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This is yet another passage that seems shallow at first glance, but is actually very deep. Let’s dig in.

My Translation

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We’re not done with the literary references yet. This short paragraph will give you headaches if you try reading it without translation notes. Let’s jump in.

My Translation

After she had read these poems, Jia Yuanchun was absolutely delighted. “You’ve really improved a lot!” she exclaimed. She singled out the “Apricot Tavern” poem as the best of the four.

She then ordered that the name The Hemp Washing Villa be changed to Fragrant Rice Village. She also had Tanchun copy the ten or so poems onto embroidered stationary, and then ordered an eunuch to deliver them to the men in the outer rooms of the household.

When Jia Zheng and the others read the poems, they praised them without ceasing. Jia Zhen then composed an ode of his own about Jia Yuanchun’s return home.

Jia Yuanchun then ordered that delicacies like jade pudding and golden meats be given to Jia Baoyu and Jia Lan. Jia Lan was still young and didn’t understand any of these formalities, and so he simply bowed along with his mother and uncle.

While all this was happening, Jia Qiang had brought a group of actresses to the house and was waiting downstairs. He was starting to run out of patience when an eunuch came flying down the stairs. “The poems are done,” announced the eunuch. “Bring the playbill at once!” And so Jia Qiang quickly presented the list of plays along with a list of the names of the twelve girls.

Before long, four plays had been selected. These were:

1. The Grand Banquet

2. Begging for Skill

3. The Immortal’s Encounter

4. The Soul’s Departure

Jia Qiang hurried around, getting costumes ready and preparing the staging for the plays. Each of the girls had a voice so beautiful that it could split the stones, and each of them could dance with angelic posture. Though it was all obviously acting, the girls performed so well that they fully conveyed the extremes of joy and sorrow to the audience.

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

Hawkes describes Jia Zheng’s poem as a “eulogy.” Normally a eulogy is a speech to honor a deceased person, usually at a funeral. However, it can also refer to the act of praising somebody. The word eulogy here is very odd, and carries a connotation with it that is not present in the Chinese text.

Hawkes calls the foods “junket and mince.” Junket here is a kind of cream cheese.

Hawkes offers a little bit of explanation about the scenes in each of the plays, but decides against using any explanatory footnotes:

Four pieces were chosen: “Shi-fan Entertains” from The Handful of Snow, “The Double Seventh” from The Palace of Eternal Youth, “The Meeting of the Immortals” from The Han-dan Road and Li-niang’s death-scene from The Return of the Soul.

I suppose the assumption here is that the reader is already familiar with these poems. However, when it comes to a book like Dream of the Red Chamber with many references to literature that doesn’t actually exist, it would have been nice to know that these plays were actual plays.

Yang

The Yangs have Jia Zheng compose a panegyric, which is a speech full of praise. This is a bit more appropriate than a eulogy, though the more accurate translation would simple be an “ode” or a “poem.”

The Yangs follow Hawkes in calling 瓊酪 “junket.” My guess is that they simply used Hawkes’ word; remember that the first volume of The Story of the Stone came out years before the Yangs released their translation.

The Yangs include footnotes that explain the names and authors of each of the plays, though they do not offer any additional commentary about the scenes. Actually, David Hawkes offers a lot more context than the Yangs do in this scene.

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Chinese Text

元妃看畢，喜之不盡，說：「果然進益了！」又指「杏簾」一首為四首之冠。遂將澣葛山莊改為稻香村，又命探春將方才十數首詩另以錦箋謄出，令太監傳與外廂。賈政等看了，都稱頌不已。賈政又進歸省頌。元妃又命以瓊酪金膾等物賜與寶玉並賈蘭。此時賈蘭尚幼，未諳諸事，只不過隨母依叔行禮而已。那時賈薔帶領一班女戲子，在樓下正等得不耐煩，只見一個太監飛跑下來說：「做完了詩了，快拿戲單來。」賈薔忙將戲目呈上，並十二個人的花名冊子。少時，點了四齣戲：第一齣，《豪宴》；第二齣，《乞巧》；第三齣，《仙緣》；第四齣，《離魂》。賈薔忙張羅扮演起來，一個個歌有裂石之音，舞有天魔之態。雖是裝演的形容，卻做盡悲歡的情狀。

Translation Notes

Jia Yuanchun singling out the “Apricot Tavern” poem as the best of the four (指「杏簾」一首為四首之冠) is ironic, since Lin Daiyu is the one who composed it.

