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《红楼梦》翻译（一百）

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twin05 2010-10-13 14:59 | 只看楼主 树型| 收藏| 小中大 1 ^#

《红楼梦》翻译（一百）

原著
　　正说话时，顶头果见赖大进来．宝玉忙笼住马，意欲下来．赖大忙上来抱住腿．宝玉便在镫上站起来，笑携他的手，说了几句话．接着又见一个小厮带着二三十个拿扫帚簸箕的人进来，见了宝玉，都顺墙垂手立住，独那为首的小厮打千儿，请了一个安．宝玉不识名姓，只微笑点了点头儿．马已过去，那人方带人去了．于是出了角门，门外又有李贵等六人的小厮并几个马夫，早预备下十来匹马专候．一出了角门，李贵等都各上了马，前引傍围的一阵烟去了，不在话下．

　　这里晴雯吃了药，仍不见病退，急的乱骂大夫，说：“只会骗人的钱，一剂好药也不给人吃。”麝月笑劝他道：“你太性急了，俗语说：'病来如山倒，病去如抽丝．'又不是老君的仙丹，那有这样灵药！你只静养几天，自然好了．你越急越着手。”晴雯又骂小丫头子们：“那里钻沙去了！瞅我病了，都大胆子走了．明儿我好了，一个一个的才揭你们的皮呢！ "唬的小丫头子篆儿忙进来问：“姑娘作什么。”晴雯道：“别人都死绝了，就剩了你不成？"说着，只见坠儿也蹭了进来．晴雯道：“你瞧瞧这小蹄子，不问他还不来呢．这里又放月钱了，又散果子了，你该跑在头里了．你往前些，我不是老虎吃了你！"坠儿只得前凑．晴雯便冷不防欠身一把将他的手抓住，向枕边取了一丈青，向他手上乱戳，口内骂道：“要这爪子作什么？拈不得针，拿不动线，只会偷嘴吃．眼皮子又浅，爪子又轻，打嘴现世的，不如戳烂了！"坠儿疼的乱哭乱喊．麝月忙拉开坠儿，按晴雯睡下，笑道：“才出了汗，又作死．等你好了，要打多少打不的？这会子闹什么！"晴雯便命人叫宋嬷嬷进来，说道：“宝二爷才告诉了我，叫我告诉你们，坠儿很懒，宝二爷当面使他，他拨嘴儿不动，连袭人使他，他背后骂他．今儿务必打发他出去，明儿宝二爷亲自回太太就是了。”宋嬷嬷听了，心下便知镯子事发，因笑道：“虽如此说，也等花姑娘回来知道了，再打发他。”晴雯道：“宝二爷今儿千叮咛万嘱咐的，什么'花姑娘''草姑娘'，我们自然有道理．你只依我的话，快叫他家的人来领他出去。”麝月道：“这也罢了，早也去，晚也去，带了去早清静一日。”

　　宋嬷嬷听了，只得出去唤了他母亲来，打点了他的东西，又来见晴雯等，说道：“姑娘们怎么了，你侄女儿不好，你们教导他，怎么撵出去？也到底给我们留个脸儿。”晴雯道：“你这话只等宝玉来问他，与我们无干。”那媳妇冷笑道：“我有胆子问他去！他那一件事不是听姑娘们的调停？他纵依了，姑娘们不依，也未必中用．比如方才说话，虽是背地里，姑娘就直叫他的名字．在姑娘们就使得，在我们就成了野人了。”晴雯听说，一发急红了脸，说道：“我叫了他的名字了，你在老太太跟前告我去，说我撒野，也撵出我去。”麝月忙道：“**子，你只管带了人出去，有话再说．这个地方岂有你叫喊讲礼的？你见谁和我们讲过礼？别说**子你，就是赖奶奶林大娘，也得担待我们三分．便是叫名字，从小儿直到如今，都是老太太吩咐过的，你们也知道的，恐怕难养活，巴巴的写了他的小名儿，各处贴着叫万人叫去，为的是好养活．连挑水挑粪花子都叫得，何况我们！连昨儿林大娘叫了一声'爷'，老太太还说他呢，此是一件．二则，我们这些人常回老太太的话去，可不叫着名字回话，难道也称'爷'？那一日不把宝玉两个字念二百遍，偏**子又来挑这个了！过一日**子闲了，在老太太，太太跟前，听听我们当着面儿叫他就知道了．**子原也不得在老太太，太太跟前当些体统差事，成年家只在三门外头混，怪不得不知我们里头的规矩．这里不是**子久站的，再一会，不用我们说话，就有人来问你了．有什么分证话，且带了他去，你回了林大娘，叫他来找二爷说话．家里上千的人，你也跑来，我也跑来，我们认人问姓，还认不清呢！"说着，便叫小丫头子：“拿了擦地的布来擦地！"那媳妇听了，无言可对，亦不敢久立，赌气带了坠儿就走．宋妈妈忙道：“怪道你这**子不知规矩，你女儿在这屋里一场，临去时，也给姑娘们磕个头．没有别的谢礼，____便有谢礼，他们也不希罕，____不过磕个头，尽了心．怎么说走就走？"坠儿听了，只得翻身进来，给他两个磕了两个头，又找秋纹等．他们也不睬他．那媳妇も声叹气，口不敢言，抱恨而去．

