蒲松龄《褚遂良》英译

    长山赵某，税屋大姓。病癓结，又孤贫，奄然就毙。一日力疾就凉，移卧檐下。及醒，见绝代丽人坐其旁，因诘问之，女曰：“我特来为汝作妇。”某惊曰：“无论贫人不敢有妄想；且奄奄一息，有妇何为！”女曰：“我能治之。”某曰：“我病非仓猝可除，纵有良方，其如无资买药何！”女曰：“我医疾不用药也。”遂以手按赵腹，力摩之。觉其掌热如火。移时腹中痞块，隐隐作解拆声。又少时欲登厕。急起走数武，解衣大下，胶液流离，结块尽出，觉通体爽快。

返卧故处，谓女曰：“娘子何人？祈告姓氏，以便尸祝。”答云：“我狐仙也。君乃唐朝褚遂良，曾有恩于妾家，每铭心欲一图报。日相寻觅，今始得见，夙愿可酬矣。”某自惭形秽，又虑茅屋灶煤，玷染华裳。女但请行。赵乃导入家，土莝无席，灶冷无烟，曰：“无论光景如此，不堪相辱；即卿能甘之，请视瓮底空空，又何以养妻子？”女但言：“无虑。”言次一回头，见榻上毡席衾褥已设；方将致诘，又转瞬，见满室皆银光纸裱贴如镜，诸物已悉变易，几案精洁，肴酒并陈矣。遂相欢饮。日暮与同狎寝，如夫妇。

主人闻其异，请一见之，女即出见。无难色。由此四方传播，造门者甚伙。女并不拒绝。或设筵招之，女必与夫俱。一日，座中一孝廉，阴萌淫念。女已知之，忽加诮让。即以手推其首；首过棂外，而身犹在室，出入转侧，皆所不能。因共哀免，方曳出之。积年余，造请者日益烦，女颇厌之。被拒者辄骂赵。

    值端阳，饮酒高会，忽一白兔跃入。女起曰：“春药翁来见召矣！”谓兔曰：“请先行。”兔趋出，径去。女命赵取梯。赵于舍后负长梯来，高数丈。庭有大树一章，便倚其上；梯更高于树杪。女先登，赵亦随之。女回首曰：“亲宾有愿从者，当即移步。”众相视不敢登。惟主人一僮，踊跃从其后，上上益高，梯尽云接，不可见矣。共视其梯，则多年破扉，去其白板耳。群入其室，灰壁败灶依然，他无一物。犹意僮返可问，竟终杳已。

刘士聪 译:

Chu Suiliang

A Mr. Zhao of Changshan County lived in a hut he rented from a landlord of a large estate. Zhao had contracted a tumor in his belly. As he was all alone and penniless, he was dying any moment.

One day he struggled to come out for coolness and soon dozed off in the shade under the eaves. When he awoke, however, he found a young woman of dazzling beauty sitting by his side. He asked what she had come for and she said: “I’ve come specially to serve you as your wife.”

Zhao was surprised and said: “I am a poor man and I dare not have such notions. And further, as you see, I am already breathing my last. So there is no sense in keeping a wife.”

“But I can cure you of your trouble,” said the woman.

“Well,” said Zhao, “my trouble cannot be cured easily. Even though you have an efficacious remedy, it won’t help, because I can’t afford the medicine.”

“Don’t worry about that,” said the woman. “I can cure diseases without applying any medicine.”

With that she put her hands upon Zhao’s belly, massaging it hard. Her palms felt hot like fire. As she moved her hands up and down his belly, he seemed to hear slight noises of the tumor coming apart. In a minute or two he felt like releasing himself. He scrambled up, hurried off a few paces, but hardly had he unbelted his trousers when he started gushing a great stream of gluey fluid. The tumor was gone and he felt relieved and refreshed throughout. When he came back and lay under the eaves again, he said to the woman, “Please tell me who you are and what is your name, so that I can put up a memorial tablet and pray for you.”

“To tell you the truth,” said she, “I’m a fox fairy and you were Minister Chu Suiliang of the Tang Dynasty in your previous incarnation. You once did a good turn to me and I have been keeping that in mind, hoping some day to repay your kindness. I have been looking for you ever since and now I have found you here at last. My lifetime wish will be fulfilled.”

But Zhao was sorry for his miserable conditions and worried that his dusty hut would foul up her beautiful dress. The woman, however, asked him to please just go ahead and show her into his room and he did. The bare earthen bed was strewn with dry grass and the cooking stove was smokeless and cold.

“You see,” said Zhao, “I can’t afford to embarrass you with such dreadful conditions. Even if you can put up with it, how can I keep a wife when there is not a single grain in the pot? Please come over and see for yourself.”

“Don’t worry...” said the woman. No sooner had she said it than Zhao turned and found that the earthen bed was covered with a felt mattress with a pile of quilts on it. As he was about to ask, he saw the walls around pasted with silvery paper, as reflective as mirrors. Everything in the room was changed. The table, clean and shiny, was laid with food and wine. They sat down to it, eating and drinking with savory relish. When it was dark they went to bed, enjoying themselves like husband and wife.

The landlord, learning of the romance, asked to see the woman. The woman came along, without the slightest trace of embarrassment. The story went about and more and more people came and asked to see her and she never refused. Or, when she was invited to dinner, she would go to it, taking her husband with her. One day, among the guests at the table, there was a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations at the provincial level. He was privately brewing up a nasty idea and the woman sensed what was going on in his head. She suddenly lashed out at him and gave him a poke in the head which plunged through the window and got stuck up there, with the rest of his body left inside the room, unable to get out or back in again. It was only when the other guests pleaded with her for help that she pulled him free. For about a year or so visitors kept bothering her and she got fed up with them. Those turned down by the woman all cursed Zhao.

On the fifth of the fifth lunar month Zhao and his wife were drinking with their honorable guests, celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival, when a white rabbit hopped in. The woman got up and said: “The White Rabbit is here to summon me back to the Moon.” She asked the Rabbit to please go ahead and it hopped out and was off on his way. Then she told Zhao to bring a ladder. Zhao came from behind the hut, carrying a ladder of several dozen feet long. He stood it against the tall tree in the middle of the yard and it went above the top of the tree. The woman was the first to get on the ladder, Zhao following. She looked back and said to the guests: “Anyone wants to come with me, please come along.” The guests looked at each other inquiringly and none of them were bold enough. The young servant of the landlord, however, answered her invitation with great jollity. They climbed step by step until the top of the ladder was lost in the clouds. When the guests looked more closely at the ladder again, they were spellbound to see that it was but an old doorframe with its planks taken off. And then they went into the room only to find that there was nothing left except the gray walls and the broken stove.

They expected the young servant to come back to find out from him what had happened, but he was nowhere to be found.