The name 稻香村 (Fragrant Rice Village) comes straight from Lin Daiyu’s poem, in particular this line:

一畦春韮熟，十里稻花香。

There is one plot of land with young spring chives,

And miles of fragrant fields with rice blossoms.

If you think back a little bit, you’ll remember that 澣葛山莊, or “The Hemp Washing Villa,” was actually a direct reference to the Confucian ideal of feminine virtue. Changing it to the very expressive and sensory 稻香村 (Fragrant Rice Village) is a massive difference.

箋 means stationary, and so 錦箋 means embroidered stationary.

瓊酪 literally means “jade milk curd.” It’s not entirely clear what food this is supposed to be.

金膾 means something like “golden minced raw fish or meat.”

Jia Lan (賈蘭) is Li Wan’s son, and is Jia Baoyu’s nephew. We haven’t seen much about him yet; here’s an old post to refresh your memory:

The four plays are all significant.

豪宴, or The Grand Banquet, is an excerpt from a play called A Handful of Snow (一捧雪) by an early Qing dynasty playwright named Li Yu (李玉). This is the story of an official who owns a flawless jade cup called “A Handful of Snow.” A powerful minister wants to get the cup, and so he frames the official and destroys his whole family. This particular scene is the villain’s magnificent banquet, and is used here as a clear foreshadowing of the coming fall of the Jia family.

乞巧, or Begging for Skill, is an excerpt from a play called The Palace of Eternal Life (長生殿) by Hong Sheng (洪昇). This is another Qing dynasty play, and deals with the love story between Emperor Ming of the Tang dynasty and his beloved Yang Guifei. In this scene they vow their love to each other. However, the empire then collapses, and Yang Guifei is eventually forced to hang herself. This particular scene foretells the coming political disaster that will severely impact the Jia family.

仙緣, or The Immortal’s Encounter, is an excerpt from the play The Handan Dream (邯鄲記) by the Ming dynasty playwright Tang Xianzu (湯顯祖). This is about the scholar Lv Sheng meeting the Taoist immortal Lv Dongbin at an inn, hence the phrase “immortal encounter.” Lv Sheng has a dream during this scene in which he goes through an entire lifetime, including passing the imperial examinations, wining high office, receiving glory, then suffering disgrace and finally passing away. This points towards Jia Baoyu’s eventual destiny, and brings up questions about the difference between dreams and reality that permeate Dream of the Red Chamber.

離魂, or The Soul’s Departure, is an excerpt from The Peony Pavilion (牡丹亭), also by Tang Xianzu (湯顯祖). The Peony Pavilion is one of the most obvious influences on Dream of the Red Chamber, and references to this play will come up time and time again as we move forward. In this scene, a man named Du Liniang has a dream about a beautiful girl. He falls in love with her, but she grows sick and dies; in fact, “The Soul’s Departure” is the scene where her soul leaves her body. In the end, his love proves stronger than death: he finds her self-portrait, which causes her soul to return, and she is resurrected to marry him. This is a prediction of Lin Daiyu’s eventual fate.

Notice how Cao Xueqin merely names these plays and moves right along, even though this is one of the most significant literary passages in the entire chapter.

The reference to voices that can split stone and the posture of angels ( 歌有裂石之音，舞有天魔之態) likely seems a little bit odd to you. 歌有裂石之音, or a voice that can break the stones, refers to high, piercing, and resonant voices. While you can find similar hyperbolic descriptions of resonant voices in classical Chinese literature, this phrase is entirely a Cao Xueqin creation.

Meanwhile, 舞有天魔之態 is interesting. I translated 天魔 as “angels” to help the English version make sense, though it actually refers to the minions of the demon king Mara who assailed the Buddha with visions of worldly delight in an attempt to prevent his enlightenment. In fact, the word 天魔 itself is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word मार (Māra), which could also be translated literally as “death” or “the destroyer.”

There’s a historic connotation here as well. The last Emperor of the Yuan dynasty kept sixteen palace women, who were referred to as 十六天魔, or “the 16 heavenly demons.” They would dance in fancy dress for various spectacles with Buddhist connotations that would always degenerate into lascivious entertainment. The Emperor enjoyed these dances so much that he neglected the affairs of state, leading directly to the collapse of the dynasty. Therefore, this talk about “the dance of angels” refers directly to 天魔舞, or the collapse of an entire empire.

