【红楼梦 引子】

Prologue to The Dream of Red Mansions

杨宪益 戴乃迭 译

开辟鸿蒙，谁为情种？

都只为风月情浓。

At the dawn of creation

Who sowed the seeds of love?

From the strong passion of breeze and moonlight they came.

趁着这奈何天、伤怀日、寂寥时，试遣愚衷。

因此上演出这怀金悼玉的《红楼梦》。

So in this world of sweet longing

On a day of distress, in an hour of loneliness,

Fain would I impart my senseless grief

By singing this Dream of Red Mansions

To mourn the Gold and the Jade.

【枉凝眉】

Vain Longing

杨宪益 戴乃迭 译

一个是阆苑仙葩，一个是美玉无暇。

One is an immortal flower of fairyland,

The other fair flawless jade,

若说没奇缘，今生偏又遇着他；

And were it not predestined

Why should they meet again in this existence?

若说有奇缘，如何心事终虚化？

Yet, if predestined,

Why does their love come to nothing?

一个枉自嗟呀，一个空劳牵挂。

One sighs to no purpose,

The other yearns in vain;

一个是水中月，一个是镜中花。

One is the moon reflected in the water,

The other but a flower in the mirror.

想眼中能有多少泪珠儿，

How many tears can well from her eyes?

怎经得秋流到冬尽，春流到夏！

Can they flow on from autumn till winter,

From spring till summer?

【作者题绝】

霍克斯 译

满纸荒唐言，一把辛酸泪！

Pages full of idle words

Penned with hot and bitter tears:

都云作者痴，谁解其中味？

All men call the author fool;

None his secret message hears.

【太虚幻境楹联】

Illusory Land of Great Void

杨宪益 戴乃迭 译

假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。

When false is taken for true, true becomes false;

If non-being turns into being, being becomes non-being.

【葬花吟】

杨宪益 戴乃迭 译

花谢花飞飞满天，红消香断有谁怜？

As blossoms fade and fly across the sky,

Who pities the faded red, the scent that has been?

游丝软系飘春榭，落絮轻沾扑绣帘。

Softly the gossamer floats over spring pavilions,

Gently the willow fluff wafts to the embroidered screen.

闺中女儿惜春暮，愁绪满怀无释处，

A girl in her chamber mourns the passing of spring,

No relief from anxiety her poor heart knows;

手把花锄出绣闺，忍踏落花来复去。

Hoe in hand she steps through her portal,

Loath to tread on the blossom as she comes and goes.

柳丝榆荚自芳菲，不管桃飘与李飞。

Willows and elms, fresh and verdant,

Care not if peach and plum blossom drift away;

桃李明年能再发，明年闺中知有谁？

Next year the peach and plum will bloom again,

But her chamber may stand empty on that day.

三月香巢已垒成，梁间燕子太无情。

By the third month the scented nests are built,

But the swallows on the beam are heartless all;

明年花发虽可啄，却不道人去梁空巢也倾！

Next year, though once again you may peck the buds,

From the beam of an empty room your nest will fall.

一年三百六十日，风刀霜剑严相逼。

Each year for three hundred and sixty days

The cutting wind and biting frost contend.

明媚鲜妍能几时，一朝飘泊难寻觅。

How long can beauty flower fresh and fair?

In a single day wind can whirl it to its end.

花开易见落难寻，阶前闷杀葬花人。

Fallen, the brightest blooms are hard to find;

With aching heart their grave-digger comes now.

独倚花锄泪暗洒，洒上空枝见血痕。

Alone, her hoe in hand, her secret tears

Falling like drops of blood on each bare bough.

杜鹃无语正黄昏，荷锄归去掩重门。

Dusk falls and the cuckoo is silent;

Her hoe brought back, the lodge is locked and still;

青灯照壁人初睡，冷雨敲窗被未温。

A green lamp lights the wall as steep enfolds her,

Cold rain pelts the casement and her quilt is chill.

怪奴底事倍伤神，半为怜春半恼春：

What causes my two-fold anguish?

Love for spring and resentment of spring;

怜春忽至恼忽去，至又无言去不闻。

For suddenly it comes and suddenly goes,

Its arrival unheralded, noiseless its departing.

