CHAPTER 5 Jia Bao-yu visits the Land of Illusion And the fairy Disenchantment performs the ‘Dream of Golden Days’
第四回中既將薛家母子在榮府中寄居等事略已表明，此回暫可不寫了。如今且說林黛玉自在榮府以來，賈母萬般憐愛，寢食起居一如寶玉，迎春、探春、惜春三個親孫女倒且靠後了。就是寶玉黛玉二人的親密友愛，也較別人不同，日則同行同坐，夜則同止同息，真是言和意順，略無參商。不想如今忽然來了一個薛寶釵，年紀雖大不多，然品格端方，容貌豐美，人多謂黛玉所不及。那寶釵卻又行為豁達，隨分從時，不比黛玉孤高自許，目無下塵，故深得下人之心。就是小丫頭們，亦多和寶釵親近。因此，黛玉心中便有些不忿。寶釵卻是渾然不覺。
From the moment Lin Dai-yu entered the Rong mansion, Grandmother Jia’s solicitude for her had manifested itself in a hundred different ways. The arrangements made for her meals and accommodation were exactly the same as for Bao-yu. The other three granddaughters, Ying-chun, Tan-chun and Xi-chun, were relegated to a secondary place in the old lady’s affections, and the objects of her partiality themselves began to feel an affection for each other which far exceeded what they felt for any of the rest. Sharing each other’s company every minute of the day and sleeping in the same room at night, they developed an understanding so intense that it was almost as if they had grown into a single person. And now suddenly this Xue Bao-chai had appeared on the scene—a young lady who, though very little older than Dai-yu, possessed a grown-up beauty and aplomb in which all agreed Dai-yu was her inferior. Moreover, in contrast to Dai-yu with her alt of lofty self-sufficiency and total obliviousness to all who did not move on the same exalted level as herself, Bao-chai had a generous, accommodating disposition which greatly endeared her to subordinates, so that even the tiniest maid looked on Miss Bao-chai as a familiar friend. Dai-yu could not but feel somewhat put out by this—a fact of which Bao-chai herself, however, was totally unaware.
那寶玉也在孩提之間，況他天性所稟，一片愚拙偏僻，視姊妹兄弟皆出一意，並無親疏遠近之別。如今與黛玉同隨賈母一處坐臥，故略比別的姊妹熟慣些；既熟慣，便更覺親密；既親密，便不免一時有不虞之隙，求全之毀。這日，不知為何，二人言語有些不和起來，黛玉又在房中獨自垂淚。寶玉也自悔言語冒撞，前去俯就，那黛玉方漸漸的回轉過來。
As for Bao-yu, he was still only a child, moreover, whom nature had endowed with the eccentric obtuseness of a simpleton. Brothers, sisters, cousins, were all one to him. In his relationships with people he made no distinction between one person and another. If his relationship with Dai-yu was exceptional, it was because greater proximity—since she was living with him in his grandmother’s quarters—made her more familiar to him than the rest; and greater familiarity bred greater intimacy. And of course, with greater intimacy came the occasional tiffs and misunderstandings that are usual with people who have a great deal to do with each other. One day the two of them had fallen out over something or other and the argument had ended with Dai-yu crying alone in her room and Bao-yu feeling remorsefully that perhaps he had spoken too roughly. Presently he went in to make his peace with her and gradually, very gradually, Dai-yu’s equanimity was restored.
因東邊寧府花園內梅花盛開，賈珍之妻尤氏乃治酒請賈母、邢夫人、王夫人等賞花。是日，先帶了賈蓉夫妻二人來面請賈母等於早飯後過來，就在會芳園遊玩，先茶後酒。不過是寧榮二府眷屬家宴，並無別樣新文趣事可記。
The Winter plum in the gardens of the Ning Mansion was now at its best, and this particular day Cousin Zhen’s wife, You-shi, had some wine taken into the gardens and came over in person, bringing her son Jia Rong and his young wife with her, to invite Grandmother Jia, Lady Xing and Lady Wang to a flower-viewing party. Grandmother Jia and the rest went round as soon as they had finished their breakfast. The party was in the All-scents Garden. It began with tea and continued with Wine, and as it was a family gathering confined to the ladies of the Ning and Rong households, nothing particularly worth recording took place.
一時，寶玉倦怠，欲睡中覺。賈母命人好生哄著，歇息一回再來。賈蓉之妻秦氏便忙笑道：「我們這裡有給寶二叔收拾下的屋子，老祖宗放心，只管交給我就是了。」因向寶玉的奶娘丫鬟等道：「嬤嬤姐姐們，請寶二叔跟我這裡來。」賈母素知秦氏是極妥當的人，－－因他生得嬝娜纖巧，行事又溫柔和平，乃重孫媳中第一個得意之人－－見他去安置寶玉，自然是放心的了。
At one point in the party Bao-yu was overcome with tiredness and heaviness and expressed a desire to take an afternoon nap. Grandmother Jia ordered some of the servants to go back to the house with him and get him comfortably settled, adding that they might return with him later when he was rested; but Qin-shi, the little wife of Jia Rong, smilingly proposed an alternative. ‘We have got just the room here for Uncle Bao. Leave him to me, Grannie dear! He will be quite safe in my hands.’ She turned to address the nurses and maidservants who were in attendance on Bao-yu. ‘Come, my dears! Tell Uncle Bao to follow me.’ Grandmother Jia had always had a high opinion of Qin-shi’s trustworthiness—she was such a charming, delightful little creature, the favourite among her great-granddaughters-in-law—and was quite content to leave the arrangements to her.
當下秦氏引了一簇人來至上房內間，寶玉抬頭看見是一幅畫貼在上面，人物固好，其故事乃是「燃藜圖」，心中便有些不快。又有一副對聯，寫的是：「世事洞明皆學問，人情練達即文章。」及看了這兩句，縱然室宇精美，鋪陳華麗，亦斷斷不肯在這裡了，忙說：「快出去！快出去！」
Qin-shi conducted Bao-yu and his little knot of attendants to an inner room in the main building. As they entered, Bao-yu glanced up and saw a painting hanging above them on the opposite wall. The figures in it were very finely executed. They represented Scholarly Diligence in the person of the Han philosopher Liu Xiang at his book, obligingly illuminated for him by a supernatural being holding a large flaming torch. Bao-yu found the painting—or rather its subject—distasteful. But the pair of mottoes which flanked it proved the last straw:
True learning implies a clear insight into human activities. Genuine culture involves the skillful manipulation of human relationships.
In vain the elegant beauty and splendid furnishings of the room! Qin-shi was given to understand in no uncertain terms that her uncle Bao-yu wished to be out of it at once.
秦氏聽了，笑道：「這裡還不好，往那裡去呢？要不，就往我屋裡去罷。」寶玉點頭微笑。一個嬤嬤說道：「那裡有個叔叔往侄兒房裡睡覺的禮呢？」秦氏笑道：「不怕他惱，他能多大了？就忌諱這些個？上月你沒有看見我那個兄弟來了？雖然和寶二叔同年，兩個人要站在一處，只怕那一個還高些呢。」寶玉道：「我怎麼沒有見過？你帶他來我瞧瞧。」眾人笑道：「隔著二三十里，那裡帶去？見的日子有呢。」
‘If this is not good enough for you,’ said Qin-shi with a laugh, ‘where are we going to put you? — unless you would like to have your rest in my bedroom.’ A little smile played over Bao-yu’s face and he nodded. The nurses were shocked. ‘An uncle sleep in the bedroom of his nephew’s wife! Who ever heard of such a thing!’ Qin-shi laughed again. ‘He won’t misbehave. Good gracious, he’s only a little boy! We don’t have to worry about that sort of thing yet! You know my little brother who came last month: he’s the same age as Uncle Bao, but if you stood them side by side I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if he wasn’t the taller of the two.’ ‘Why haven’t I seen your brother yet?’ Bao-yu demanded. ‘Bring him in and let me have a look at him!’ The servants all laughed. ‘Bring him in? Why, he’s ten or twenty miles away! But I expect you’ll meet him one of these days.’