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This is the final of Jia Baoyu’s four poems for Jia Yuanchun. Remember that this poem was actually composed by Lin Daiyu.

My Translation

Apricot Banner In Sight

The apricot banner invites travelers to drink;

You can see a mountain villa from here.

The geese swim on water filled with chestnuts and lilies;

The swallows dart through mulberry and elm trees to the rafters.

There is one plot of land with young spring chives,

And miles of fragrant fields with rice blossoms.

In this prosperous age, nobody goes hungry.

Why should one toil at plowing and weaving?

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

David Hawkes translates this poem in this way:

The Hopeful Sign

An inn-sign, through the orchards half-discerned,

Promises shelter and a drink well-earned.

Through water-weeds the pond’s geese make their way;

Midst elms and mulberry-trees the swallows play.

The garden’s chives are ready to prepare;

The scent of young rice perfumes all the air.

When want is banished, as in times like these,

The spinner and the ploughman take their ease.

This is a good translation, all in all. Hawkes replaced the second line with a generic line about “a drink well-earned,” but it doesn’t really take anything away from the overall feeling.

Yang

The Yangs translate this poem like this:

APPROACH TO APRICOT TAVERN

A grove of apricots, a tavern-sign

And a hillside hamlet beyond:

Elms, mulberries, swallows on rafters,

And geese on the caltrop pond.

In the fields spring leeks are green;

All round, the paddy flowers scent the breeze;

None go hungry in these good times,

Ploughman and weaver alike can take their ease.

Like the Hawkes translation, this one is perfectly fine. The only real difference is that the second line is translated accurately.

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Chinese Text

杏簾在望

杏簾招客飲，在望有山莊。菱荇鵝兒水，桑榆燕子樑。

一畦春韮熟，十里稻花香。盛世無飢餒？何須耕織忙。

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Translation Notes

菱 means a water chestnut, and 荇 is a kind of water lily. Both of these are plans that grow in slow-moving water.

畦 is a measure word for a plot or bed in a vegetable garden.

韮 means garlic chives or Chinese leeks.

十里 means ten li, which is about 5 kilometers. I simplified this by calling the distance “miles,” since this is likely not intended to be a specific measurement.

The final two lines are a somewhat sarcastic reference to the fact that this particular farm is not really designed for actual farm work. This reflects Jia Baoyu’s earlier criticism of this very building:

寶玉道：「卻又來！此處置一田莊，分明是人力造作成的。遠無鄰村，近不負郭，背山無脈，臨水無源；高無隱寺之塔，下無通市之橋，峭然孤出，似非大觀。那及前數處有自然之理，得自然之趣呢，雖種竹引泉，亦不傷穿鑿。古人云『天然圖畫』四字，正恐非其地而強為其地，非其山而強為其山，即百般精巧，終不相宜。」

“There you go again!” exclaimed Baoyu. “The farm that was placed here is clearly an artificial creation. There are no other villages in the distance, and there are no city walls nearby. The mountain behind it has no connecting ridge, and the water in front of it has no natural source. There’s no pagoda above it to hint at a hidden temple, and there’s no bridge below it to suggest a market town. It’s stark and isolated, and does not belong to any grand view.

“How can this place compare with the place we just saw, which possessed the principle of nature and captured the charm of nature? Though that place had planted bamboo springs and water channels, it was not clearly man made.

“When the ancients spoke of ‘Natural Landscape Painting,’ they warned against exactly this sort of thing: forcing a landscape where it doesn’t belong, and forcing a mountain where it doesn’t fit. After all, even using every kind of craftsmanship in the end will not result in actual harmony with nature.”

We can tell that this poem was composed by Lin Daiyu because it doesn’t have any of the ornate artifice that you usually see in court poetry. It’s direct and insightful.

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Today we have Jia Baoyu’s third poem. This one is a bit easier to understand and interpret.

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This is where the poetry is going to become pretty difficult to understand. Jia Baoyu’s first poem is a big reference to bamboo, though it’s also used to describe a particular character in the book. We’ll talk more today about the allusions to bamboo and the reason why Jia Baoyu has composed this poem in this particular way. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, we’ll keep the discussion about which character this poem is about for later.

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We’re back to the fun part again, which means a lot more literary allusions. This gets a little bit deep, but I’m sure you can handle it, even if you might not have a deep background in Chinese literature.

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We’ve finally come to the last of the six poems from the various girls. Lin Daiyu’s poem includes a fantastic literary allusion, another fantastic example of personification, and gives us a very sharp contrast to Xue Baochai’s poem the other day. We’ll do a deeper comparison tomorrow.