　　晴雯方才又闪了风，着了气，反觉更不好了，翻腾至掌灯，刚安静了些．只见宝玉回来，进门就も声跺脚．麝月忙问原故，宝玉道：“今儿老太太喜喜欢欢的给了这个褂子，谁知不防后襟子上烧了一块，幸而天晚了，老太太，太太都不理论。”一面说，一面脱下来．麝月瞧时，果见有指顶大的烧眼，说：“这必定是手炉里的火迸上了．这不值什么，赶着叫人悄悄的拿出去，叫个能干织补匠人织上就是了。”说着便用包袱包了，交与一个妈妈送出去．说：“赶天亮就有才好．千万别给老太太，太太知道。”婆子去了半日，仍旧拿回来，说：“不但能干织补匠人，就连裁缝绣匠并作女工的问了，都不认得这是什么，都不敢揽。”麝月道：“这怎么样呢！明儿不穿也罢了。”宝玉道：“明儿是正日子，老太太，太太说了，还叫穿这个去呢．偏头一日烧了，岂不扫兴。”晴雯听了半日，忍不住翻身说道：“拿来我瞧瞧罢．没个福气穿就罢了．这会子又着急。”宝玉笑道：“这话倒说的是． "说着，便递与晴雯，又移过灯来，细看了一会．晴雯道：“这是孔雀金线织的，如今咱们也拿孔雀金线就象界线似的界密了，只怕还可混得过去。”麝月笑道：“孔雀线现成的，但这里除了你，还有谁会界线？"晴雯道：“说不得，我挣命罢了。”宝玉忙道：“这如何使得！才好了些，如何做得活。”晴雯道：“不用你蝎蝎螫螫的，我自知道。”一面说，一面坐起来，挽了一挽头发，披了衣裳，只觉头重身轻，满眼金星乱迸，实实撑不住．若不做，又怕宝玉着急，少不得恨命咬牙捱着．便命麝月只帮着拈线．晴雯先拿了一根比一比，笑道：“这虽不很象，若补上，也不很显。”宝玉道：“这就很好，那里又找哦Ц嘶国的裁缝去。”晴雯先将里子拆开，用茶杯口大的一个竹弓钉牢在背面，再将破口四边用金刀刮的散松松的，然后用针纫了两条，分出经纬，亦如界线之法，先界出地子后，依本衣之纹来回织补．补两针，又看看，织补两针，又端详端详．无奈头晕眼黑，气喘神虚，补不上三五针，伏在枕上歇一会．宝玉在旁，一时又问：“吃些滚水不吃？"一时又命：“歇一歇。”一时又拿一件灰鼠斗篷替他披在背上，一时又命拿个拐枕与他靠着．急的晴雯央道：“小祖宗！你只管睡罢．再熬上半夜，明儿把眼睛抠搂了，怎么处！"宝玉见他着急，只得胡乱睡下，仍睡不着．一时只听自鸣钟已敲了四下，刚刚补完，又用小牙刷慢慢的剔出绒毛来．麝月道：“这就很好，若不留心，再看不出的。”宝玉忙要了瞧瞧，说道：“真真一样了。”晴雯已嗽了几阵，好容易补完了，说了一声：“补虽补了，到底不象，我也再不能了！"嗳哟了一声，便身不由主倒下．要知端的，且听下回分解．
霍克斯译文
　　
Next day, before it was yet light, Skybright was calling on Musk to wake up.
‘Come on, Musk! You ought to be awake by now, Haven’t you slept enough yet? You go outside and tell the others to get his morning drink ready while I try waking him up.’
Musk hurriedly drew on a garment and got out of bed.
‘We’d better-both wake him and wait till he’s dressed and the clothes-warmer has been carried back to its usual place before we let the others it’,’ she said. ‘The old women have already said that he’s not to sleep in the same room as you in case he catches your sickness. We shall never hear the end of it, if they find out that we’ve been sleeping all crowded up together like this.’
‘Yes,’ said Skybright. ‘I was thinking that too.’
The two girls began calling Bao-yu. He must in fact have been awake already, for he got out of bed and began dressing immediately. Musk called in one of the junior maids to help her move the warmer back into place and fold up the bedding. Only when all traces of the previous night’s sleeping arrange ments had been effaced were Ripple and Emerald called in to assist Bao-yu with his toilet.