說著大家來至秦氏臥房。剛至房中，便有一股細細的甜香襲人。寶玉便覺眼餳骨軟，連說：「好香！」入房，向壁上看時，有唐伯虎畫的「海棠春睡圖」，兩邊有宋學士秦太虛寫的一副對聯云：「嫩寒鎖夢因春冷，芳氣襲人是酒香。」案上設著武則天當日鏡室中設的寶鏡。一邊擺著趙飛燕立著舞過的金盤，盤內盛著安祿山擲過傷了太真乳的木瓜。上面設著壽昌公主於含章殿下臥的寶榻，懸的是同昌公主製的連珠帳。寶玉含笑道：「這裡好，這裡好！」秦氏笑道：「我這屋子大約神仙也可以住得了。」說著，親自展開了西施浣過的紗衾，移了紅娘抱過的鴛枕。於是眾奶母伏侍寶玉臥好了，款款散去，只留下襲人、媚人、晴雯、麝月四個丫鬟為伴。秦氏便叫小丫鬟們好生在簷下看著貓兒打架。
In the course of this exchange the party had made its way to Qin-shi’s bedroom. As Bao-yu entered, a subtle whiff of the most delicious perfume assailed his nostrils, making a sweet stickiness inside his drooping eyelids and causing all the joints in his body to dissolve. ‘What a lovely smell!’ He repeated the words several times over. Inside the room there was a painting by Tang Yin entitled ‘Spring Slumber’ depicting a beautiful woman asleep under a crab-apple tree, whose buds had not yet opened. The painting was flanked on either side by a pair of calligraphic scrolls inscribed with a couplet from the brush of the Song poet Qin Guan:
(on one side) The coldness of spring has imprisoned the soft buds in a wintry
dream; (on the other side) The fragrance of wine has intoxicated the beholder with imagined flower-scents.
On a table stood an antique mirror that had once graced the tiring-room of the lascivious empress Wu Ze-tian. Beside it stood the golden platter on which Flying Swallow once danced for her emperor’s delight. And on the platter was that very quince which the villainous An Lu-shan threw at beautiful Yang Gui-fei, bruising her plump white breast. At the far end of the room stood the priceless bed on which Princess Shou-yang was sleeping out of doors under the eaves of the
Han-zhang Palace when the plum-flower lighted on her forehead and set a new fashion for coloured patches. Over it hung a canopy commissioned by Princess Tong-chang entirely fashioned out of ropes of pearls.
‘I like it here,’ said Bao-yu happily. ‘My room,’ said Qin-shi with a proud smile, ‘is lit for an immortal to sleep in.’ And she unfolded a quilted coverlet, whose silk had been laundered by the fabulous Xi Shi, and arranged the double head-rest that Hong-niang once carried for her amorous mistress, The nurses now helped Bao-yu into bed and then tiptoed out, leaving him attended only by his four young maids: Aroma, Skybright, Musk, and Ripple. Qin-shi told them to go outside and stop the cats from lighting on the eaves.
那寶玉纔合上眼，便恍恍惚惚的睡去，猶似秦氏在前，悠悠蕩蕩，跟著秦氏到了一處。但見朱欄玉砌，綠樹清溪，真是人跡不逢，飛塵罕到。寶玉在夢中歡喜，想道：「這個地方兒有趣！我若能在這裡過一生，雖然失了家也願意，強如天天被父母先生管束呢！」正在胡思之間，聽見山後有人作歌曰：
春夢隨雲散，飛花逐水流。寄言眾兒女，何必覓閒愁？
As soon as Bao-yu closed his eyes he sank into a confused sleep in which Qin-shi was still there yet at the same time seemed to be drifting along weightlessly in front of him. He followed her until they came to a place of marble terraces and vermilion balustrades where there were green trees and crystal streams. Everything in this place was so clean and so pure that it seemed as if no human foot could ever have trodden there or floating speck of dust ever blown into it. Bao-yu’s dreaming self rejoiced. ‘What a delightful place!’ he thought. ‘If only I could spend all my life here! How much nicer it would be than living under the daily restraint of my parents and teachers!’ These idle reflections were interrupted by someone singing a song on the other side of a hill:
‘Spring’s dream-time will like drifting clouds disperse, Its flowers snatched by a flood none can reverse. Then tell each nymph and swain ‘Tis folly to invite love’s pain!’
寶玉聽了，是個女孩兒的聲氣。歌音未息，早見那邊走出一個麗人來，蹁躚嬝娜，與凡人大不相同。有賦為證：
方離柳塢，乍出花房。但行處，鳥驚庭樹；將到時，影度迴廊。仙袂乍飄兮，聞麝蘭之馥郁；荷衣欲動兮，聽環珮之鏗鏘。靨笑春桃兮，雲髻堆翠；唇綻櫻顆兮，榴齒含香。盼纖腰之楚楚兮，風迴雪舞；耀珠翠之的的兮，鴨綠鵝黃。出沒花間兮，宜嗔宜喜；徘徊池上兮，若飛若揚。蛾眉欲顰兮，將言而未語；蓮步乍移兮，欲止而仍行。羨美人之良質兮，冰清玉潤；慕美人之華服兮，熌爍文章。愛美人之容貌兮，香培玉篆；比美人之態度兮，鳳翥龍翔。其素若何？春梅綻雪。其潔若何？秋蕙披霜。其靜若何？松生空谷。其豔若何？霞映澄塘。其文若何？龍遊曲沼。其神若何？月射寒江。－－遠慚西子，近愧王嬙。奇矣哉！生於孰地？來自何方？信矣乎瑤池不二，紫府無雙。果何人哉若斯之美也？
It was the voice of a girl. Before its last echoes had died away, a beautiful woman appeared in the quarter from which the voice had come, approaching him with a floating, fluttering motion. She was quite unlike any earthly lady, as the following poem will make clear:
She has left her willow-tree house, from her blossoming bower stepped out; For the birds betray where she walks through the trees that cluster about, And a shadow athwart the winding walk announces that she is near, And a fragrance of musk and orchid from fluttering fairy sleeves, And a tinkle of girdle-gems that falls on the ear At each movement of her dress of lotus leaves.
A peach-tree blossoms in her dimpling cheek; Her cloud-coiled tresses are halcyon-sleek; And she reveals, through parted cherry lips, Teeth like pomegranate pips. Her slim waist’s sinuous swaying calls to mind The dance of snowflakes with the waltzing wind; Hair ornaments of pearl and halcyon blue Outshine her painted forehead’s golden hue. Her face, through blossoms fleetingly disclosed, To mirth or ire seems equally disposed; And as by the waterside she goes, Hovering on light-stepping toes, A half-incipient look of pique Says she would speak, yet would not speak; While her feet, with the same irresolution, Would halt, yet would not interrupt their motion. I contemplate her rate complexion, Ice-pure and lade-like in perfection;
I marvel at her glittering dress, Where art lends grace to sumptuousness;
I wonder at her fine-cut featured—Marble, which fragrance marks as one with living creatures; And I admire her queenly gait, Like stately dance of simurgh with his mate. Her purity I can best show In plum-trees flowering in the snow
Her chastity I shall recall In orchids white at first frost-fall; Her tranquil nature will prevail, Constant as lone pine in an empty vale; Her loveliness as dazzled make As sunset gilding a pellucid lake; Her glittering elegance I can compare With dragons in an ornamental mere; Her dreamy soulfulness most seems Like wintry waters in the moon’s cold beams. The beauties of days gone by by her beauty are all abashed.
Where was she born, and from whence descended? Immortal I judge her, fresh come from fairy feastings by the Jasper Pool, Or from fluting in starry balls, some heavenly concert ended.