My Translation

Plaque: A Fairyland Beyond This World

By Lin Daiyu

The Imperial visit brings us joy,

This fairyland is cut off from the mortal world.

Borrowing the beauty of the hills and streams,

This place takes on a brand new air.

Its fragrance is blended with the wine of Golden Valley,

The flowers smile up at our noble guests.

How fortunate we are to receive this Imperial grace!

Might the palace carriage return here frequently?

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

Hawkes translates Lin Daiyu’s poem like this:

Lin Dai-yu: The Fairy Stream

To fairy haunts far from the world’s annoy

A royal visit brings double joy.

A thousand borrowed beauties here combined

In this new setting new enchantment find.

Its odours sweet a poet’s wine enrich;

Its flowers a queenly visitor bewitch.

May she and we this favour hope to gain:

That oft-times she may pass this way again!

As usual, Hawkes finds his hands tied by the requirements of the rhyme.

Note, however, that Hawkes flips the first two lines around. I’m not sure why he does this, since he could have easily said “A royal visit brings double joy / to this fairyland far from the world’s annoy” or something similar.

My biggest concern, though, is that Hawkes loses the reference to Shi Chong in line five, and completely misses the personification of the flowers in line six. In other words, the two things that make this a fantastic poem are completely gone in his translation.

Yang

The Yangs translate Lin Daiyu’s poem like this:

A FAIRYLAND FAR FROM THE WORLD OF MEN

Who knows where this illustrious garden lies?

Far from the dusty world this paradise.

Here streams and mountains lend their fair delight

Enhanced by many a novel scene and sight.

Scents heady as the wine from Golden Dell

Bind all in these jade halls with flowery spell;

Blessed by Imperial favour, we would fain

Welcome the royal visitant again.

Lin Tai-yu

The Yangs also include a footnote for the phrase “Golden Dell,” noting that this is “a celebrated garden in Honan owned by Shih Chung (249-300).”

There are some interesting changes here, mostly because of the necessity of rhyme. The first line changes from praising the imperial visit to a rhetorical question. And, unfortunately, line six changes away from having the flowers look over and greet the visitors into a type of “flowery spell” that “binds” everyone inside the hall. This is entirely an invention of the Yangs.

The final two lines are also not quite correct. Hawkes actually has the better translation here. In the Chinese original, line seven is a declaration of how fortunate they were for the Imperial visit, and line eight is a rhetorical wish that there might be another imperial visit in the future. The Yang translation makes it feel like Lin Daiyu is graciously requesting that the Imperial visitors return, and has an almost condescending feel to it.

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Chinese Text

世外仙源（匾額）

林黛玉

宸遊增悅豫，仙境別紅塵。借得山川秀，添來氣象新。

香融金谷酒，花媚玉堂人。何幸邀恩寵，宮車過往頻？

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Translation Notes

金谷酒 is a direct reference to Shi Chong (石崇), a wealthy person who lived in Luoyang during the Jin dynasty. Shi Chong was known for extravagant banquets and fine wine. He’s best known through the idiom 金谷酒數, which referred to a penalty of three drinks for anybody who failed to compose a poem during a literary gathering. Lin Daiyu uses this allusion here to describe the joyous atmosphere of the gathering at the Grand View garden.

花媚 is a form of personification. 媚 means “eyebrow,” and is used here as a verb that should be translated as something like “raise one’s eyebrows in a smile.”

玉堂人, or “the jade hall people,” refers specifically to Jia Yuanchun and her group from the palace.

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It’s time for Xue Baochai’s poem. This poem says a lot about her character; more on that tomorrow.

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Today we have Li Wan’s poem – and a bit more controversy.

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We’re back with yet another poem. This time our poem is by Jia Xichun, another character that we don’t really know all that well yet.

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Jia Tanchun’s poem today is the first poem in chapter 18 that is truly deep. And we’re going to have some fun diving into this one - especially its complicated literary past.

My Translation

Plaque: Elegance and Literary Grace

By Tanchun

The beautiful waters and bright mountains embrace and wind back around,

This refined charm and literary brilliance surpasses Penglai.

The brilliant green looks like performance fans, fooling even the fragrant grass,

And the red flowers set off the Xiang skirts that dance with the falling plum blossoms.

Pearls and jade should naturally be celebrated in this golden age;

How lucky we are that the immortals descended from the Jade Terrace!