‘It’s very overcast again,’ said Musk, when Bao-yu’s toilet had been completed. ‘It looks as lf it will ***. You’d better put on your felt.’
Bao-yu nodded and changed the outer garment he had put on for a more substantial one. A junior maid came in carrying a little tea-tray on which was a covered cup containing a con coction ofreddates and Fukien lotus-seeds. Bao-yu drank a few mouthfuls, took a piece of ginger from a saucerful of crystallized shapes held out to him by Musk and put it in his mouth to nibble, addressed a few brief admonitions to Sky bright to look after herself while he was away, and went off to see his grandmother.
She had not yet risen when he arrived at her apartment, but the servants, knowing that he was going visiting and could not wait for her to get up, admitted him at once to her bed room. He caught a glimpse of Bao-qin lying asleep behind her, her face turned inwards to the wall. The old lady observed that her grandson was wearing, over his formal dress of lychee-brown broadcloth, a dark-red felt cape embellished with roundels of gold thread and coloured silk embroidery. Its slate-blue satin border was fringed with tassels.
‘Is it ***ing?’ she asked him.
‘Not yet,’ said Bao-yu, ‘but it looks as if it will.’
Grandmother Jia turned to Faithful:
‘Give him that peacock-feather cloak we were looking at yesterday.’
Faithful murmured a reply and went out of the room, re turning presently with a magnificent ***-cape that gleamed and glittered with gold and green and bronzy-bluish lights. It was like Bao-qin’s mallard-cape and yet somehow different.
‘This is what they call “peacock gold”,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘It is made by the Russians. They twist the barbs of peacock-feathers into a kind of yarn and weave it from that. The other day I gave your cousin Bao-qin a cape like this made out of mallard feathers. Now I am giving this one to you.’
Bao-yu kotowed and put it on. Grandmother Jia smiled.
‘Go and show your mother’
Bao-yu obediently hurried off to do so. On his way out he came upon Faithful, standing beside the kang in the outer room. She affected to be rubbing her eyes in order not to have to look at him. She had avoided speaking to him ever since the frightful scene nearly two months earlier when she had vowed never to marry, and Bao-yu was continually being made uncomfortable by her avoidance of him. Seeing her once more preparing to ignore him, he went up to her with a friendly smile in the hope of breaking her silence.
‘Faithful, see this! How do you think I look in it?’
But Faithful simply turned and fled, retreating into Grand mother Jia’s bedroom. Obliged to give up, he continued on his way to Lady Wang’s. After his mother had seen the cape, he went into the Garden to show himself off to Musk and Sky bright. After that he returned to his grandmother’s to report.
‘I showed it to Mother. She said it seems almost a pity to wear it and I must be very, very careful not to spoil it.’
‘That was the only one I had left,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘If you do spoil it I haven’t got another one to give you. And there would be no question of getting another one made for you - not in these parts.’
She put on her admonitions-for-the-departing-grandchild voice:
‘Now don’t drink too much. And leave early.’
‘Yes, Grandma.’
Old women from his grandmother’s apartment accom panied him as far as the reception hall of the outer mansion. Below the steps outside it his foster brother Li Gui, together with Wang Rong, Zhang Ruo-jin, Zhao Yi-hua, Qian Sheng and Zhou Rui and the pages Tealeaf, Storky, Ploughboy and Sweeper, had been waiting a long time in readiness. The pages were carrying clothing-bundles and blankets, and two of the older men were holding a splendidly caparisoned horse by the bridle. The old women issued a few words of admonition to the men, the men, after acknowledging them with a few per functory cries, handed Bao-yu his whip and held the stirrup for him to mount, and Bao-yu, mindful of the precious cape, got up slowly into the saddle. The little party then began to advance, Li Gui and Wang Rong, one on either side, holding the bridle-rings, Qian Sheng and Zhou Rul walking ahead, and Zhang Ruo-jin and Zhao Yi-hua following closely behind.
‘Zhou, Qian,’ Bao-yu called out from the saddle to the two in front, ‘let’s go out of the side gate, otherwise it will mean going past my father’s door and I shall have to get down.’
‘Since Sir Zheng went away, his door’s kept locked all the time,’ said Zhou Rui, turning a grinning face back to his young master. ‘You don’t need to get down.’
‘Even though it is locked, I still ought to get down,’ said Bao-yu.
‘Quite right, sir,’ said Li Gui and Qian Sheng approvingly. ‘If you was to get slack about dismounting and Mr Lai or Mr .Lin was to see you, they’d be sure to have something to say about it. Even though they couldn’t very well tell yon off, like enough they’d blame us for not teaching you manners.’
By now Zhou Rui and Qian Sheng were moving towards the side entrance. While the point of etiquette was still being discussed, they ran head on into Lai Da himself, of whom they had just been speaking. Bao-yu at once reined to a halt and made as if to dismount, but, Lai Da hurried up and prevented him by clinging to his leg. Bao-yu thereupon stood up in the stirrups and, taking him by the hand, addressed him graciously for some moments before continuing on his way. He had barely done so when thirty or forty pages armed with dustpans and brushes came trooping into the courtyard. Immediately they caught sight of Bao-yu, they lined up in a row along the wall and stood with their arms at their sides while one of their number, evidently the leader, stepped forward and, dropping to one knee in the Manchu salute, wished Bao-yu a good morning. Bao-yu did not know the page’s name, so he merely smiled and nodded. The whole troop remained motionless until the horse and its rider had passed by.
Bao-yu’s little party now issued out of the side gate, where ten horses were ready waiting for them: one for Li Gui and each of his fellows and one for each of the pages. All sprang at once into the saddle and were off down the street like a puff of smoke.
At this point our story leaves them and turns to other matters.

