，也有叹的，也有骂的．要知端的，下回分解．
霍克斯译文
Bao-yu went on inside. Instead of bowing down before the image, however, he stood and contemplated it appraisingly. Though the goddess was only a thing of wood and plaster and paint, the sculptor who made her had succeeded in capturing some of the spirit of Cao Zhi’s famous description. To Bao -yu’s gazing eyes she did indeed appear as the poet portrayed her:

Fluttering like the wing-beats of a startled swan,

Swaying with the lissome curves of a water-dragon...

Cao Zhi’s beautiful images came crowding into his mind:

Like a lotus flower emerging from the green water,

Like the morning sun rising above the mist-bank...

And as he gazed and remembered, the tears coursed down his cheeks.
The old nun now appeared with some tea. While he sipped it, Bao-yu took the opportunity of asking her if he might borrow an incense-burner. At this she disappeared once more, to reappear, after considerable delay, carrying not only a burner but also a whole portion of incense and a set of garishly printed ‘picture-offerings’. Refusing all but the burner, Bao-yu made Tealeaf carry it outside into the rear courtyard of the temple, where he set about choosing a suitably dean spot on
which to make his offering. Nowhere would do, however, until Tealeaf suggested placing the burner on the stone plat form of the well. To this suggestion Bao-yu assented with a nod, and when Tealeaf had set down the burner and retired to a respectful distance, he took out his pinch of agalloch and dropped it on the burning charcoal; then, with tears in his eyes, he knelt down and made, not a kotow, but the sort of half-obeisance one makes to the spirit of a junior or a servant.
Having concluded his little ceremony, Bao-yu got up and ordered Tealeaf to take the burner back into the temple. But Tealeaf, though saying that he would, did nothing of the kind. Instead he threw himself on his knees, kotowed several times, and began praying aloud in the direction of the well
‘O spirit, in all the years I have served Master Bao this is the first time he has ever kept anything from me. But though I don’t know who you are, O spirit, and don’t like to ask, one thing I do know, and that is that you are sure to be some won drously beautiful, clever, refined young female. And since Master Bao isn’t able to tell you Out loud what he wants of you, I, Tealeaf, am praying to you on his behalf.
‘I beseech you, if you still have feelings as you used to when you were on earth, watch over my master from time to time, O spirit. I know you belong to a different world now, but being as it’s for a special friend of yours that I’m asking this, please do it if you can, spirit, for old time’s sake.
‘And please use what influence you can to see that Master Bao is reborn in his next life as a girl, so that he can spend all his time with you; and don’t let him be reborn as one of those horrible Whiskered Males he is always on about.’
At this point he knocked his head several more times on the ground. Bao-yu, who had been listening, could no longer hold back his laughter. Observing that Tealeaf had raised him self once more on all fours and appeared to be about to go on, he kicked him and told him to get up.
‘Stop this nonsense! If anyone hears you, I shall become a laughing-stock.’
Tealeaf scrambled to his feet, picked up the burner and fol lowed Bao-yu inside.
‘I’ve already spoken to the nun about getting you some food,’ he told Bao-yu as they were going in together. ‘I told her you hadn’t eaten yet. You ought to get something inside you. I realize that you came out here because there’s a big party and lots of racket at home today and you wanted some where peaceful where you could do this. But I think just stay ing out here in the quiet all day is showing all the respect you need to this person you’ve just made the offering to. You don’t need to fast all day as well. That’s out of the question.’
‘That seems reasonable,’ said Bao-yu. ‘As I’m missing the patty all the time that I’m here, I am in a way abstaining al ready; so I suppose there can be no harm in my taking a bit of vegetarian stuff.’
‘I’m glad to hear you say so,’ said Tealeaf. ‘Of course, there is another way of looking at it. Your going off like this is sure to cause others at home to worry. Now if no one at home was likely to worry, there’d be no harm in our not going back until evening. But since they are going to worry, I really think you ought to be getting back soon. For one thing it will set Their Ladyships’ minds at rest, and for another, it will, in the long run, be more respectful to this person you’ve just made the offering to. Because if you go home, even if you drink and watch plays, it won’t be because you want to, but out of duty to Their Ladyships. Whereas if you stay out here thinking only about the spirit and not caring how worried you make Their Ladyships, you’ll in fact be making the spirit herself uneasy to think of all the anxiety that’s being caused on her behalf. Think it over, Master Bao, and see if you don’t agree with me.’