寶玉見是一個仙姑，喜的忙來作揖，笑問道：「神仙姐姐，不知從那裡來，如今要往那裡去？我也不知這裡是何處，望乞攜帶，攜帶。」那仙姑道：「吾居離恨天之上，灌愁海之中，乃放春山遣香洞太虛幻境警幻仙姑是也。司人間之風情月債，掌塵世之女怨男癡。因近來風流冤孽，纏綿於此，是以前來訪察機會，佈散相思。今日與爾相逢，亦非偶然。此離吾境不遠，別無他物，僅有自採仙茗一盞，親釀美酒一甕，素練魔舞歌姬數人，新填《紅樓夢》仙曲十二支。可試隨吾一遊否？」
Observing delightedly that the lady was a fairy, Bao-yu hurried forward and saluted her with a smile. ‘Madam Fairy, I don’t know where you have come from or where you are going to, but as I am quite lost in this place, will you please take me with you and be my guide?’ ‘I am the fairy Disenchantment,’ the fairy woman replied. ‘I live beyond the Realm of Separation, in the Sea Of Sadness. There is a Mountain of Spring Awakening which rises from the midst of that sea, and on that mountain is the Paradise of the Full-blown Flower, and in that paradise is the Land of Illusion, which is my home. My business is with the romantic passions, love-debts, girlish heartbreaks and male philandering of your dust-stained, human world.
The reason I have come here today is that recently there has been a heavy concentration of love-karma in this area, and I hope to be able to find an opportunity of distributing a quantity of an amorous thoughts by implanting them in the appropriate breasts. My meeting you here today is no accident but a part of the same project.
‘This place where we are now is not so very far from my home. I have not much to offer you, but would you like to come back with me and let me try to entertain you? I have some fairy tea, which I picked myself. You could have a cup of that. And I have a few jars of choice new wine of my own brewing. I have also been rehearsing a fairy choir and a troupe of fairy dancers in a twelve-part suite which I recently composed called A Dream of Golden Days”. I could get them to perform it for you. What do you think?’
寶玉聽了，喜躍非常，便忘了秦氏在何處了，竟隨了仙姑至一個所在。忽然前面有一座石牌橫建，上書「太虛幻境」四大字，兩邊一副對聯，乃是：「假作真時真亦假，無為有處有還無。」轉過牌坊，便是一座宮門，上面橫書著四個大字，道是：「孽海情天」，也有一副對聯，大書云：「厚地高天，堪歎古今情不盡；痴男怨女，可憐風月債難酬。」
Bao-yu was so excited by this invitation that he quite forgot to wonder what had become of Qin-shi in his eagerness to accompany the fairy. As he followed her, a big stone archway suddenly loomed up in front of them on which THE LAND OF ILLUSION was Written in large characters. A couplet in smaller characters was inscribed on either side of the arch:
Truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true; Real becomes not-real when the unreal’s real.
Having negotiated the archway, they presently came to the gateway of a palace. The following words were inscribed horizontally above the lintel: SEAS OF PAIN AND SKIES OF PASSION whilst the following words were inscribed vertically on the two sides:
Ancient earth and sky Marvel that love’s passion should outlast all time.
Star-crossed men and maids Groan that love’s debts should be so hard to pay.
寶玉看了，心下自思道：「原來如此。但不知何為『古今之情』？又何為『風月之債』？從今倒要領略，領略。」寶玉只顧如此一想，不料早把些邪魔招入膏肓了。當下隨了仙姑，進入二層門內，只見兩邊配殿皆有匾額對聯。一時看不盡許多，惟見幾處寫著的是：「癡情司」，「結怨司」，「朝啼司」，「暮哭司」，「春感司」，「秋悲司」。看了，因向仙姑道：「敢煩仙姑引我到那各司中遊玩遊玩，不知可使得麼？」仙姑道：「此中各司存的是普天下所有的女子過去未來的簿冊，爾乃凡眼塵軀，未便先知的。」寶玉聽了，那裡肯捨？又再四的懇求。那警幻便說：「也罷，就在此司內略隨喜隨喜罷。」寶玉喜不自勝，抬頭看這司的匾上，乃是「薄命司」三字，兩邊寫著對聯道：「春恨秋悲皆自惹，花容月貌為誰妍？」
‘I see,’ said Bao-yu to himself. ‘I wonder what the meaning of “passion that outlasts all time” can be. And what are “love’s debts”? From now on I must make an effort to understand these things.’ He could not, of course, have known it, but merely by thinking this he had invited the attentions of the demon Lust, and at that very moment a little of the demon’s evil poison had entered Bao-yu’s body and lodged itself in the innermost recesses of his heart.
Wholly unconscious of his mortal peril, Bao-yu continued to follow the fairy woman. They passed through a second gateway, and Bao-yu saw a range of palace buildings ahead of them on either hand. The entrance to each building had a board above it proclaiming its name, and there were couplets on either side of the doorways. Bao-yu did not have time to read all of the names, but he managed to make out a few, viz:
DEPARTMENT OF FOND INFATUATION
DEPARTMENT OF CRUEL REJECTION
DEPARTMENT OF EARLY MORNING WEEPING
DEPARTMENT OP LATE NIGHT SOBBING
DEPARTMENT OF SPRING FEVER
DEPARTMENT OF AUTUMN GRIEF
寶玉看了，便知感歎。進入門中，只見有十數個大櫥，皆用封條封著。看那封條上，皆有各省地名。寶玉一心只揀自己家鄉的封條看，只見那邊櫥上封條大書「金陵十二釵正冊」。寶玉因問：「何為『金陵十二釵正冊』？」警幻道：「即爾省中十二冠首女子之冊，故為正冊。」寶玉道：「常聽人說，金陵極大，怎麼只十二個女子？如今單我們家裡，上上下下就有幾百個女孩兒。」警幻微笑道：「一省女子固多，不過擇其緊要者錄之。兩邊二櫥則又次之，餘者庸常之輩便無冊可錄了。」
‘Madam Fairy,’ said Bao-yu, whose interest had been whetted by what he had managed to read, ‘couldn’t you take me inside these offices to have a look around?’ ‘In these offices,’ said the fairy woman, ‘are kept registers in which are recorded the past, present and future of girls from all over the world. It is not permitted that your earthly eyes should look on things that are yet to come.’
Bao-yu was most unwilling to accept this answer, and begged and pleaded so persistently that at last Disenchantment gave in. ‘Very well. You may make a very brief inspection of this office here.’ Delighted beyond measure, Bao-yu raised his head and read the notice above the doorway: DEPARTMENT OP THE ILL-FATED FAIR
The couplet inscribed vertically on either side of the doorway was as follows:
Spring grieves and autumn sorrows were by yourselves provoked. Flower faces, moonlike beauty were to what end disclosed? Bao-yu grasped enough of the meaning to be affected by its melancholy.
Passing inside, he saw a dozen or more large cupboards with paper strips pasted on their doors on which were written the names of different provinces. He was careful to look out for the one belonging to his own area and presently found one on which the paper strip said ‘Jinling, Twelve Beauties of; Main Register’. Bao-yu asked Disenchantment what this meant, and she explained that it was a register of the twelve most out-standing girls of his home province.
‘People all say what a big place Jinling is,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Surely there should be more than just twelve names? Why, even in my own home, if you count the servants, there must be altogether several hundred girls.’ ‘Certainly there area great many girls in the whole province,’ said Disenchantment with a smile, ‘but only the most important ones have been selected for recording in this register. The registers in the cupboards on either side contain two other selections from the same area. But of the host of ordinary girls outside those three dozen we keep no records.’