*

Back at Green Delights Skybright, exasperated to find, after another dose of her medicine, that the sickness still showed no disposition to depart, was holding forth loudly against the whole generation of doctors.
They’re all cheats,’ she said. ‘They take your money, but none of the medicine they give you is any good.’
‘Don’t be so impatient,’ said Musk soothingly. ‘Getting better is always a lengthy business. You know what they say “Sickness comes like an avalanche but goes like reeling silk”. This stuff isn’t the Elixir of Life. You can’t expect it to cure you in a twinkling. You’ll be all right if you take things easy for a few days. Getting yourself worked up will only give the sickness a tighter grip on you.’
Skybright’s anger changed direction and vented itself now upon the junior maids.
‘Where have you lot all sneaked off to?’ she called out to them. ‘Very bold, aren’t you, now that you seem helpless? Just you wait till I’m better: I’ll have the hide off every one of you.’
Her outcry produced a solitary response. A little girl called Steadfast came hurrying in and inquired, ‘What is it, Miss?’
‘What’s happened to the others?’ said Skybright. ‘Are they all dead? Are you the only one left alive?’
While she was speaking, Trinket, too, came in—at a some what more ambling pace than the other girl.
‘Look at this little creature, now!’ said Skybright. ‘Why couldn’t she have come sooner? You’d have come running here fast enough if we’d been handing out monthly allowances or sharing out sweets, wouldn’t you? Then you’d have been the first to arrive. Come closer. I’m not a tiger. I won’t eat you.’
Trinket edged a few steps nearer. As she did so, Skybright suddenly raised herself from her lying position, snatched hold of her hand, and began jabbing at it violently with an enor mous hairpin which she had been keeping concealed under her pillow.
‘What do you want this little claw for?’ she said. ‘It’s no good with a needle and thread. All it’s good for is picking and stealing. Shifty eyes and light fingers! A little claw like this can only bring you disgrace. Much better stab it!—and slab it!—and stab it! so that it can’t do any more thieving.’
Trinket was by now screaming with pain. Musk quickly dragged her away out of Skybright’s clutches and forced Skybright to lie down again in bed.
‘You’ve only just been sweating after the medicine,’ she said. ‘What’s the matter with you? Do you want to die? If you’ll just wait until you’re better, you can punish her as much as you like. Don’t start making a scene about it now!’
But Skybright insisted on calling in Mamma Song and deal ing with the matter at once.
‘Master Bao has told me to tell you that he finds Trinket lazy,’ she said when Mamma Song arrived. ‘She answers him back and doesn’t do anything when he gives her orders, and even when Aroma tells her to do things she says rude things about her behind her back. Master Bao is most anxious that she should be dismissed immediately. He says he will speak to Her Ladyship about it himself when he sees her tomorrow.’
When Mamma Song heard this, she knew that the story of the bracelet must have leaked out.
‘That’s as may be,’ she said. ‘But oughtn’t we to wait until Miss Aroma comes back and tell her first?’
‘What I am giving you are Master Bao’s own orders,’ said Skybright. ‘He was most particular that she Should be dis missed immediately. I don’t see that Miss Aroma—or Miss Sweetscents or Miss Smellypots for that matter—has got any thing to do with it. I know what I’m doing. Just do as I say. Go and get someone from her family to come here immediately and take her away.’
‘You might just as well,’ said Musk. ‘She’ll have to go sooner or later. Let them take her away now and get it over with.’
So Mamma Song had to go off and summon the girl’s mother from outside. When Trinket had finished getting her belongings together, her mother went in with her to see Musk and Skybright.
‘Now what’s all this about?’ she said. ‘If the girl’s done wrong, why can’t you just punish her for it? Why do you have to dismiss her? It doesn’t leave us much face, does it, if she’s dismissed ?’
‘You’ll have to ask Bao-yu about that when he gets back,’ said Skybright. ‘It’s nothing to do with us.’ The woman sneered.
‘You know perfectly well that I wouldn’t dare. He always does what you young ladies want him to in any case. Even if I saw him and he agreed that she could stay, there’s no guaranteeing that she would if you young ladies weren’t agreeable. Take what you said just now. I know he’s not here at the moment, but even so. if I was to name his name as you did just now without a “master” or a “mister” to it, people would say I was a savage, but for you young ladies, seemingly, it’s quite all right.’
Skybright becameredwith anger.
‘I called him by his name, did I? Why don’t you go and report me to Their Ladyships? Tell them that I’m a savage and get me dismissed.’
‘I advise you to take that girl out of here and be on your way,’ said Musk. ‘If you have anything to say, you can say it later. You can’t stand here wrangling about it now. When have you ever seen other people bandying words with us? Even Mrs Lai and Mrs Lin show a bit of restraint when they talk to us. And as for this business of saying “Bao-yu” instead of “Master Bao”: everyone knows that it’s Her Old Ladyship’s particular wish that we should. Because he’s not strong and she’s afraid he might die young, she likes as many people as possible to use his name, to bring him luck. She even has it written in big characters and pasted up on walls outside to get people saying it. It would be funny if we couldn’t use his name when every water-carrier and dung-carrier and beggar in town can do so. As a matter of fact only yesterday Mrs Lin got told off by Her Old Ladyship for calling him “Master Bao”.
‘And for another thing, we senior maids are constantly having -to take messages to Her Old Ladyship and Her Lady-ship about him, and when we do, we always say “Bao-yu”, never “Master Bao”. Why, I should think we must each of us use his name a couple of hundred times every day. You cer tainly chose the wrong thing to find fault with when you picked on that one! If you don’t believe me, go round one of these days when you are free to Her Old Ladyship’s or Her Ladyship’s and you will hear us openly calling him “Bao-yu” to their faces. But of course, you don’t have any important business that would bring you in contact with Their Lady-ships, do you? All your time is spent doing odd-jobs outside. One could hardly expect you to know the way things are done in here.
‘But I’m afraid we really can’t have you standing around here any longer. If you stay much longer, I’m afraid even though we don’t object someone else may come along and ask what you are doing here. If you want to appeal against the girl’s dismissal, you should get her out of here first and take it up with Mrs Lin afterwards and she will speak to Master Bao about it. With all the hundreds of people there are in this household we can’t have just anyone running in and out when ever they feel like it. We don’t even know the names of half of them.’