Once this famous garden invites you in to admire its beauty,

It will hardly allow any ordinary mortal to enter.

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

Hawkes translates Tanchun’s poem this way:

Tan-Chun: Brightness and Grace

Water on hills and hills on waters smile,

More bright and graceful than the Immortal Isle.

Midst odorous herbs the singer’s green fan hides;

Her crimson skirt through falling petals glides.

A radiant jewel to the world is shown,

A fairy princess from her tower comes down:

And since her steps the garden’s walks have trod,

No mortal foot must desecrate its sod.

Hawkes changes the meaning of this poem significantly. Rather than comparing the inhabitants of the garden directly to immortals, Hawkes modifies the poem to have it compare Jia Yuanchun directly to an immortal. In this case, it seems to be Jia Yuanchun’s green fan hiding in the greens and it seems to be her skirt that glides through the petals.

Hawkes seems to make a lot of these changes for the sake of the rhyme scheme. And the truth is that his poem is actually very well constructed. However, the problem is that the original poem is actually Jia Tanchun reflecting on herself, not on Jia Yuanchun.

Yang

The Yangs shorten this poem and translate it this way:

ALL THINGS VIE IN SPLENDOUR

This garden laid out with consummate art -

I blush, with my poor skill, its fame to render.

Past telling are the marvels in this place

For here, indeed, all things compete in splendour.

Tan-chun

This translation reflects an earlier handwritten version of the text, which reads like this:

萬象爭輝匾額　探春

名園築出勢巍巍，奉命何慚學淺微。

精妙一時言不出，果然萬物有光輝。

All Things Complete In Splendor Tanchun

A famous garden built on such a grand and towering scale;

Having received this command, how can I complain that my learning is shallow and meager?

Such exquisite refinement; words fail to capture it in a single moment.

Indeed, everything here radiates its own brilliance.

I’ve now opened up a pretty big can of worms, since we’re talking about the difference between the few surviving manuscripts (mostly from the late 1750s) and the Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E printed edition, which comes from 1791. It’s not clear whether this poem is the creation of Cheng and Gao or whether it reflects later manuscripts that we do not have today. And, of course, there are numerous changes like this in the novel, changes that are really too lengthy and complicated to talk about in this brief blog entry.

Now, if you insist on seeing physical evidence for what Cao Xueqin originally wrote, you’re likely going to discard the longer poem in favor of the shorter poem. We know that “All Things Complete In Splendor” was actually written by Cao Xueqin, since we have handwritten copies of Cao Xueqin’s drafts.

However, if you’re looking at the literary merits of the poetry and the way it reflects Jia Tanchun’s character, I’d argue that “Elegance and Literary Grace” is the more appropriate poem. Tanchun is fiercely proud and sensitive about the idea that she somehow does not belong, because she is the daughter of a concubine, not the principle wife. The boldness with which she writes about the garden being a place fit only for people close to immortality could be seen as a declaration that she does indeed fit in and belong, which is an excellent reflection of her character as we see it later in the novel.

The earlier poem, “All Things Complete In Splendor,” doesn’t seem much different from the Jia Yingchun poem we saw earlier.

The problem, of course, is trying to figure out how Cao Xueqin’s characters developed as he wrote his manuscript. With a book this long and complex, it’s really not easy to tell if Cao Xueqin first allowed Jia Tanchun to develop a more independent mind and personality and then changed his poem, or if some other person decided to modify the poem after reading the entire book a few times.

I will say this, however. The line 綠裁歌扇迷芳草，紅襯湘裙舞落梅 is absolutely brilliant, and is not the sort of line that a literary hack comes up with by sheer chance. If you compare that line with the infamously controversial final 40 chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber, you’ll see what I mean. In other words, based solely on its literary merits, I strongly doubt that Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E composed “Elegance and Literary Grace.”

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Chinese Text

文采風流（匾額）

探春

秀水明山抱復回，風流文采勝蓬萊。綠裁歌扇迷芳草，紅襯湘裙舞落梅。

珠玉自應傳盛世，神仙何幸下瑤臺。名園一自邀遊賞，未許凡人到此來。

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Translation Notes

文采 means excellent literary ability, and 風流 means distinguished and graceful

蓬萊, or Penglai, is one of the legendary islands of the immortals in Chinese mythology. This was a legendary paradise of eternal beauty and bliss. Tanchun is saying that the Grand View Garden surpasses even this legendary island.