寶玉再看下首一櫥，上寫著「金陵十二釵副冊」；又一櫥，上寫著「金陵十二釵又副冊」。寶玉便伸手先將又副冊櫥門開了，拿出一本冊來。揭開看時，只見這首頁上畫的，既非人物，亦非山水，不過是水墨滃染，滿紙烏雲濁霧而已。後有幾行字跡，寫道是：
Bao-yu glanced at the other two cupboards referred to by Disenchantment. One was labelled ‘Jinling, Twelve Beauties of; Supplementary Register No.1’; the other was labelled ‘Jinling, Twelve Beauties of; Supplementary Register No.2’. Stretching out his hand he opened the door of the second one, took out Supplementary Register No.2, which was like a large album, and opened it at the first page. It was a picture, but not of a person or a view. The whole page was covered with dark ink washes representing storm-clouds or fog, followed on the next page by a few lines of verse:
霽月難逢，彩雲易散。心比天高，身為下賤。風流靈巧招人怨。壽夭多因誹謗生，多情公子空牽念。
Seldom the moon shines in a cloudless sky, And days of brightness all too soon pass by. A noble and aspiring mind In a base-born frame confined, Your charm and wit did only hatred gain, And in the end you were by slanders slain, Your gentle lord’s solicitude in vain.
寶玉看了不甚明白。又見後面畫著一簇鮮花，一床破蓆。也有幾句言詞，寫道是：
枉自溫柔和順，空云似桂如蘭。堪羨優伶有福，誰知公子無緣！
Bao-yu could not make much sense of this, and turned to the next page. It was another picture, this time of a bunch of fresh flowers and a worn-out mat, again followed by a few limes of verse.
What price your kindness and compliance, Of sweetest flower the rich perfume? You chose the player fortune favoured, Unmindful of your master’s doom.
寶玉看了，益發解說不出是何意思。遂將這一本冊子擱起來，又去開了副冊櫥門，拿起一本冊來，打開看時，只見首頁也是畫，卻畫著一株桂花，下面有一方池沼，其中水涸泥乾，蓮枯藕敗。後面書云：
根並荷花一莖香，平生遭際實堪傷。自從兩地生孤木，致使香魂返故鄉。
Bao-yu was even more mystified by this than by the first page, and laying the album aside, opened the door of the cupboard marked ‘Supplementary Register No. I’ and took out the album from that.
As in the previous album, the first page was a picture. It represented a branch of cassia with a pool underneath. The water in the pool had dried up and the mud in the bottom was dry and cracked. Growing from it was a withered and broken lotus plant. The picture was followed by these lines:
Your stem grew from a noble lotus root, Yet your life passed, poor flower, in low repute. The day two earths shall bear a single tree, Your soul must fly home to its own country.
Once more failing to make any sense of what he saw, Bao-yu picked up the Main Register to look at. In this album the picture on the first page represented two dead trees with a jade belt hanging in their branches and on the ground beneath them a pile of snow in which a golden hairpin lay half-buried. This was followed by a quatrain:
One was a pattern of female virtue, One a wit who made other wits seem slow.
The jade belt in the greenwood hangs, The gold pin is buried beneath the snow.
Bao-yu could not make much sense of this, and turned to the next page. It was another picture, this time of a bunch of fresh flowers and a worn-out mat, again followed by a few limes of verse.
What price your kindness and compliance, Of sweetest flower the rich perfume? You chose the player fortune favoured, Unmindful of your master’s doom.
Bao-yu was even more mystified by this than by the first page, and laying the album aside, opened the door of the cupboard marked ‘Supplementary Register No. I’ and took out the album from that.
As in the previous album, the first page was a picture. It represented a branch of cassia with a pool underneath. The water in the pool had dried up and the mud in the bottom was dry and cracked. Growing from it was a withered and broken lotus plant. The picture was followed by these lines:
Your stem grew from a noble lotus root, Yet your life passed, poor flower, in low repute. The day two earths shall bear a single tree, Your soul must fly home to its own country.
寶玉看了又不解。又去取那正冊看時，只見頭一頁上畫著是兩株枯木，木上懸著一圍玉帶；地下又有一堆雪，雪中一股金簪。也有四句詩道：
可歎停機德，堪憐詠絮才！玉帶林中掛，金簪雪裡埋。
Once more failing to make any sense of what he saw, Bao-yu picked up the Main Register to look at. In this album the picture on the first page represented two dead trees with a jade belt hanging in their branches and on the ground beneath them a pile of snow in which a golden hairpin lay half-buried. This was followed by a quatrain:
One was a pattern of female virtue, One a wit who made other wits seem slow.
The jade belt in the greenwood hangs, The gold pin is buried beneath the snow.
寶玉看了仍不解，待要問時，知他必不肯洩漏天機，待要丟下，又不捨，遂往後看。只見畫著一張弓，弓上掛著一個香櫞。也有一首歌詞云：
二十年來辨是非，榴花開處照宮闈。三春爭及初春景？虎兔相逢大夢歸。
Still Bao-yu was unable to understand the meaning. He would have liked to ask, but he knew that Disenchantment would be unwilling to divulge the secrets of her immortal world. Yet though he could make no sense of the book, for some reason he found himself unable this time to lay it down, and continued to look through it to the end.
The picture that followed was of a bow with a citron hanging from it, followed by what looked like the words of a song:
You shall, when twenty years in life’s hard school are done, In pomegranate-time to palace halls ascend. Though three springs never could with your first spring compare, When hare meets tiger your great dream shall end.
後面又畫著兩個人放風箏，一片大海，一隻大船，船中有一女子，掩面泣涕之狀。畫後也有四句，寫著道：
才自精明志自高，生於末世運偏消。清明涕送江邊望，千里東風一夢遙。後面又畫著幾縷飛雲，一灣逝水。其詞曰：
富貴又何為？襁褓之間父母違。展眼弔斜暉，湘江水逝楚雲飛。後面又畫著一塊美玉，落在泥污之中。其斷語云：
欲潔何曾潔？云空未必空。可憐金玉質，終陷淖泥中！後面忽畫一惡狼，追撲一美女，有欲啖之意。其下書云：
子係中山狼，得志便猖狂。金閨花柳質，一載赴黃粱！後面便是一所古廟，裡面有一美人在內看經獨坐。其判云：
勘破三春景不長，緇衣頓改昔年粧。可憐繡戶侯門女，獨臥青燈古佛旁！後面是一片冰山，山上有一只雌鳳。其判云：
凡鳥偏從末世來，都知愛慕此生才。一從二令三人木，哭向金陵事更哀！後面又是一座荒村野店，有一美人在那裡紡績。其判曰：
勢敗休云貴，家亡莫論親。偶因濟劉氏，巧得遇恩人。詩後又畫一盆茂蘭。旁有一位鳳冠霞帔的美人。也有判云：
桃李春風結子完，到頭誰似一盆蘭？如冰水好空相妒，枉與他人作笑談。詩後又畫一座高樓，上有一美人懸梁自盡。其判云：
情天情海幻情身，情既相逢必主淫。漫言不肖皆榮出，造釁開端實在寧。
Next was a picture of two people flying a kite. There was also a large expanse of sea with a boat in it and a girl in the boat who had buried her face in her hands and appeared to be crying. This was followed by a quatrain:
Blessed with a shrewd mind and a noble heart, Yet born in time of twilight and decay, In spring through tears at river’s bank you gaze, Borne by the wind a thousand miles away.
The next picture showed some scudding wisps of cloud and a stretch of running water followed by these words:
What shall avail you rank and riches, Orphaned while yet in swaddling bands you lay? Soon you must mourn your bright sun’s early setting. The Xiang flows and the Chu clouds sail away.
Next was a picture showing a beautiful jade which had fallen into the mud, followed by words of judgement:
For all your would-be spotlessness And vaunted otherworldliness, You that look down on common flesh and blood, Yourself impure, shall end up in the mud.
Next was a striking picture of a savage wolf pursuing a beautiful girl. He had just seized her with his jaws and appeared to be about to eat her. Underneath it was written:
Paired with a brute like the wolf in the old fable, Who on his saviour turned when he was able, To cruelty not used, your gentle heart Shall, in a twelvemonth only, break apart.
After this was an old temple with a beautiful girl sitting all on her own inside it reading a Buddhist sutra. The words said:
When you see through the spring scene’s transient state, A nun’s black habit shall replace your own. Alas, that daughter of so great a house By Buddha’s altar lamp should sleep alone!
Next was an iceberg with a hen phoenix perched on the top of it, and these words:
This phoenix in a bad time came; All praised her great ability. ‘Two’ makes my riddle with a man and tree: Returning south in tears she met calamity.