By way of emphasizing her point, Musk ordered one of the junior maids to fetch a floor-cloth and begin wiping the floor. At this Trinket’s mother, unable to find a reply and fearful of being caught staying too long, swept out angrily, taking her daughter with her. But Mamma Song was not letting them get away so easily.
‘You certainly don’t have much idea of manners, my good woman. After all the time she’s been here, your daughter could at least make the young ladies a kotow before she goes. She may have no other parting gift to give them—I don’t suppose they’d set much store by it if she had—
but she might at least have the decency to make - them a kotow. You can’t both just up and go.’
Trinket was obliged to come in again and kotow to the two inside. She also went round to do the same for Ripple and Emerald, but they refused to look at her. After that she de parted with her mother, the latter indicating as they went, by many a sniff and sigh, the hatred that she dared net express more openly.
A consequence of this latest exposure to the cold and of the accompanying emotional upset was that Skybright was now feeling bad again. At lighting-up time, after tossing about feverishly all day, she was just beginning to settle down at last when Bao-yu returned in a great fret and began stamping and groaning almost as soon as -he entered the room. Musk asked him what the matter was.
‘It’s this cloak that Grandmother gave me this morning. She was so pleased about it, and now—I don’t know how it happened—I’ve gone and got a burn in it behind the lapel. Fortunately it was fairly dark just now when I came back and neither Grandmother nor Mother noticed anything.’
He took it off for Musk-to examine. It was only a little burn, about the size of a finger-print, but clearly visible.
‘It must have been caused by a- spark from your hand-warmer,’ said Musk. ‘It’s nothing to worry about. We’ll send someone out on the quiet with it immediately to find a good invisible mender and get it mended for you.’
She wrapped it up and called in one of the old nannies to take it out for them.
‘Tell them it has to be ready by daylight tomorrow. And for heaven’s sake don’t let Her Old Ladyship or Her Ladyship find out about it!’
The woman was gone a very long time. When she at last returned, she was still carrying the bundle with the peacock cloak in it.
‘I’ve tried everywhere—invisible menders, tailors, em broiderers, seamstresses—and none of them will touch it. They all say they don’t know what the material is and don’t want to be responsible.’
‘Oh dear!’ said Musk. ‘What are we going to do now? Well, you lust can’t wear it tomorrow, that’s all.’
‘But I must,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Tomorrow is his actual birthday. Grandmother and Mother have both said I must. Today was only the first day of the celebrations, not his actual birthday. Isn’t it just my luck to burn it the very first time I put it on?’
Skybright, who had listened to all this in silence, could con tain herself no longer and sat up immediately in bed.
‘Come on, let me have a look. If you weren’t meant to wear it, you won’t wear it. No good making all this fuss about it now.’
‘There’s something in that,’ said Bao-yu laughing, and handed it to her. He brought the lamp over so that she could examine it more closely.
‘This is made of “peacock gold”,’ said Skybright. ‘If we could get hold of some of the thread .and make a little darn with it’ I think it would probably pass.’
‘We’ve got peacock gold thread,’ said Musk. ‘The trouble is that apart from you there’s no one else here who could do the darning.’
‘I shall just have to make the effort and do it then, shan’t I?’ said Skybright.
‘No, that’s out of the question,’ said Bao-yu. ‘You’ve only just started getting better. You’re not in a fit state to do sewing yet.’
‘Oh, don’t be such an old woman!’ said Skybright. ‘I know what I’m capable of.’
So saying, she sat up again in bed, knotted up her loosely flowing hair, and drew a jacket on over her shoulders. Her body felt abnormally light and she was almost overcome with dizziness. It really did seem as if the effort would be too much for her; but knowing what a state Bao-yu would be in if the ***-cape was not repaired, she gritted her teeth, and fighting back the weakness that threatened to engulf her, told Musk to pinch the yarn and thread a needle for her while she herself took a length of it and held it against the material.
‘It’s notreally a very good match,’ she said, ‘but I don’t suppose it will show very much when it’s been darned.’
‘I’m sure it will do very nicely,’ said Bao-yu. ‘At all events, we’re not going to be able to find a Russian tailor to do it for us!’
Skybright began by opening up the seam of the lining underneath the burnt patch so that she could insert a cup-sized darning mushroom from inside. Having stretched the material out over the mushroom, she scraped away the charred parts and the surrounding nap with a razor until the threads were clearly exposed, then, with her needle and thread, she worked first across in one direction and then at right-angles in the other until she had filled the hole with a criss-cross darn. Using this as a foundation, she now began to weave the thread in and out with her needle so as to Imitate the surrounding pattern. This was the most difficult and exhausting part of the work. After each couple of stitches she had to stop and examine what she had done, and after every four or five she had to lean back on the pillow and rest. Meanwhile Bao-yu fussed around her unceasingly, one moment asking her if she would like a ‘nice hot drink’, another moment suggesting that she should rest, one moment fetching a squirrel-skin cloak to put over her shoulders, the next moment a pillow for her back, until she became quite frantic and had to entreat him to leave her alone
‘My dear little grandfather—please just go to bed! If you stay up any longer, you’ll have rings under your eyes in the morning, and that will never dot’
Bao-yu could see that he was exasperating her and made a pretence of settling down in his bed; but he could not get to sleep. After he had been lying awake for some time, he heard the chiming clock strike four. Skybright had just completed the mending and was finishing off the job by carefully teasing the nap out with a little toothbrush.
‘That’s wonderful,’ said Musk. ‘If you didn’t look at it carefully, you could never tell it was a darn.’
Bao-yu asked to see.
‘It’s perfect,’ he said. ‘It looks exactly the same as the rest.’
Skybright had been coughing a good deal during the final stages of her task and it had been all she could do to conclude
it.
‘Anyway, it’s done,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t really look right, but I can’t do any more—Aiyo!’
With a cry of weariness she sank back, utterly exhausted, upon the bed.
If you wish to know the outcome, please read the chapter which follows.