昨宵庭外悲歌发，知是花魂与鸟魂？

Last night from the courtyard floated a sad song –

Was it the soul of blossom, the soul of birds?

花魂鸟魂总难留，鸟自无言花自羞。

Hard to detain, the soul of blossom or birds,

For blossoms have no assurance, birds no words.

愿奴胁下生双翼，随花飞到天尽头。

I long to take wing and fly

With the flowers to earth's uttermost bound;

天尽头，何处有香丘？

And yet at earth's uttermost bound

Where can a fragrant burial mound be found?

未若锦囊收艳骨，一抔净土掩风流。

Better shroud the fair petals in silk

With clean earth for their outer attire;

质本洁来还洁去，强于污淖陷渠沟。

For pure you came and pure shall go,

Not sinking into some foul ditch or mire.

尔今死去侬收葬，未卜侬身何日丧？

Now you are dead I come to bury you;

None has divined the day when I shall die;

侬今葬花人笑痴，他年葬侬知是谁？

Men laugh at my folly in burying fallen flowers,

But who will bury me when dead I lie?

试看春残花渐落，便是红颜老死时。

See, when spring draws to a close and flowers fall,

This is the season when beauty must ebb and fade;

一朝春尽红颜老，花落人亡两不知。

The day that spring takes wing and beauty fades

Who will care for the fallen blossom or dead maid?

【黛玉容貌】

霍克斯 译

两弯似蹙非蹙笼烟眉，

一双似喜非喜含情目。

Her mist-wreathed brows at first seemed to frown, yet were not frowning;

Her passionate eyes at first seemed to smile, yet were not merry.

态生两靥之愁，娇袭一身之病。

Habit had given a melancholy cast to her tender face;

Nature had bestowed a sickly constitution on her delicate frame.

泪光点点，娇喘微微。

Often the eyes swam with glistening tears;

Often the breath came in gentle gasps.

闲静时如姣花照水，

行动处似弱柳扶风。

In stillness she made one think of a graceful flower reflected in the water;

In motion she called to mind tender willow shoots caressed by the wind.

心较比干多一窍，

病如西子胜三分。

She had more chambers in her heart than the martyred Bi Gan;

And suffered a tithe more pain in it than the beautiful Xi Shi.

【宝黛初见】

杨宪益 戴乃迭 译

黛玉一见，便吃一大惊，心下想道：“好生奇怪！倒像在那里见过的一般，何等眼熟到如此！”

His appearance took Daiyu by surprise. “How very strange!” she thought. “It’s as if I’d seen him somewhere before. He looks so familiar.”

宝玉看罢，因笑道：“这个妹妹我曾见过的。”

“I’ve met this cousin before,” he declared at the end of his scrutiny.

贾母笑道：“可又是胡说！你又何曾见过她？”

“You’re talking nonsense again,” said his grandmother, laughing.“How could you possibly have met her?”

宝玉笑道：“虽然未曾见过她，然我看着面善，心里就算是旧相识，今日只作远别重逢，未为不可。”

“Well, even if I haven’t, her face looks familiar. I feel we’re old friends meeting again after a long separation.”

【王熙凤容貌】

霍克斯 译

一双丹凤三角眼，两弯柳叶吊梢眉；

Eyes like a painted phoenix,

eyebrows like willow-leaves,

身量苗条，体格风骚；

a slender form,

seductive grace;

粉面含春威不露，丹唇未启笑先闻。

the ever-smiling summer face

of hidden thunders showed no trace;

the ever-bubbling laughter started

almost before the lips were parted.

【聪明累】

Caught By Her Own Cunning

霍克斯 译

机关算尽太聪明，反算了卿卿性命。

Too shrewd by half, with such finesse you wrought

That your own life in your own toils was caught;

生前心已碎，死后性空灵。

But long before you died your heart was slain,

And when you died your spirit walked in vain.

家富人宁，终有个家亡人散各奔腾。

Fall'n the great house once so secure in wealth,

Each scattered member shifting for himself;

枉费了，意悬悬半世心；

好一似，荡悠悠三更梦。

And half a life-time’s anxious schemes

Proved no more than the stuff of dreams.