Next was a cottage in a deserted village inside which a beautiful girl sat spinning, followed by these words:
When power is lost, rank matters not a jot; When families fall, kinship must be forgot. Through a chance kindness to a country wife Deliverance came for your afflicted life.
This was followed by a picture of a vigorously growing orchid in a pot, beside which stood a lady in full court dress. The words said:
The plum-tree bore her fruit after the rest, Yet, when all’s done, her Orchid was the best. Against your ice-pure nature all in vain The tongues of envy wagged; you felt no pain.
The picture after that showed an upper room in a tail building in which a beautiful girl was hanging by her neck from a beam, having apparently taken her own life. The words said:
Love was her sea, her sky; in such excess Love, meeting with its like, breeds wantonness. Say not our troubles all from Rong’s side came; For their beginning Ning must take the blame.
寶玉還欲看時，那仙姑知他天分高明，性情穎慧，恐泄漏天機，便掩了卷冊，笑向寶玉道：「且隨我去遊玩奇景，何必在此打這悶葫蘆？」
Bao-yu would have liked to see some more, but the fairy woman, knowing how intelligent and sharp-witted he was, began to fear that she was in danger of becoming responsible for a leakage of celestial secrets, and so, snapping the album shut, she said with a laugh, ‘Come with me and we will do some more sight-seeing. Why stay here puzzling your head over these silly riddles?’
寶玉恍恍惚惚，不覺棄了卷冊，又隨警幻來至後面。但見畫棟雕簷，珠簾繡幕，仙花馥郁，異草芬芳，真好所在也！正是：「光搖朱戶金鋪地，雪照瓊窗玉作宮。」又聽警幻笑道：「你們快出來迎接貴客！」一言未了，只見房中走出幾個仙子來，荷袂蹁躚，羽衣飄舞，嬌若春花，媚如秋月。見了寶玉，都怨謗警幻道：「我們不知係何貴客，忙的接出來。姐姐曾說今日今時必有個絳珠妹子的生魂前來遊玩，故我等久待，何故反引這濁物來污染清淨女兒之境？」
Next moment, without quite knowing how it happened, Bao-yu found that he had left the place of registers behind him and was following Disenchantment through the rear parts of the palace. Everywhere there were buildings with ornately carved and painted eaves and rafters, their doorways curtained with strings of pearls and their interiors draped with embroidered hangings. The courtyards outside them were full of deliciously fragrant fairy blooms and rare aromatic herbs.
Gleam of gold pavement flashed on scarlet doors, And in jade walls jewelled casements snow white shone.
‘Hurry, hurry! Come out and welcome the honoured guest!’ he heard Disenchantment calling to someone inside, and almost at once a bevy of fairy maidens came running from the palace, lotus-sleeves fluttering and feather-skirts billowing, each as enchantingly beautiful as the flowers of spring or the autumn moon. Seeing Bao-yu, they began to reproach Disenchantment angrily.
‘So this is your “honoured guest”! What do you mean by making us hurry out to meet him? You told us that today at this very hour the dream-soul of our darling Crimson Pearl was coming to play with us, and we have been waiting I don’t know how long for her arrival. And now, instead, you have brought this disgusting creature to pollute our pure, maidenly precincts. What’s the idea ?’
寶玉聽如此說，便嚇的欲退不能，果覺自形污穢不堪。警幻忙攜住寶玉的手，向眾仙姬笑道：「你等不知原委。今日原欲往榮府去接絳珠，適從寧府經過，偶遇榮寧二公之靈，囑吾云：『吾家自國朝定鼎以來，功名奕世，富貴流傳，已歷百年；奈運終數盡，不可挽回！我等之子孫雖多，竟無可以繼業者。惟嫡孫寶玉一人，稟性乖張，用情怪譎，雖聰明靈慧，略可望成，無奈吾家運數合終，恐無人規引入正。幸仙姑偶來，望先以情欲聲色等事警其癡頑，或能使他跳出迷人圈子，入於正路，亦吾兄弟之幸矣。』
At these words Bao-yu was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of the uncleanness and impurity of his own body and sought in vain for somewhere to escape to; but Disenchantment held him by the hand and advanced towards the fairy maidens with a conciliatory smile.
‘Let me tell you the reason for my change of plan. It is true that I set off for the Rong mansion with the intention of fetching Crimson Pearl, but as I was passing through the Ning mansion on my way, I happened to run into the Duke of Ning–guo and his brother the Duke of Rong-guo and they laid a solemn charge on me which I found it hard to refuse. ‘“In the hundred years since the foundation of the present dynasty,” they said, “several generations of our house have distinguished themselves by their services to the Throne and have covered themselves with riches and honours; but now its stock of good fortune has run out, and nothing can be done to replenish it. And though our descendants are many, not one of them is worthy to carry on the line. The only possible exception, our great-grandson Bao-yu, has inherited a perverse, intractable nature and is eccentric and emotionally unstable; and although his natural brightness and intelligence augur well, we fear that owing to the fated eclipse of our family’s fortunes there will be no one at hand to give the lad proper guidance and to start him off along the right lines. ‘“May we profit from the fortunate accident of this encounter, Madam, to entreat you to take the boy in hand for us? Could you perhaps initiate him in the pleasures of the flesh and all that sort of thing in such a way as to shock the silliness out of him? In that way he might stand a chance of escaping some of the traps that people fall into and be able to devote himself single-mindedly to the serious things of life. It would be such a kindness if you would do this for us.”
如此囑吾，故發慈心，引彼至此。先以他家上中下三等女子的終身冊籍，令其熟玩，尚未覺悟；故引了再到此處，遍歷那飲饌聲色之幻，或冀將來一悟，未可知也。」說畢，攜了寶玉入室。但聞一縷幽香，不知所焚何物，寶玉不禁相問。警幻冷笑道：「此香乃塵世所無，爾如何能知！此係諸名山勝境初生異卉之精，合各種寶林珠樹之油所製：名為『群芳髓』。」
‘Hearing the old gentlemen so earnest in their entreaty, I was moved to compassion and agreed to bring the boy here. I began by letting him have a good look at the records of the three grades of girls belonging to his own household; but the experience did not bring any awareness; and so I have brought him to this place for another attempt. It is my hope that a full exposure to the illusions of feasting, drinking, music and dancing may succeed in bringing about an awakening in him some time in the future.’
Having concluded her explanation, she led Bao-yu indoors. At once he became aware of a faint, subtle scent, the source of which he was quite unable to identify and about which he felt impelled to question Disenchantment. ‘How could you possibly know what it was,’ said Disenchantment with a somewhat scornful smile, ‘since this perfume is not to be found anywhere in your mortal world? It is made from the essences of rare plants found on famous mountains and other places of great natural beauty, culled when they are new-grown and blended with gums from the pearl-laden trees that grow in the jewelled groves of paradise. It is called “Belles Se Fanent”.’
寶玉聽了，自是羨慕。於是大家入座，小鬟捧上茶來。寶玉覺得香清味美，迥非常品，因又問何名。警幻道：「此茶出在放春山遣香洞，又以仙花靈葉上所帶的宿露烹了，名曰『千紅一窟』。」寶玉聽了，點頭稱賞，因看房內，瑤琴、寶鼎、古畫、新詩，無所不有。更喜窗下亦有唾絨，奩間時漬粉污。壁上也掛著一副對聯，書云：「幽微靈秀地，無可奈何天。」寶玉看畢，因又請問眾仙姑姓名：一名癡夢仙姑，一名鍾情大士，一名引愁金女，一名度恨菩提，各各道號不一。
Bao-yu expressed his admiration. The company now seated themselves, and some little maids served them with tea. Bao-yu found its fragrance fresh and clean and its flavour delicious, totally unlike those of any earthly blend he knew. He asked Disenchantment for the name. ‘The leaves are picked in the Paradise of the Full-blown Flower on the Mountain of Spring Awakening,’ Disenchantment informed him. ‘It is infused in water collected from the dew that lies on fairy flowers and leaves. The name is “Maiden’s Tears”.’