杨宪益译文
The next morning Qingwen woke Sheyue before it was light.
‘Get up!’ she called. ‘You never seem to have had enough sleep! Go and get them to make some tea while I wake him up.’
Sheyue scrambled into her clothes.
‘Let’s get him up and dressed first, and move away this clothes-warmer before we call the others,’ she proposed. ‘The nurses said he wasn’t to sleep in this room for fear of infection. If we let them see us all crowded together in here, they’ll start nagging again.
‘Just what I think,’ agreed Qingwen.
Baoyu woke up himself as they were about to rouse him. He got up and dressed without delay while Sheyue called in some young maids to tidy the room. Only when this was done were Qiuwen and Tanyun summoned to wait on Baoyu.
As he finished his toilet Sheyue said, ‘It’s cloudy again and looks like ***, you’d better wear something woollen.’
He nodded and changed his clothes, then sipped a little of the lotus-seed and date broth a young maid offered him on a small tray, and took a piece of crystallized ginger from the plate Sheyue brought him. Finally, having urged Qingwen to look after herself, he went to the Lady Dowager’s apartments.
His grandmother was still abed, but hearing that Baoyu was going out she had him admitted to her bedroom, where he saw Baoqin lying asleep behind her, her face to the wall.
The Lady Dowager noticed that Baoyu was wearing, over his brown velvet archer’s coat lined with fox fur, a scarlet felt jacket embroidered with gold thread. Its slate-blue satin border was fringed with tassels.
‘Is it ***ing?’ she asked him.
‘Not yet, but it looks as if it will,’ he replied.
‘Bring him that peacock-feather cape taken out yesterday,’ the old lady ordered Yuanyang.
The maid promptly brought in a cape which shimmered gold, green and blue and was no less magnificent, in a different style, than Baoqin’s cape of wild-duck down.
‘This is called ‘golden peacock felt, ‘‘ his grandmother told him with a smile. ‘It was woven of peacock feathers in Russia. The other day I gave your cousin one of wild-duck down, so now I’m making you a present of this.’
Baoyu kowtowed his thanks and put on the cape.
‘Mind you show it to your mother before you go out,’ the Lady Dowa ger charged him with a smile.
He agreed to this and, going out, saw Yuanyang standing in the pas sage rubbing her eyes. Since the day on which she had vowed never to marry, she had upset him by ignoring him. At sight of him now she started to slip away, but he stepped forward to greet her.
‘Look, dear sister! How does this suit me?’
She flung away from him into the old lady’s room.
Baoyu had to go on then to show the cape to his mother, after which he returned to the Garden and displayed it to Qingwen and Sheyue. He went back then to the Lady Dowager.
‘Mother’s seen it and thinks it a pity to wear it,’ he said. ‘She told me to be extra careful not to spoil it.’
‘It’s the only one left,’ replied his grandmother. ‘If you spoil it, you won’t get another. Impossible to replace it.’ She warned him not to drink too much and to come back early, which he promised to do.
Some old nurses followed him to the main hall where six stewards ‘Nanny Li’s son Li Gui, Wang Rong, Zhang Ruojin, Zhao Yihua, Qian Qi and Zhou Rui ‘ were waiting for him. With them were his four pages Mingyan, Banhe, Chuyao and Saohong, who were carrying a change of clothes for him and a cushion. A splendidly caparisoned white horse with an embossed saddle stood there in readiness too. When the stewards had received the old nurses’ instructions, acting as grooms they helped Baoyu to mount slowly into the saddle. Then Li Gui and Wang Rong took the bridle, Qian Qi and Zhou Rui led the way, and Zhang Ruojin and Zhao Yihua followed close behind, one on each side of Baoyu.
‘Let’s leave by the side gate, brothers,’ called Baoyu to Zhou Rui and Qian Qi. ‘Then I won’t have to dismount by my father’s study.’
‘There’s no need for that,’ replied Zhou Rui, turning his head with a smile. ‘His Lordship is away and the place is locked.’
‘Even so, I still ought to get down,’ insisted Baoyu.
‘Quite right, sir,’ chuckled Qian Qi and Li Gui. ‘If you were too lazy to dismount and we happened to run into Mr. Lai or Mr. Lin, even if they didn’t lecture you they’d have something to say about it. And all the blame would be laid on us for not teaching you better manners.’
So Zhou Rui and Qian Qi led the horse to the side gate. And, sure enough, as they were talking they ran into Lai Da. Baoyu promptly pulled up to dismount, but the chief steward hurried forward and clasped his knee. Baoyu stood up in his stirrups and, taking him by the hand, ex changed greetings with him. Then a page came in at the head of a couple of dozen men with brooms and dustpans. These lined up respectfully by the wall at the sight of their young master, while the page knelt on one knee and paid his respects. Baoyu, not knowing his name, simply smiled and nodded. Not until he had ridden past did the men move on.
Then Baoyu and his party passed through the side gate, where some grooms and the boys under the six stewards had some dozen horses ready. Once outside the gate, Li Gui and the rest mounted these horses. Then the whole troop, escorting Baoyu on all sides, galloped off.