The line 綠裁歌扇迷芳草，紅襯湘裙舞落梅 is absolutely brilliant, and is difficult to translate. Tanchun is talking about the colors in the garden, obviously. 綠, or green, refers to the bright greenery everywhere in the garden. This green “cuts” (裁) singing fans (歌扇), which might seem confusing. My understanding is that Tanchun sees the green turning into fans used by performers, as if the entire garden is swaying to and fro in a performance for the observers. The whole thing winds up confusing (迷) the fragrant grass, as if the grass itself doesn’t know if it’s seeing an optical illusion or if the garden actually is alive.

Meanwhile, 紅, or red, almost certainly refers to the red flower blossoms. This red “sets off” or “contrasts” (襯) with the Xiang skirts (湘裙). Xiang skirts refer to the Xiang River region in modern day Hunan, which was known in poetry for beautiful women and elegant attire. Those skirts were usually a light color, maybe a pale green or white or something like that. The skirts then dance together with the falling plum blossoms.

The entire image in these two lines is a place of celebration and happiness that seems immortal, one that blends the real with the fantastic.

珠玉 means pearls and jade, and refers figuratively to anything of great value. It’s also frequently used metaphorically to refer to something precious or excellent, like fine writing or speech. And, of course, the word 玉 (jade) has an extremely deep and complicated meaning in Dream of the Red Chamber. Tanchun’s phrase here might remind you of the Chinese idiom 珠聯璧合, which literally means “pearls strung together and jade discs joined.” This idiom refers to marital bliss and harmony, which is exactly the feeling that Tanchun is trying to create with her poem.

瑤臺, or the Jade Terrace, is a legendary place where the immortals live in Taoist mythology.

This poem is set up as a sort of progressive argument for the brilliance of the garden. The first two lines describe it being more beautiful than the mythical island Penglai. The second two lines describe how its beauty fuses nature and art, to the point where the two become inseparable. The third two lines describe how the inhabitants of the garden are as precious as jewels and as divine as immortals. And the final two lines describe how this is a paradise completely separate from the mortal world.

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We’re going to start off this round of poems with Jia Yingchun’s poem. This is a simple an unremarkable poem, which is actually what makes it so interesting. Jia Yingchun’s poetry reflects both her innate character and her fate.

My Translation

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We’re about to enter into another round of poetry. Today’s post will set the scene for a number of poetic segments that we’ll have in the near future.

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This might seem like a boring passage to you at first glance. However, this is one of the most important passages in all of chapter 18. There’s a lot of dense foreshadowing going on here, and we’re going to come back to this over and over again as we continue through the book.

My Translation

Jia Yuanchun also changed some of the other inscriptions. She named the building with the inscription “The Phoenix Arrives in Ritual Splendor” the “The Xiaoxiang Building.” She changed the inscription “Red Fragrance and Green Jade” to “Delighting in Red and Rejoicing in Green,” and called the building “The Red Delight Building.” The building called “The Pure Fragrance of Wild Ginger and Angelica” she named “Wild Growth Building.” “Apricot Banner In Sight” she named “The Hemp Washing Villa.”

She name the main tower the Grand View Tower. She called the tower to the east “Assembled Brocade Tower,” while she called the tower to the west “Fragrance Holding Tower.” She also gave out names such as Knotweed Breeze Studio, Lotus-Scent Veranda, Purple Caltrop Islet, and Floating Hearts Shoal. Among the plaques she had inscribed were “Pear Blossoms in Spring Rain,” “Paulownia Leaves Cut By The Autumn Wind,” and “Night Snow on Reeds and Rushes,” among other names. She also ordered that none of the old inscribed boards or couplets be taken down.

And then she composed this poem:

It houses the hills and holds the waters, constructed exquisitely;

So much hard work went into its final form!

Everything in the heavens and on earth is collected here.

This fragrant garden deserves to be named “Grand View.”

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

Hawkes calls 瀟湘館 “The Naiad’s House.” A naiad is a female Greek deity associated with the water; in fact, the somewhat unusual English word comes directly from the ancient Greek word Νᾱϊάς. It’s an interesting allusion to 瀟湘 and the story of the spotted bamboo, but it loses the melancholy and foreboding sense of the Chinese original.

Hawkes translates 桐剪秋風 as “Paulownia leaves in autumn wind,” which is almost right, but not quite. He misses the word 剪, which means to cut. The title isn’t just a description of leaves in the wind. Rather, these are leaves that are being ripped apart by the wind.