Bao-yu nodded attentively and commended the tea. Looking around the room he noticed various musical instruments, antique bronzes, paintings by old masters, poems by new poets, and other hallmarks of gracious living. He was particularly delighted to observe some rouge-stained pieces of cotton-wool lying on the window-sill—evidently the aftermath of some fairy-woman’s toilet. A pair of calligraphic scrolls hung on the wall, making up the following couplet:
Earth’s choicest spirits in the dark lie hid: Heaven ineluctably enforced their fate.
After reading the scrolls, Bao-yu asked to be introduced to the fairy maidens. They had a strange assortment of names. One was called Dream-of-bliss, another was called Loving-heart, a third Ask-for-trouble, a fourth Past-regrets, and the rest all had names that were equally bizarre.
少刻，有小鬟來調桌安椅，擺設酒饌。正是：「瓊漿滿泛玻璃盞，玉液濃斟琥珀杯。」寶玉因此酒香冽異常，又不禁相問。警幻道：「此酒乃以百花之蕊，萬木之汁，加以麟髓鳳乳釀成，因名為『萬艷同杯』。」寶玉稱賞不迭。
Presently the little maids came in again and proceeded to arrange some chairs around a table and to lay it with food and wine for a feast. In the words of the poet, Celestial nectar filled the crystal cup, and liquid gold in amber goblets glowed. The wine’s bouquet was delectable, and once again Bao-yu could not resist asking about it. ‘This wine,’ said Disenchantment, ‘is made from the petals of hundreds of different kinds of flowers and extracts from thousands of different sorts of trees. These are blended and fermented with kylin’s marrow and phoenix milk. Hence its name, “Lachrymae Rerum”’ Bao-yu praised it enthusiastically.
飲酒間，又有十二個舞女上來請問演何詞曲。警幻道：「就將新制紅樓夢十二支演上來。」舞女們答應了，便輕敲檀板，款按銀箏。聽他歌道是：「開闢鴻蒙，」方歌了一句，警幻道：「此曲不比塵世中所填傳奇之曲，必有生旦淨末之則，又有南北九宮之限。此或詠歎一人，或感懷一事，偶成一曲，即可譜入管弦，若非個中人，不知其中之妙。料爾亦未必深明此調，若不先閱其稿，後聽其歌，反成嚼蠟矣。」說畢，回頭命小鬟取了紅樓夢原稿來，遞與寶玉。寶玉接過來，一面目視其文，耳聆其歌曰：
紅樓夢引子
開闢鴻濛，誰為情種？都只為風月情濃，趁著這奈何天，傷懷日，寂寥時，試遣愚衷：因此上，演出這懷金悼玉的紅樓夢。
As they sat drinking wine, a troupe of twelve dancers entered and inquired what pieces they should perform for the company’s entertainment. ‘You can do the twelve songs of my new song-and-dance suite “A Dream of Golden Days”,’ said Disenchantment.
At once the sandalwood clappers began, very softly, to beat out a rhythm, accompanied by the sedate twang of the Zheng’s silver strings and by the voice of a singer.
‘When first the world from chaos rose…’
The singer had got no further than the first line of the first song when Disenchantment interrupted. ‘This suite,’ she told Bao-yu, ‘is not like the music-dramas of your earthly composers in which there are always the fixed parts of sheng, dan, jing, mo and so on, and set tunes in the various Northern and Southern modes. In my suite each song is an elegy on a single person or event and the tunes are original compositions which we have orchestrated ourselves. You need to know what the songs are about in order to appreciate them properly. I should not imagine you are very familiar with this sort of entertainment; so unless you read the libretto of the songs first before listening to them, I fear you may find them rather insipid.’
Turning to one of the maids, she ordered her to fetch the manuscript of her libretto of ‘A Dream of Golden Days’ and gave it to Bao-yu to read, so that he could listen to the songs with one eye on the text. These were the words in Disenchantment’s manuscript:
Prelude: A Dream of Golden Days
When first the world from chaos rose, Tell me, how did love begin?
The wind and moonlight first did love compose. Now woebegone And quite cast down In low estate I would my foolish heart expose, And so perform This Dream of Golden Days,
And all my grief for my lost loves disclose.
終身誤
都道是金玉良緣，俺只念木石前盟。空對著山中高士晶瑩雪，終不忘世外仙姝寂寞林。歎人間，美中不足今方信：縱然是齊眉舉案，到底意難平！
First Song: The Mistaken Marriage
Let others all Commend the marriage rites of gold and jade; I still recall The bond of old by stone and flower made; And while my vacant eyes behold Crystalline snows of beauty pure and cold, From my mind can not be banished That fairy wood forlorn that from the world has vanished. How true I find That every good some imperfection bolds! Even a wife so courteous and so kind No comfort’ brings to my afflicted mind.
枉凝眉
一個是閬苑仙葩，一個是美玉無瑕。若說沒奇緣，今生偏又遇著他；若說有奇緣，如何心事終虛化？一個枉自嗟呀，一個空勞牽掛。一個是水中月，一個是鏡中花。想眼中能有多少淚珠兒，怎禁得秋流到冬盡，春流到夏？
卻說寶玉聽了此曲，散漫無稽，未見得好處，但其聲韻悽惋，竟能銷魂醉魄。因此也不問其原委，也不究其來歷，就暫以此釋悶而已。因又看下面道：
Second Song: Hope Betrayed
One was a flower from paradise, One a pure jade without spot or stain.
If each for the other one was not intended, Then why in this life did they meet again? And yet if fate bad meant them for each other, Why was their earthly meeting all in vain? In vain were all her sighs and tears, In vain were all his anxious fears: All, insubstantial, doomed to pass, As moonlight mirrored in the water Or flowers reflected in a glass. Row many tears from those poor eyes could flow, Which every season rained upon her woe?
恨無常
喜榮華正好，恨無常又到。眼睜睜，把萬事全拋。蕩悠悠，芳魂銷耗。望家鄉，路遠山高，故向爹娘夢裡相尋告：兒命已入黃泉，天倫呵，須要退步抽身早！
Third Song: Mutability,
In the full flower of her prosperity Once more came mortal mutability, Bidding her, with both eyes wide, All earthly things to cast aside, And her sweet soul upon the airs to glide. So far the road back home did seem That to her parents in a dream Thus she her final duty paid: ‘I that now am but a shade, Parents dear, For your happiness I fear: Do not tempt the hand of fate! Draw back, draw back, before it is too late!’
分骨肉
一帆風雨路三千，把骨肉家園齊來拋閃。恐哭損殘年，告爹娘，休把兒懸念：自古窮通皆有定，離合豈無緣？從今分兩地，各自保平安。奴去也，莫牽連！
Fourth Song: From Dear Ones Parted
Sail, boat, a thousand miles through rain and wind, Leaving my home and dear ones far behind. I fear that my remaining years will waste away in homesick tears. Father dear and mother mild, Be not troubled for your child! From of old our rising, falling Was ordained; so now this parting. Each in another land must be; Each for himself must fend as best he may; Now I am gone, oh. do not weep for me!
樂中悲
襁褓中，父母歎雙亡。縱居那綺羅叢，誰知嬌養？幸生來英豪闊大寬宏量，從未將兒女私情，略縈心上，好一似霽月光風耀玉堂。廝配得才貌仙郎，博得個地久天長，準折得幼年時坎坷形狀。終久是雲散高唐，水涸湘江：這是塵寰中消長數應當，何必枉悲傷？
Fifth Song: Grief Amidst Gladness
While you still in cradle lay, Both your parents passed away Though born to silken luxury, No warmth or kind indulgence came your way. Yet yours was a generous, open-hearted nature, And never could be snared or soured By childish piques and envious passions—You were a crystal house by wind and moonlight scoured. Matched to a perfect, gentle husband, Security of bliss at last it seemed, And all your childish miseries redeemed. But soon alas! the clouds of Gao-tang faded, The waters of the Xiang ran dry. In our grey world so are things always ordered: What then avails it to lament and sigh?