But let us return to Qingwen, who was worried because the medicine had done her no good and now started abusing the doctor.
‘He’s nothing but a swindler and quack,’ she complained. ‘His medicine’s no use at all.’
‘You must have patience,’ urged Sheyue. ‘Haven’t you heard the saying: ‘Illness comes as fast as a wall falling down, but goes as slowly as unravelling a cocoon’? He’s no Lao Jun2 with a magic elixir to cure you overnight. Just rest quietly for a few days and you’ll be all right. The more impatient you are, the worse for you.
Qingwen switched then to lashing out at the younger girls.
‘Where have they all buried themselves?’ she scolded. ‘They take advantage of my illness to make off, bold as brass! I’m going to flay each one of them for this when I’m better.’
This so frightened Zhuier, one of the younger maids, that she hurried in to ask, ‘Is there anything you want, miss?’
‘Are the others all dead?’ demanded Qingwen. ‘Are you the only one left?’
At this, Zhuier sidled in.
‘Look at that little **!’ cried Qingwen. ‘She won’t come unless asked for. But on pay-day or when sweets are shared out, she’s always the first to come running. Come over here! Am I a tiger? Are you afraid I’ll eat you?’
Zhuier had to come closer. Then Qingwen, lunging forward, grabbed one of her hands and began jabbing it with a hairpin from under her pillow.
‘What use is this claw?’ she swore. ‘It won’t hold a needle or thread, all it’s good for is stealing. You with your avid eyes and itching palms, you’re the bane of our lives and a disgrace to us all ‘ I’ll carve you up!’
Zhuier screamed with pain until Sheyue pulled her away and made Qingwen lie down again.
‘You’ll catch your death after that sweat you were in,’ she scolded. ‘Once you’re better you can beat her as much as you like. Why raise this rumpus now?’
But Qingwen ordered someone to fetch Nanny Song and when she arrived informed her, ‘Master Bao has told me to tell you that Zhuier’s too lazy. When he gives her a job to do she refuses to stir; and when Xiren asks her to do anything, she even curses her behind her back. She must be sent packing today, and tomorrow he’ll report it himself to the mistress.’
Nanny Song knew at once that this was because of the bracelet.
‘Even so,’ she said with a smile, ‘we’d better wait till Miss Xiren comes back before dismissing her.’
‘Master Bao was most emphatic,’ insisted Qingwen. ‘Never mind about this ‘Miss’ or that ‘Miss,’ we’ll answer to her. Just do as I say. Tell her family to come and take her away.’
‘You may as well,’ put in Sheyue. ‘She’ll have to go sooner or later. The sooner she goes, the sooner we’ll have some peace.’
So Nanny Song had to fetch Zhuier’s mother. And when they had packed up her things, the woman came in to see Qingwen and Sheyue.
‘What’s this I hear?’ she protested. ‘If my girl misbehaves, why can’t you teach her a lesson instead of throwing her out? At least leave us a little face.’
‘Save that talk for Baoyu,’ snapped Qingwen. ‘This has nothing to do with us.’
‘Ask him?’ The woman snorted. ‘He does just what you young ladies tell him, doesn’t he? Even if he were willing to keep her, you wouldn’t let him. Why, just now, even though you were talking behind his back, you referred to him by name. That may be all right for the likes of you, but in our case it would be thought most ill-bred.’
‘So I called him by his name, did I?’ Qingwen flushed with anger. ‘All right, go and report me to the old lady. Tell her I’ve run wild and have me thrown out too.’
‘Just take your daughter and go, sister,’ put in Sheyue. ‘You can have your say about it some other time. This is no place for you to bicker and wrangle. Have you ever seen anyone wrangling with us here? Even Mrs. Lai and Mrs. Lin have to treat us with some respect, not to say you.
‘As for using his name, we’ve done that since he was a child, as well you know, on the old lady’s orders. Didn’t they have his name written out and posted up everywhere so that everybody would use it, for fear that otherwise he might die young? Why, even water-carriers, night-soil collectors and beggars use it, not to say us. Only the other day, Mrs. Lin was taken to task by the old lady for calling him ‘young master. That’s the first point.
‘The second is that since we’re always in and out reporting things to the old lady and the mistress, we obviously can’t refer to him as ‘master. We must use the name Baoyu a couple of hundred times a day; so it’s strange that you should choose this to pick fault. Some day when you have time, you can listen to us using his name to the old lady and Lady Wang; then you’ll understand. But of course, it’s not to be wondered at that you don’t know the rules in the inner apartments, since you don’t have any important business that would take you near the ladies of the house ‘ you’re mucking about outside the gate all the time.
‘And this is no place for you to hang about. If you do, people will be coming to ask you the reason, even if we don’t say anything ourselves. So first take your girl away. If you’re not satisfied, you can complain to Mrs. Lin and ask her to speak to Master Bao about it. There are nearly a thousand people in this household. If you come one day and others the next, how are we to recognize who’s who? We can’t have everyone running in and out here.’
She ordered one of the young maids to fetch a cloth and wipe the floor.
Zhuier’s mother was silenced then and dared stay no longer. Swal lowing her anger, she started out with her daughter.
‘You really have no manners,’ expostulated Nanny Song. ‘After working here all this time, your daughter should surely kowtow to the young ladies before she leaves. Presents they don’t expect, but she should at least kowtow to express her thanks. How can you just walk off?’