‘I can see what’s on your mind without much difficulty,’ said Bao-yu, laughing. ‘You’re afraid that as you are the only one who came out here with me, you will bear all the blame for this outing when we get back. That’s the real reason why I’m being treated to all this high-minded advice, isn’t it? Well, don’t worry! It was all along my intention to go back to the party when I had made the offering. I never said anything about staying out here all day. I’ve discharged my vow. If I hurry home now so that the others aren’t too worried, it seems to me that my obligations to the dead and the living swill both be met.’
Tealeaf expressed his relief. Still talking, they made their way to the old nun’s parlour, or hall of meditation’, where they found she had set out a very presentable (though, of course, vegetarian) repast for them. After briefly sampling it, the two of them mounted and set off again along the road by which they had come Bao-yu at such a pace that Tealeaf was obliged to call out after him to slacken it.
‘Go easy on that horse, Master Bad! He hasn’t been ridden very much; you need to keep a pretty tight rein on him.’
Soon they had entered the city gate, and not long after-wards might have been seen slipping into the back gate of the Garden. Bao-yu hurried straight to Green Delights, which he found deserted except for a few old nannies left behind as care-takers.
‘Holy Name!’ they said, their old faces lighting up with pleasure when they saw who it was. ‘You’ve come at last! You’ve had Miss Aroma nigh out of her mind with worry. They’re sitting at table in the front now, Master. Better hurry up and join them.’
Bao-yu quickly took off his mourning clothes and went off to look for something more colourful to change into.
‘Where is the party?’ he asked the old women as soon as he had dressed.
‘In the new reception room.’
He hurried, by the shortest route, towards the faint sounds of fluting and singing that could soon be heard coming from the so-called ‘new’ reception hall that the old women had referred to. As he approached the gallery through which he must pass to reach it, he came upon Silver, sitting under the eaves of the covered way and crying. She left off hurriedly when she saw him coming.
‘Here comes the phoenix at last!’ she said sarcastically. ‘Hurry up and go inside. If you stay away much longer, there’ll be a riot!’
Bao-yu smiled at her sympathetically.
‘Guess where I’ve been.’
She ignored his question and turned away from him to wipe her eyes. He hurried on, dejected because of his inability to comfort her. When he entered the hall were the others were assembled and went up to greet his grandmother and his mother, it really was as if a phoenix had appeared. Hurriedly he made his birthday kotow to Xi-feng.
‘What do you mean by going off on your own like that?’ Grandmother Jia grumbled. ‘I never heard of such a thing. If this happens again, I shall tell your father when he comes back and get him to give you another beating.’
Bao-yu’s pages came in next for her censure.
‘Why do they listen to him - rushing off like that whenever he tells them to? They should tell us first. Where have you been, anyway?’ she asked him. ‘Have you had anything to eat? Has anything happened to give you a fright?’
‘The Prince of Beijing’s favourite concubine died yester day,’ said Bao-yu. ‘I went to condole with him. He was in such a state when I got there that I didn’t like to leave im mediately. That’s why I’ve been so long.’
‘If you sneak out again without first telling us,’ said Grand mother Jia, ‘I really shall tell your Pa to beat you.’
Though Bao-yu promised to obey, she still wanted to have his pages whipped; but the others all begged for a reprieve:
‘Don’t take it to heart, Grandmother! He’s already said he won’t do it again. And anyway, he’s back now, so we can for get our worries and concentrate on enjoying ourselves’
Grandmother Jia had in fact been extremely worried and her anxiety had made her vengeful. Now that Bao-yu was back and she was no longer worried, her vengeful feelings evapor ated and the subject of beatings was quickly dropped. Her concern now was lest Bao-yu should have been unduly dis tressed by his visit, or have failed to eat enough while he was away, or have been involved in some accident on the way there or back. While she continued to fuss over him, Aroma took her place at his side to wait upon him, and the rest of the company resumed the play-watching which his arrival had interrupted.
The play being performed on this occasion was The Wooden Hairpin. Grandmother Jia and the other ladies found it greatly affecting, shedding copious teats in the course of it and sighing or cursing in the appropriate places.
The events that ensued will be told in the following chapter.