Yang

The Yangs run into the same problem with 桐剪秋風. They call it “Plane Trees in Autumn Wind” and miss the description of the tree leaves being cut apart.

They call 荻蘆夜雪 “Artemisia in Evening Snow.” Artemisia refers to plants like wormwood, sagebrush, and tarragon.

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Chinese Text

又改題：「有鳳來儀」，賜名瀟湘館。「紅香綠玉」，改作「怡紅快綠」，賜名怡紅院。「蘅芷清芬」，賜名「蘅蕪院」。「杏簾在望」，賜名澣葛山莊。正樓曰大觀樓。東面飛樓曰「綴錦閣」。西面飛樓曰含芳閣。更有蓼風軒、藕香榭、紫菱洲、荇葉渚等名。匾額有「梨花春雨」、「桐剪秋風」、「荻蘆夜雪」等名。又命舊有匾聯不可摘去。於是先題一絕句云：

銜山抱水建來精，多少工夫築始成。天上人間諸景備，芳園應錫大觀名。

Notice that the text in Chinese here is presented in a poetic form.

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Translation Notes

瀟湘館 refers to the Xiao and Xiang rivers in modern day Hunan. You might vaguely recall a reference to “Xiang Consort Bamboo” in passages like this one:

This is a reference to the story of the two wives of the legendary Emperor Shun. When he passed away, they rushed to the banks of the Xiang river in Hunan Province. They cried bitterly while leaning against the bamboo groves there, leaving behind spots and stains that would never fade away. They then threw themselves into the Xiang river and drowned. By giving the building a name like this, Jia Yuanchun is unwittingly commenting on the future of the person who will live there.

When you first read it, you’ll probably think that 怡紅快綠 (Delighting in Red and Rejoicing in Green) probably seems really similar to 紅香綠玉 (Red Fragrance and Green Jade). The interesting thing here is that the word 玉 (jade) has been removed from the inscription.

蘅蕪 refers to fragrant herbs growing wildly and lushly, as if they were totally out of control.

澣葛 refers to washing kudzu or hemp, which is used in making cloth. The image here is a rustic life of hard work and farming.

飛樓 literally means a “flying tower.” This likely refers to the height of the towers, which look as if they’re flying in the air.

綴錦閣, or Assembled Brocade Tower, is an outward expression of beauty. Meanwhile, 含芳閣, or Fragrance Holding Tower, is the opposite: this would be an inward facing beauty, sort of like private virtue or ability that you don’t show anybody on the outside.

蓼風軒, or Knotweed Breeze studio, is a melancholy image. Knotweed (蓼風) generally signifies parting, the loneliness of a traveler, and the passage of time.

藕香榭, or Lotus-Root Fragrance Veranda, is a kind of paradox. The fragrance comes from the root of the lotus, which is the part that remains hidden. This description is somewhat reminiscent of the idiom 藕斷絲連, which refers to having deep feelings for somebody even after you’ve broken up.

紫菱洲, or Purple Caltrop Islet, is a reference to things that are rootless and vulnerable. The water caltrop (菱) is a plant that floats and drifts to the surface of the water without roots that anchor it to the shore.

荇葉渚, or Floating Hearts Shoal, is a similar reference to the one we just saw about the caltrop. 荇 refers to a floating water plant, and is a poetic allusion to 荇菜, which is directly described in one of the poems in The Book of Songs (詩經):

關關雎鳩，在河之洲。

窈窕淑女，君子好逑。

參差荇菜，左右流之。

窈窕淑女，寤寐求之。

The ospreys cry “guan guan” on the islet in the river.

The gentle and modest maiden is a good match for the gentleman.

The floating water plants are uneven; we gather them left and right.

The gentleman seeks that gentle and modest maiden both morning and night.

This is clearly a love poem, and the idea of that particular floating water plant brings up this idea of deep love and affection.

梨花春雨, or Pear Blossoms in Spring Rain, is an image of plants that are very beautiful but extremely short lived. This reminds us of this famous line from the famous 長恨歌 (Song of Everlasting Regret) by Bai Juyi:

玉容寂寞淚闌干，梨花一枝春帶雨。

Her jade face is desolate, tears streaming down,

Like a pear blossom bathed in the springtime rain.