世難容
氣質美如蘭，才華馥比仙，天生成孤癖人皆罕。你道是啖肉食腥膻，視綺羅俗厭；卻不知太高人愈妒，過潔世同嫌。可歎這青燈古殿人將老，孤負了紅粉朱樓春色闌！到頭來，依舊是風塵骯髒違心願，好一似無瑕白玉遭泥陷。又何須王孫公子歎無緣？
Sixth Song: All at Odds
Heaven made you like a flower, With grace and wit to match the gods, Adding a strange, contrary nature That set you with the test at odds. Nauseous to you the world’s rank diet, Vulgar its fashion’s gaudy dress: But the world envies the superior And hates a too precious daintiness. Sad it seemed that your life should in dim-lit shrines be wasted, All the sweets of spring untasted: Yet, at the last, Down into mud and shame your hopes were cast, Like a white, flawless jade dropped in the muck, Where only wealthy rakes might bless their luck.
喜冤家
中山狼，無情獸，全不念當日根由，一味的驕奢淫蕩貪歡媾。覷著那侯門豔質同蒲柳，作踐的公府千金似下流。歎芳魂豔魄，一載蕩悠悠！
Seventh Song: Husband and Enemy
Zhong-shan wolf, Inhuman sot, Who for past kindnesses cared not a jot! Bully and spendthrift, reckless in debauch, For riot or for whoring always hot! A delicate young wife of gentle stock To you was no more than a lifeless block, And bore, when you would rant and rave, Treatment fat worse than any slave; So that her delicate, sweet soul In just a twelvemonth from its body stole.
虛花悟
將那三春看破，桃紅柳綠待如何？把這韶華打滅，覓那清淡天和。說什麼天上夭桃盛，雲中杏蕊多？到頭來，誰見把秋捱過？則看那白楊村裡人嗚咽，青楓林下鬼吟哦，更兼著連天衰草遮墳墓。這的是昨貧今富人勞碌，春榮秋謝花折磨。似這般生關死劫誰能躲？聞說道西方寶樹喚婆娑，上結著長生果。
Eighth Song: The Vanity of Spring
When triple spring as vanity was seen, What use the blushing flowers, the willows green? From youth’s extravagance you sought release To win chaste quietness and heavenly peace. The hymeneal peach-blooms in the sky, The flowering almond’s blossoms seen on high Dismiss, since none, for sure, Can autumn’s blighting frost endure. Amidst sad aspens mourners sob and sigh, In maple woods the poor ghosts thinly cry, And under the dead grasslands lost graves lie. Now poor, now rich, men’s lives in toil are passed To be, like summer’s pride, cut down at last. The doors of life and death all must go through. Yet this I know is true: In Paradise there grows a precious tree Which bears the fruit of immortality.
聰明累
機關算盡太聰明，反算了卿卿性命！生前心已碎，死後性空靈。家富人寧，終有個家亡人散各奔騰。枉費了意懸懸半世心，好一似蕩悠悠三更夢。忽喇喇，似大廈傾，昏慘慘，似燈將盡。呀！一場歡喜忽悲辛，歎人世，終難定！
Ninth Song: Caught By Her Own Cunning
Too shrewd by half, with such finesse you wrought That your own life in your own toils was caught; But long before you died your heart was slain, And when you died your spirit walked in vain. Fall’n the great house once so secure in wealth, Each scattered member shifting for himself; And half a life-time’s anxious schemes Proved no more than the stuff of dreams. Like a great building’s tottering crash, Like flickering lampwick burned to ash, Your scene of happiness concludes in grief: For worldly bliss is always insecure and brief.
留餘慶
留餘慶，留餘慶，忽遇恩人。幸娘親，幸娘親，積得陰功。勸人生：濟困扶窮，休似俺那愛銀錢忘骨肉的狠舅奸兄！正是乘除加減，上有蒼穹。
Tenth Song: The Survivor
Some good remained, Some good remained: The daughter found a friend in need Through her mother’s one good deed. So let all men the poor and meek sustain, And from the example of her cruel kin refrain, Who kinship scorned and only thought of gain. For far above the constellations One watches all and makes just calculations.
晚韶華
鏡裡恩情，更那堪夢裡功名！那美韶華去之何迅？再休提繡帳鴛衾，只這戴珠冠，披鳳襖，也抵不了無常性命！雖說是人生莫受老來貧，也須要陰騭積兒孫。氣昂昂頭戴簪纓，光燦燦胸懸金印，威赫赫爵祿高登，昏慘慘黃泉路近。問古來將相可還存？也只是虛名兒與後人欽敬。
Eleventh Song: Splendour Come Late
Favour, a shadow in the glass; Fame, a dream that soon would pass: The blissful flowering-time of youth soon fled, Soon, too, the pleasures of the bridal bed. A pearl-encrusted crown and robes of state Could not for death untimely compensate; And though each man desires Old age from want made free, True blessedness requires A clutch of young heirs at the knee. Proudly upright
The head with cap and hands of office on, And gleaming bright Upon his breast the gold insignia shone. An awesome sight To see him so exalted stand! – Yet the black night Of death’s dark frontier lay close at hand. All those whom history calls great Left only empty names for us to venerate.
好事終
畫梁春盡落香塵。擅風情，秉月貌，便是敗家的根本。箕裘頹墮皆從敬，家事消亡首罪寧，宿孽總因情！
Twelfth Song: The Good Things Have An End
Perfumed was the dust that fell From painted beams where springtime ended. Her sportive heart And amorous looks The ruin of a mighty house portended. The weakness in the line began with Jing; The blame for the decline lay first in Ning; But retribution all was of Love’s fashioning.
飛鳥各投林
為官的，家業凋零；富貴的，金銀散盡；有恩的，死裡逃生；無情的，分明報應；欠命的，命已還；欠淚的，淚已盡：冤冤相報實非輕，分離聚合皆前定。欲知命短問前生，老來富貴也真徼倖。看破的，遁入空門；痴迷的，枉送了性命：好一似食盡鳥投林，落了片白茫茫大地真乾淨！
Epilogue: The Birds Into The Wood Have Flown
The office jack’s career is blighted, The rich man’s fortune now all vanished, The kind with life have been requited, The cruel exemplarily punished; The one who owed a life is dead, The tears one owed have all been shed. Wrongs suffered have the wrongs done expiated; The couplings and the sundering were fated. Untimely death sin in some past life shows, But only luck a blest old age bestows. The disillusioned to their convents fly, The still deluded miserably die. Like birds who, having fed, to the woods repair, They leave the landscape desolate and bare.
歌畢，還要歌副曲。警幻見寶玉甚無趣味，因歎：「癡兒竟尚未悟！」那寶玉忙止歌姬，不必再唱，自覺朦朧恍惚，告醉求臥。警幻便命撤去殘席，送寶玉至一香閨繡閣中。其間鋪陳之盛乃素所未見之物。更可駭者，早有一位仙姬在內，其鮮豔嫵媚，大似寶釵，嬝娜風流，又如黛玉。正不知是何意，忽見警幻說道：「塵世中多少富貴之家，那些綠窗風月，繡閣煙霞，皆被那些淫污紈袴與流蕩女子玷辱了。更可恨者，自古來，多少輕薄浪子皆以好色不淫為飾，又以情而不淫作案，此皆飾非掩醜之語耳。好色即淫，知情更淫。是以巫山之會、雲雨之歡，皆由既悅其色、復戀其情所致。吾所愛汝者，乃天下古今第一淫人也。」
Having reached the end of this suite, the singers showed signs of embarking on another one. Disenchantment observed with a sigh that Bao-yu was dreadfully bored. ‘Silly boy! You still don’t understand, do you?, Bao-yu hurriedly stopped the girls and told them that they need not sing any more. He felt dizzy and his head was spinning. He explained to Disenchantment that he had drunk too much and would like to lie down. At once she ordered the remains of the feast to be removed and conducted Bao-yu to a dainty bedroom. The furnishings and hangings of the bed were more sumptuous and eautiful than anything he had ever seen. To his intense surprise there was a fairy girl sitting in the middle of it. Her rose-fresh beauty reminded him strongly of Bao-chai, but there was also something about her of Dai-yu’s delicate charm. As he was pondering the meaning of this apparition, he suddenly became aware that Disenchantment was addressing him.