At this, Zhuier had to come in again and kowtow to Sheyue and Qingwen, then to Qiuwen and the others. They all ignored her. Her mother, thoroughly discomfited and too cowed to say another word, went off in high indignation.
Qingwen had caught another slight chill, and this no top of her anger made her feel even more poorly. She tossed about restlessly and did not quiet down until lighting-up time when Baoyu came back, sighing and stamping his feet. Sheyue asked him what was the matter.
‘Today the old lady was in a good mood and gave me this cape,’ he explained. ‘But somehow I carelessly burned a hole in the back. Luckily it was too dark just now for my grandmother or mother to notice it.’
He took the cape off and Sheyue inspected the damage. There was a hole the size of a finger-tip.
‘This must have been done by a spark from a hand-stove,’ She com mented. ‘It’s nothing. We’ll smuggle it out at once for some skilled weaver to patch.’ She wrapped up the cape and told an old serving-woman to take it out. ‘See that it’s done by tomorrow morning,’ She ordered. ‘And be sure not to let the old lady or mistress know.’
The woman assented and went off, returning some time later with the cape.
‘I tried not only weavers and the best tailors but embroiders and sew ing-women too,’ she said. ‘But as they’d never seen anything like this before, none of them dared take on the job.’
‘What’s to be done then?’ wondered Sheyue. ‘I suppose you needn’t wear it tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow is the birthday proper,’ objected Baoyu. ‘The old lady and my mother expressly told me to wear it when I go. But the day before I burn it. What a bad show!’
Qingwen, who had been following the conversation, could no longer keep silence and now sat up in bed.
‘Let me see it,’ she called. ‘Maybe it’s not in your stars to wear this cape. Look at the state you’re in.’
‘You’re right,’ said Baoyu, smiling.
He handed the cape to Qingwen and took her the lamp.
‘This is made of peacock feathers and gold thread,’ she observed after examining it carefully. ‘If we darn it with the same material it should pass.’
‘We’ve peacock feathers and thread,’ said Sheyue. ‘But you’re the only one here who can do that type of darning.’
‘There’s no help for it then but to try my best, I suppose.’
‘How can you?’ Baoyu demurred. ‘You mustn’t start working the moment you’re a bit better.’
‘Don’t fuss,’ she retorted. ‘I know what I can do.’
With that she sat up to knot up her hair and put on some clothes. At once she felt so dizzy that stars began dancing before her eyes and she was afraid she would collapse; but rather than worry Baoyu by giving up, she gritted her teeth and stuck it out. Having asked Sheyue to help by twisting the thread, she now took one and compared it with the cape.
‘It’s not quite the same,’ she remarked. ‘once it’s mended, though, the difference shouldn’t show.’
‘That’s splendid,’ said Baoyu. ‘Where would we find a Russian tailor?’
Qingwen first unpicked the lining and slipped a bamboo embroidery-frame the size of a teacup up the back of the cape. Next she scraped away the singed edges with a knife, sewed two threads across at right angles to each other, stitched in the outline in cross-stitch, and then darned the hole to reproduce the original pattern. After a couple of stitches she would stop to examine her work, and after every four or five, feeling dizzy, breathless and faint, she would sink back on her pillow to rest for a while. Baoyu hovered over her solicitously, offering her hot water, urging her to rest, putting a squirrel cape over her shoulders and sending for a pillow for her back, until she became quite frantic.
‘Do go to bed, little ancestor!’ she begged him. ‘If you stay up half the night again, you’ll have sunken eyes tomorrow, and that wouldn’t do!’
To soothe her he had to lie down, but he could not sleep. He heard the clock strike four just as she finished her task and was fluffing up the down with a small toothbrush.
‘That’s fine!’ exclaimed Sheyue. ‘If you don’t look closely you’d never notice it.’
Baoyu asked to see it too.
‘It’s really as good as new,’ he commented.

Coughing after her exertions, Qingwen said, ‘I’m afraid the mend still shows. But I can’t do any more.’ She sank back with a groan of exhaustion.

If you want to know the outcome, read the next chapter.

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