忽喇喇似大厦倾，昏惨惨似灯将尽。

Like a great building’s tottering crash,

Like flickering lamp wick burned to ash,

呀！一场欢喜忽悲辛。

叹人世，终难定。

Your scene of happiness concludes in grief:

For worldly bliss is always insecure and brief.

【晴雯】

霍克斯 译

霁月难逢，彩云易散。

Seldom the moon shines in a cloudless sky,

And days of brightness all too soon pass by.

心比天高，身为下贱。

A noble and aspiring mind

In a base-born frame confined.

【好了歌】

All Good Things Must End

杨宪益 戴乃迭 译

世人都晓神仙好，惟有功名忘不了。

All men long to be immortals

Yet to riches and rank each aspires;

古今将相在何方，荒冢一堆草没了。

The great ones of old, where are they now?

Their graves are a mass of briars.

世人都晓神仙好，只有金银忘不了。

All men long to be immortals,

Yet silver and gold they prize

终朝只恨聚无多，及到多时眼闭了。

And grub for money all their lives

Till death seals up their eyes.

世人都晓神仙好，只有娇妻忘不了。

All men long to be immortals

Yet dote on the wives they’ve wed,

君生日日说恩情，君死又随人去了。

Who swear to love their husband evermore

But remarry as soon as he’s dead.

世人都晓神仙好，只有儿孙忘不了。

All men long to be immortals

Yet with getting sons won’t have done.

痴心父母古来多，孝顺儿孙谁见了。

Although fond parents are legion,

Who ever saw a really filial son?

【终身误】

A Life Misspent

杨宪益 戴乃迭 译

都道是金玉良姻，俺只念木石前盟。

Well-matched, all say, the gold and the jade;

I alone recall the pledge between plant and stone.

空对着，山中高士晶莹雪；

终不忘，世外仙姝寂寞林。

Vainly facing the hermit in sparkling snow-clad hills

I forget not the fairy in lone woods beyond the world.

叹人间，美中不足今方信。

纵然是齐眉举案，到底意难平。

I sigh, learning that no man’s happiness is complete:

Even a pair thought well-matched

May find disappointment.

【红豆词】

杨宪益 戴乃迭 译

滴不尽相思血泪抛红豆，

开不完春柳春花满画楼，

Like drops of blood fall endless tears of longing,

By painted pavilion grow willows and flowers untold;

睡不稳纱窗风雨黄昏后，

忘不了新愁与旧愁，

Sleepless at night when wind and rain lash gauze windows,

She cannot forget her sorrows new and old;

咽不下玉粒金莼噎满喉，

照不见菱花镜里形容瘦。

Choking on rice like jade and wine like gold,

She turns from her wan reflection in the glass;

展不开的眉头，捱不明的更漏。

Nothing can smooth away her frown,

It seems that the long night will never pass;

呀！恰便似遮不住的青山隐隐，

流不断的绿水悠悠。

Like the shadow of peaks, her grief is never gone;

Like the green stream it flows for ever on.

【黛玉湘云联诗】

杨宪益 戴乃迭 译

寒塘渡鹤影，冷月葬花魂。

A stork’s shadow flit across the chilly pool

The poet’s spirit is buried in cold moonlight.

【飞鸟各投林】

The Birds Into The Wood Have Flown

霍克斯 译

为官的，家业凋零；

富贵的，金银散尽；

The office jack’s career is blighted,

The rich man’s fortune now all vanished,

有恩的，死里逃生；

无情的，分明报应；

The kind with life have been requited,

The cruel exemplarily punished;

欠命的，命已还；

欠泪的，泪已尽。

The one who owed a life is dead,

The tears one owed have all been shed.

冤冤相报实非轻，分离聚合皆前定。

Wrongs suffered have the wrongs done expiated;

The couplings and the sundering were fated.

欲知命短问前生，老来富贵也真侥幸。

Untimely death sin in some past life shows,

But only luck a blest old age bestows.

看破的，遁入空门；

痴迷的，枉送了性命。

The disillusioned to their convents fly,

The still deluded miserably die.

好一似食尽鸟投林，落了片白茫茫大地真干净！

Like birds who, having fed, to the woods repair,

They leave the landscape desolate and bare.