DAVID HAWKES译红楼梦之“宝黛初会”

作者：重阳 标签：红楼梦

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David Hawkes 译红楼梦之“宝黛初会”(1979 INDIANA UNIV PRESS)

录入：悼红轩--重阳 2001.2

While they were speaking, a flurry of footsteps could be heard
outside and a maid came in to say that Bao-yu was back.

'I wonder', thought Dai-yu, 'just what sort of graceless creature
this Bao-yu is going to be!'

The young gentleman who entered in answer to her unspoken question had
a small jewel-encrusted gold coronet on the top of his head and a
golden headband low down over his brow in the form of two dragons
playing with a large pearl.

He was wearing a narrow-sleeved, full-skirted robe of dark red
material with a pattern of flower and butterflies in two shades
of gold. It was confined at the waist with a court girdle of coloured
silks braided at regular intervals into elaborate clusters of
knotwork and terminating in long tassels.

Over the upper part of his robe he wore a jacket of slate-blue
Japanese silk damask with a raised pattern of eight large medallions
on the front and with tasselled borders.

On his feet he had half-length dress boots of black satin with thick
white soles.

As to his person, he had:
　a face like the moon of Mid-Autumn,
　a complexion like flowers at dawn,
　a hairline straight as a knife-cut,
　eyebrows that might have been painted by an artist's brush,
　a shapely nose, and eyes clear as limpid pools,
　that even in anger seemed to smile.
and, as they glared, beamed tenderness the while.

Around his neck he wore a golden torque in the likeness of a dragon
and a woven cord of coloured silks to which the famous jade was
attached.

Dai-yu looked at him with astonishment. How strange! How very
strange! It was as though she had seen him somewhere before, he
was so extraordinarily familiar. Bao-yu went straight past her
and saluted his grandmother, who told him to come after he had
seen his mother, whereupon he turned round and walked straight
out again.

Quite soon he was back once more, this time dressed in a completely
different outfit.

The crown and circlet had gone. She could now see that his side hair
was dressed in a number of small braids plaited with red silk, which
were drawn round to join the long hair at the back in a single large
queue of glistening jet black, fastened at intervals from the nape
downwards with four enormous pearls and ending in a rather more
worn-looking rose-coloured gown, sprigged with flowers. He wore
the gold torque and his jade as before, and a lucky charm. A pair
of ivy-coloured embroidered silk trousers were partially visible
beneath his gown, thrust into black and white socks trimmed with
brocade. In place of the formal boots he was wearing thick-soled
crimson slippers.

She was even more struck than before by his fresh complexion. The
cheeks might have been brushed with powder and the lips touched with
rouge, so bright was their natural colour.
　His glance was soulful,
　yet from his lips the laughter often leaped;
　a world of charm upon that brow was heaped;
　a world of feeling from those dark eyes peeped.

In short, his outward appearance was very fine. But appearances can
be misleading. A perceptive poet has supplied two sets of verses,
to be sung to the tune of Moon On West River, which contain a more
accurate appraisal of our hero than the foregoing descriptions.

　　　　　　　　　　1
　 Oft-times he sought out what would make him sad;
　 Sometimes an idiot seemed and sometime mad.
　 Though outwardly a handsome sausage-skin,
　 He proved to have but sorry meat within.
　 A harum-scarum, to all duty blind,
　 A doltish mule, to study disinclined;
　 His acts outlandish and his nature queer;
　 Yet not a whit cared he how folk might jeer!

　　　　　　　　　 2
　 Prosperous, he could not play his part with graces,
　 Nor, poor, bear hardship with a smiling face.
　 So shamefully the precious hours he'd waste
　 That both indoors and out he was disgraced.
　 For uselessness the world's prize he might bear;
　 His gracelessness in history has no peer.
　 Let gilded youths who every dainty sample
　 Not imitate this rascal's dire example!