杨宪益译文
They had now reached the convent gate. The old abbess was as as tonished by this visit as if a live dragon had swooped down from the sky. She made haste to welcome them and told an old serving-man to see to their horses. Baoyu, going in, did not bow to the image of the goddess but simply stared at it in admiration. For though made of clay it really had the grace of ‘a startled swan of drifting dragon’ and the charm of ‘a lotus rising from green water or sun shining through morning mist.’2 Unwit tingly, he shed tears.
When the old abbess offered him tea he asked if he might borrow an incense-burner. She went to fetch one, finally returning with incense and sacrificial ** to burn as well, but these Baoyu declined. He told Mingyan to find a clean spot at the back of the garden for the incense-burner. Failing to find one, his page asked:
‘How about the coping of the well?’
Baoyu nodded and went with him to the well. Having put down the incense-burner, Mingyan stepped aside. Baoyu produced and lit his eaglewood, bowed to it with tears in his eyes, then turned and ordered Mingyan to return the incense-burner. The page assented, but instead of doing as he was told he fell on his knees, kowtowed several times and then prayed:
‘I, Mingyan, have served our second master for several years now and known all his affairs; but he didn’t tell me about today’s sacrifice, and I dared not ask. Though your name, oh spirit to whom he is sacrific ing, is unknown to me, I am sure you must be a girl with no peer on earth or in heaven, of incomparable intelligence and beauty. As my master can’t tell you what it is he wants, let me pray to you in his place.
‘If your fragrant spirit has feeling and compassion, although sepa rated from the world of men do come and visit our young master from time to time, since he longs for you so much. And do help him in the nether world too, so that in his next life he may be reborn as a girl and enjoy himself with the rest of you, never again becoming a filthy man with a beard and shaggy eyebrows.’
This prayer ended, he gave several more kowtows before scrambling to his feet. While he was still holding forth, Baoyu could not help bursting out laughing. Now he kicked him over and swore:
‘Shut up, or people will laugh.’
Mingyan rose then and picked up the incense-burner. As they walked away he said, ‘I told the abbess you’d come out without any breakfast, sir, and asked her to prepare a ** meal. So do try to eat something. I know you’ve come out to avoid the big feast and the racket at home today. Spending a quiet day here you’ll have anyway observed the pro prieties; but it would never do if you eat nothing.’
‘If we cut the feast, I don’t mind if we have a vegetarian snack here.’
‘Good. But there’s another thing: people are bound to be worried by our absence. If not for that, it wouldn’t matter going back late. But since they’ll be worrying, you ought to start back to town soon, sir, and go home. For one thing, that will relieve the minds of the old lady and Lady Wang; for another, you’ve already paid sufficient respect to the dead. That’s all there is to it. If you go home to drink and watch the shows, it won’t be because you want to but simply out of respect for your parents, sir. If you’re so set on staying here, regardless of how upset the old lady and Lady Wang are, even the spirit you’ve just sacrificed to will feel uncomfortable. What do you think, sir?’
‘I know what’s on your mind.’ Baoyu grinned. ‘You’re the only one to have come out with me, and you’re afraid of a dressing-down when we get home hence all this high-sounding advice. But I’ve not been here long, and I only came to make a sacrifice before going to the feast and watching the show. I never said I’d stay out here all day. Now that I’ve done what I came for, we can hurry back and stop them worrying. That’s best both ways, isn’t it?’
‘That’s more like it,’ said Mingyan.
They entered the hall where the abbess had indeed prepared a veg etarian meal for them. Baoyu ate a little and so did Mingyan, after which they mounted their horses and rode back the way they had come.
Mingyan behind kept warning, ‘Steady on, sir. That horse hasn’t been ridden much. Keep a good grip on the reins.’
In no time they re-entered the city and returned home through the back gate, then Baoyu hurried over to Happy Red Court. Xiren and the other girls had gone, leaving only a few old women there in charge. They beamed with joy at sight of Baoyu and exclaimed:
‘Amida Buddha! Here you are at last. You had Miss Xiren worried frantic. The feast is just starting. Do hurry, Master Bao.’
Baoyu hastily changed his mourning for splendid robes and asked where the feasters were.
The old women told him, ‘In the new hall in the small garden.’
He headed straight for the place, hearing in the distance the faint sound of singing and fluting. When he reached the entrance hall he saw Yuchuan sitting alone on the porch, in tears. She stopped crying at sight of him.
‘Here comes the phoenix!’ she cried. ‘Go in, quick. If you’d been any later, I can’t think what would have happened.’
‘Guess where I’ve been,’ he said with a sheepish smile.
But she did not answer, simply wiping her eyes.
He hurried into the hall and paid his respects to his grand-mother and mother. Everyone was as delighted as if they had indeed got hold of a phoenix. Then Baoyu greeted Xifeng and offered his congratulations.
‘You must have taken leave of your senses,’ scolded the Lady Dowa ger and his mother. ‘How could you run off without telling anybody? Disgraceful! If you ever do such a thing again, we shall tell your father when he comes home and he’ll give you another beating.’
Then the Lady Dowager rounded on the servants. ‘Why do you all do as he says?’ she stormed. ‘You let him go wherever he pleases without reporting it. And just where did you go?’ she asked Baoyu. ‘Have you had a meal? Did anything frighten you?’
‘‘Yesterday one of the Prince of Beijing’s favourite concubines died,’ said Baoyu. ‘I went to offer condolences. He was weeping so bitterly, I hadn’t the heart to leave him. So I stayed for a while.’
‘If you go out again without letting me know,’ she warned, ‘I really shall tell your father to beat you.’
Baoyu promised to do as she said. She threatened, then, to have his servants beaten; but the others pleaded:
‘Don’t take it to heart, madam. Now that he’s back we should stop worrying and have some fun.’
As the old lady’s fit of temper had been caused by anxiety, her delight at his return now restored her good humour. She stopped reproaching Baoyu and started making much of him instead, afraid he had had a bad time, missed his breakfast or been frightened on the road. Xiren had come to wait on him too, and they all went on watching the opera.
The opera performed that day was The Tale of the Thorn Pin, which so moved the old lady and Aunt Xue that they shed tears. The others laughed at or cursed the characters.
If you want to know what followed, read the next chapter.

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