‘In the rich and noble households of your mortal world, too many of those bowers and boudoirs where innocent tenderness and sweet girlish fantasy should reign are injuriously defiled by coarse young voluptuaries and loose, wanton girls. And what is even more detestable, there are lways any number of worthless philanderers to protest that it is woman’s beauty alone that inspires them, or loving feelings alone, unsullied by any taint of lust. They lie in their teeth! To be moved by woman’s beauty is itself a kind of lust. To experience loving feelings is, even more assuredly, a kind of lust. Every act of love, every carnal congress of the sexes is brought about precisely because sensual delight in beauty has kindled the feeling of love.
‘The reason I like you so much is because you are full of lust. You are the most lustful person I have ever known in the whole world!’
寶玉聽了，嚇的慌忙答道：「仙姑差了。我因懶於讀書，家父母尚每垂訓飭，豈敢再冒『淫』字？況且年紀尚幼，不知『淫』為何事。」警幻道：「非也。淫雖一理，意則有別。如世之好淫者，不過悅容貌，喜歌舞，調笑無厭，雲雨無時，恨不能盡天下之美女供我片時之趣興，此皆皮膚濫淫之蠢物耳。如爾，則天分中生成一段癡情，吾輩推之為意淫。惟『意淫』二字可心會而不可口傳，可神通而不可語達。汝今獨得此二字，在閨閣中雖可為良友，卻於世道中未免迂闊怪詭，百口嘲謗，萬目睚眥。今既遇爾祖寧榮二公，剖腹深囑，吾不忍子獨為我閨閣增光，而見棄於世道，故引子前來，醉以美酒，沁以仙茗，警以妙曲，再將吾妹一人－－乳名兼美，表字可卿者－－許配與汝。今夕良時，即可成姻。不過令汝領略此仙閨幻境之風光尚然如此，何況塵世之情景呢？從今後，萬萬解釋，改悟前情，留意於孔孟之間，委身於經濟之道。」說畢，便秘授以「雲雨」之事，推寶玉入房中，將門掩上自去。
Bao-yu was scared by the vehemence of her words. ‘Madam Fairy, you are wrong! Because I am lazy over my lessons, Mother and Father still have to scold me quite often; but surely that doesn’t make me lustful? I’m still too young to know what they do, the people they use that word about.’ ‘Ah, but you are lustful!’ said Disenchantment. ‘In principle, of course, all lust is the same. But the word has many different meanings.
For example, the typically lustful man in the common sense of the word is a man who likes a pretty face, who is fond of singing and dancing, who is inordinately given to flirtation; one who makes love in season and out of season, and who, if he could, would like to have every pretty girl in the world at his disposal, to gratify his desires whenever he felt like it. Such a person is a mere brute. His is a shallow, promiscuous kind of lust. ‘But your kind of lust is different. That blind, defenceless love with which nature has filled your being is what we call here “lust of the mind”. “Lust of the mind” cannot be explained in words, nor, if it could, would you be able to grasp their meaning. Either you know what it means or you don’t.
‘Because of this “lust of the mind” women will find you a kind and understanding friend; but in the eyes of the world I am afraid it is going to make you seem unpractical and eccentric. It is going to earn you the jeers of many and the angry looks of many more.
‘Today I received a most touching request on your behalf from your ancestors the Duke of Ning-guo and the Duke of Rong-guo. And as I cannot bear the idea of your being rejected by the world for the greater glory of us women, I have brought you here. I have made you drunk with fairy wine. I have drenched you with fairy tea. I have admonished you with fairy songs. And now I am going to give you my little sister Two-in-one—”Ke-qing” to her friends—to be your bride.
‘The time is propitious. You may consummate the marriage this very night. My motive in arranging this is to help you grasp the fact that, ‘since even in these immortal precincts love is an illusion, the love of your dust-stained, mortal world must be doubly an illusion. It is my earnest hope that, knowing this, you will henceforth be able to shake yourself free of its entanglements and change your previous way of thinking, devoting your mind seriously to the teachings of Confucius and Mencius and your person wholeheartedly to the betterment of society.’
Disenchantment then proceeded to give him secret instructions in the art of love; then, pushing him gently inside the room, she closed the door after him and went away.
那寶玉恍恍惚惚，依著警幻所囑，未免有兒女之事，難以盡述。至次日，便柔情繾綣，軟語溫存，與可卿難解難分。因二人攜手出去遊玩之時，忽至一個所在，但見荊榛遍地，狼虎同群，迎面一道黑溪阻路，並無橋梁可通。正在猶豫之間，忽見警幻從後追來，說道：「快休前進！作速回頭要緊！」寶玉忙止步問道：「此係何處？」警幻道：「此乃迷津，深有萬丈，遙亙千里，中無舟楫可通，只有一個木筏，乃木居士掌柁，灰侍者撐篙，不受金銀之謝，但遇有緣者渡之。爾今偶遊至此，設如墜落其中，便深負我從前諄諄警戒之語了。」話猶未了，只聽迷津內響如雷聲，有許多夜叉海鬼，將寶玉拖將下去。嚇得寶玉汗下如雨，一面失聲喊叫：「可卿救我！」嚇得襲人輩眾丫鬟忙上來摟住，叫：「寶玉，不怕，我們在這裡呢。」
Dazed and confused, Bao-yu nevertheless proceeded to follow out the instructions that Disenchantment had given him, which led him by predictable stages to that act which boys and girls perform together and which it is not my intention to give a full account of here. Next morning he lay for a long time locked in blissful tenderness with Ke-qing, murmuring sweet endearments in her ear and unable to tear himself away from her. Eventually they emerged from the bedroom hand in hand to walk together out-of-doors.
Their walk seemed to take them quite suddenly to a place where only thorn-trees grew and wolves and tigers prowled around in pairs. Ahead of them the road ended at the edge of a dark ravine. No bridge connected it with the other side. As they hesitated, wondering what to do, they suddenly became aware that Disenchantment was running up behind them. ‘Stop! Stop!’ she was shouting. ‘Turn back at once! Turn back!’ Bao-yu stood still in alarm and asked her what place this was.
‘This is the Ford of Error,’ said Disenchantment. ‘It is ten thousand fathoms deep and extends hundreds of miles in either direction. No boat can ever cross it; only a raft manned by a lay-brother called Numb and an acolyte called Dumb. Numb holds the steering-paddle and Dumb wields the pole. They won’t ferry anyone across for money, but only take those who are fated to cross over.
‘If you had gone on walking just now and had fallen in, all the good advice I was at such pains to give you would have been wasted!’ Even as she spoke there was a rumbling like thunder from inside the abyss and a multitude of demons and water monsters reached up and clutched at Bao-yu to drag him down into its depths. In his terror the sweat broke out over his body like rain and a great cry burst from his lips, ‘Ke-qing! Save me!’
Aroma and his other maids rushed upstairs in alarm and clung to him. Don’t be frightened, Bao-yu! We are here!’
卻說秦氏正在房外囑咐小丫頭們好生看著貓兒狗兒打架，忽聞寶玉在夢中喚他的小名兒，因納悶道：「我的小名兒，這裡從無人知道，他如何得知，在夢中叫出來？」
But Qin-shi, who was out in the courtyard telling the maids to be sure that the cats and dogs didn’t fight, marvelled to hear him call her name out in his sleep. ‘“Ke-qing” was the name they called me back at home when I was a little girl. Nobody here knows it. I wonder how he could have found it out?’
未知何因，下回分解。
If you have not yet fathomed the answer to her question, you must read the next chapter.
MeTime 