'Fancy changing your cloths before you have welcomed the visitor!'
Grandmother Jia chided indulgently on seeing Bao-yu back again.
'Aren't you going to pay your respects to your cousin?'

Bao-yu had already caught sight of a slender, delicate girl whom
he surmised to be his Aunt Lin's daughter and quickly went over to
greet her. Then, returning to his place and taking a seat, he studied
her attentively. How different she seemed from the other girls he
knew!

　 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
　 Habit had given a melancholy cast to her tender face;
　 Nature had bestowed a sickly constitution on her delicate frame.
　 Often the eyes swam with glistening tears;
　 Often the breath came in gentle gasps.
　 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.
　 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.

Having completed his survey, Bao-yu gave a laugh.

'I have seen this cousin before.'

'Nonsense!' said Grandmother Jia. 'How could you possibly done?'

'Well, perhaps not,' said Bao-yu, 'but her face seems so familiar
that I have the impression of meeting her again after a long
separation.'

'All the better,' said Grandmother Jia. 'That means that you should
get on well together.'

Bao-yu moved over again and, drawing a chair up beside Dai-yu,
recommenced his scrutiny.

Presently: 'Do you study books yet, cousin?'

'No,' said Dai-yu. 'I have only been taking lessons for a year or so.
I can barely read and write.'

'What's your name?'

Dai-yu told him.

'What's your school-name?'

'I haven't got one.'

Bao-yu laughed. 'I'll give you one, cousin. I think "Frowner" would
suit you perfectly.'

'Where's your reference?' said Tan-chun.

'In the Encyclopedia of Men and Objects Ancient and Modern it says
that somewhere in the West there is a mineral called "dai" which
can be used instead of eye-black for painting the eyebrows with.
She has this "dai" in her name and she knits her brows together
in a little frown. I think it's a splendid name for her!'

'I expect you made it up!' said Tan-chun scornfully.

'What if I did?' said Bao-yu. 'There are lots of made-up things in
books - apart from the Four Books, of course.'

He returned to his interrogation of Dai-yu.

'Have you got a jade?'

The rest of the company were puzzled, but Dai-yu at once divined
that he was asking her if she too had a jade like the one he was
born with.

'No,' said Dai-yu. 'That jade of yours is a very rare object. You
can't expect everybody to have one.'

This sent Bao-yu off instantly into one of his mad fits. Snatching
the jade from his neck he hurled it violently on the floor as if
to smash it and began abusing it passionately.

'Rare object! Rare object! What's so lucky about a stone that can't
even tell which people are better than others? Beastly thing! I don't
want it!'

The maids all seemed terrified and rushed forward to pick it up,
while Grandmother Jia clung to Bao-yu in alarm.

'Naughty, naughty boy! Shout at someone or strike them if you like
when you are in a nasty temper, but why go smashing that precious
thing that your very life depends on?'

'None of the girls has got one,' said Bao-yu, his face streaming
with tears and sobbing hysterically. 'Only I have got one. It
always upsets me And now this new cousin comes here who is as
beautiful as an angel she hasn't got one either, so I know it can't
be any good.'

'Your cousin did have a jade once,' said Grandmother Jia, coaxing
him like a little child, 'But because when Auntie died she couldn't
bear to leave her little girl behind, they had to let her take the
jade with her instead. In that way your cousin could show her mamma
how much she loved her by letting the jade be buried with her; and
at the same time, whenever Auntie's spirit looked at the jade, it
would be just like looking at her own little girl again.'

'So when your cousin said she hadn't got one, it was only because
she didn't want to boast about the good, kind thing she did when
she gave it to her mamma. Now you put yours on again like a good
boy, and mind your mother doesn't find out how naughty you have
been.'

So saying, she took the jade from the hands of one of the maids and
hung it around his neck for him. And Bao-yu, after reflecting for a
moment or two on what she had said, offered no further resistance.


重阳(galaxyzhang)于 02/03/2001 05:57:50 编辑过本帖