《浮生六记》英译(1.18)

卷一 闺房记乐（18）  作者：沈复         

余启堂弟妇，王虚舟先生孙女也，催妆时偶缺珠花，芸出其纳采所受者呈吾母，婢妪旁惜之，芸曰：“凡为妇人，已属纯阴，珠乃纯阴之精，用为首饰，阳气全克矣，何贵焉？”而于破书残画反极珍惜：书之残缺不全者，必搜集分门，汇订成帙，统名之曰“继简残编”；字画之破损者，必觅故纸粘补成幅，有破缺处，倩予全好而卷之，名曰“弃余集赏”。于女红、中馈之暇，终日琐琐，不惮烦倦。芸于破笥烂卷中，偶获片纸可观者，如得异宝．旧邻冯妪每收乱卷卖之。  其癖好与余同，且能察眼意，懂眉语，一举一动，示之以色，无不头头是道。余尝曰：“惜卿雌而伏，苟能化女为男，相与访名山，搜胜迹，遨游天下，不亦快哉！”芸曰：“此何难，俟妾鬃斑之后，虽不能远游五岳，而近地之虎阜、灵岩，南至西湖，北至平山，尽可偕游。”余曰：“恐卿鬓斑之日，步履已艰。”芸曰，“今世不能，期以来世。”余曰：“来世卿当作男，我为女子相从。”芸曰：“必得不昧今生，方觉有情趣。”余笑曰：“幼时一粥犹谈不了，若来世不昧今生，合卺之夕，细谈隔世，更无合眼时矣。”芸曰：“世传月下老人专司人间婚姻事，今生夫妇已承牵合，来世姻缘亦须仰借神力，盍绘一像祀之？”时有苕溪戚柳堤名遵，善写人物。倩绘一像：一手挽红丝，一手携杖悬姻缘簿，童颜鹤发，奔驰于非烟非雾中。此戚君得意笔也。友人石琢堂为题赞语于首，悬之内室，每逢朔望，余夫妇必焚香拜祷。后因家庭多故，此画竟失所在，不知落在谁家矣。“他生未卜此生休”，两人痴情，果邀神鉴耶？        

林语堂  译：

Six Chapters of A Floating Life

Chapter One: Wedded Bliss （18）

By Shen Fu

My younger brother Ch' it'ang married the grand-daughter of Wang Hsuchou. It happened that on the wedding day, she wanted some pearls. Yun took her own pearls, which she had received as her bridal gift, and gave them to my mother. The maid-servant thought it a pity, but Yun said, "A woman is an incarnation of the female principle, and so are pearls. For a woman to wear pearls would be to leave no room for the male principle. For that reason I don' t prize them." She had, however, a peculiar fondness for old books and broken slips of painting. Whenever she saw odd volumes of books, she would try to sort them out, arrange them in order, and have them rebound properly. These were collected and labeled "Ancient Relics." When she saw scrolls of calligraphy or painting that were partly spoilt, she would find some old paper and paste them up nicely, and ask me to fill up the broken spaces. ①These were kept rolled up properly and called "Beautiful Gleanings. " This was what she was busy about the whole day when she was not attending to the kitchen or needlework. When she found in old trunks or piles of musty volumes any writing or painting that pleased her, she felt as if she had discovered some precious relic, and an old woman neighbor of ours, by the name of Feng, used to buy up old scraps and sell them to her. She had the same tastes and habits as myself, and besides had the talent of reading my wishes by a mere glance or movement of the eyebrow, doing things without being told and doing them to my perfect satisfaction.

①  The author was a painter, and for a time painted for his living.--Tr.

Once I said to her, "It is a pity that you were born a woman. If you were a man, we could travel together and visit all the great mountains and the famous places throughout the country."

"Oh! This is not so very difficult," said Yun. "Wait till I have got my grey hairs. Even if I cannot accompany you to the Five Sacred Mountains then, we can travel to the nearer places, like Huch' iu and Lingyen, as far south as the West Lake and as far north as P'ingshan [in Yangchow]."

"Of course this is all right, except that I am afraid when you are grey-haired, you will be too old to travel."

"If I can't do it in this life, then I shall do it in the next."

"In the next life, you must be born a man and I will be your wife."

"It will be quite beautiful if we can then still remember what has happened in this life."

"That's all very well, but even a bowl of congee has provided material for so much conversation. We shan't be able to sleep a wink the whole wedding night, but shall be discussing what we have done in the previous existence, if we can still remember what's happened in this life then."

"It is said that the Old Man under the Moon is in charge of matrimony," said Yun. "He was good enough to make us husband and wife in this life, and we shall still depend on his flavor in the affair of marriage in the next incarnation. Why don't we make a painting of him and worship him in our home?"

So we asked a Mr. Ch'i Liut'i of T'iaoch'i who specialized in portraiture, to make a painting of the Old Man under the Moon, which he did. It was a picture of the Old Man holding, in one hand, a red silk thread [ for the purpose of binding together the hearts of all couples] and, in the other, a walking-stick with the Book of Matrimony suspended from it. He had white hair and a ruddy complexion, apparently bustling about in a cloudy region. Altogether it was a very excellent painting of Ch'i' s. My friend Shih Chot' ang wrote some words of praise on it and we hung the picture in our chamber. On the first and fifteenth of every month, we burnt incense and prayed together before him. I do not know where this picture is now, as we have lost it after all the changes and upsets in our family life. "Ended is the present life and uncertain the next," as the poet says. I wonder if God will listen to the prayer of us two silly lovers.