This, of course, is an image of crying, and led to the idiom 梨花帶雨. And, as you might remember, this poem and its associated idiom is likely the source of Lin Daiyu’s name (林黛玉):

Notice, by the way, that the face of the girl is described as a “jade face” (玉容). We’ve seen these constant references to jade throughout almost all the poems that are alluded to in the poetry of Dream of the Red Chamber.

桐剪秋風, or Paulownia Leaves Cut By The Autumn Wind, is a pretty violent image. The Paulownia tree is the only tree that the phoenix will perch on – and, of course, the phoenix is a representation of the Empress, or the wife of the Emperor. The idea here is that the female representation of imperial authority will come to a very dark and awful end.

荻蘆夜雪, or Night Snow on Reeds and Rushes, is a desolate image of what remains after a household is destroyed. Everything is wiped clean; the snow covers all color, and the reeds and rushes on top offer a feeling of total desolation.

If you look closely, you’ll notice that there is a pattern in these three names. We start off with spring (春, from 梨花春雨), we go into autumn (秋, from 桐剪秋風), and we end up in winter (雪, or snow, from 荻蘆夜雪). There is no summer, which means that the promise of spring is never fulfilled.

Compared to all of this imagery, Jia Yuanchun’s final poem seems pretty anticlimactic and ordinary.

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Today Jia Yuanchun starts her tour of the Grand Prospect Garden. There’s a bunch of interesting stuff going on here, and we’ll see even more of this in the next translation post.

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In this passage, we see the stark contrast between normal family emotions and relationships and the stilted and formal relationship that Jia Yuanchun has with her father. This is one of the most significant passages in the book, and is fascinating to read.

My Translation

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Once again we have another very short but meaningful passage today. We’re on a roll with these.

My Translation

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We’ve got two passages of poetic description today, as well as a fully descriptive poem. As usual, there’s quite a bit to talk about.

My Translation

As Jia Yuanchun entered through the archway, she saw

Torches blazing in the courtyard, encircling the sky,

Fragrant incense powder covering the entire ground,

Trees that seemed to be ablaze and flowers that looked like jade,

Golden windows and jade railings.

And there was no way to fully describe the

Fine and delicate hanging curtains, made of shrimp whiskers,

Carpets spread across the floors, made of otter fur,

The tripods emitting the scent of deer musk and expensive resin,

The screens arrayed with pheasant-tail fans.

Truly:

These were golden gates and jade doors, the dwelling place of immortals;

They were cassia halls and orchid palaces, the household of an imperial concubine.

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Translation Critique

Hawkes

David Hawkes does an excellent job with the two descriptive poetic passages:

However, the poem at the end is less than ideal:

The abode of the Princess has cassia halls and orchid chambers.

This is a direct reference to Wang Bo’s work as described in the “translation notes” section below. However, Hawkes doesn’t actually spell this out for his reader. And, of course, Hawkes misses the clear and direct reference to the fact that Jia Yuanchun is actually an imperial concubine, not a “princess.”

Yang

The Yang decide against translating the poetic passages as poems, with the exception of the final poem:

An abode with golden gates and jade doors fit for immortals,

Its cassia and orchid chambers a worthy setting for the Imperial Consort.

This is a much better translation than the brief David Hawkes attempt.

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Chinese Text

只見庭燎繞空，香屑布地，火樹琪花，金窗玉檻。說不盡簾卷蝦鬚，毯鋪魚獺，鼎飄麝腦之香，屏列雉尾之扇。真是：

金門玉戶神仙府，桂殿蘭宮妃子家。

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Translation Notes

庭燎 is a direct reference to the Book of Poetry (詩經):

夜如何其？夜未央，庭燎之光。

How goes the night? It is not yet midnight. The torch is blazing in the courtyard.

As a result, 庭燎 is clearly a politically loaded word, and gives an image of King Xuan of Zhou anxiously awaiting the dawn so he can hold court. Cao Xueqin uses this image to invoke an idea of legitimate royal ritual. However, this is a merchant family burning torches at night to welcome home their daughter – not the family holding court.

蝦鬚 literally mean the long and thin antennae of shrimp. It’s not clear if the curtains here were actually made of shrimp whiskers. This is a phrase usually used to describe curtains that are very fine. However, the other three descriptions in this miniature poem seem to refer to actual animal products.

桂殿蘭宮, or “cassia halls and orchid palaces,” is a direct allusion to a 7^th century writing by Wang Bo called Preface to the Pavillion of Prince Teng (滕王閣序). Wang Bo’s work is filled with images of the transience of glory; in fact, he wrote about talented men gathering together, many of whom would die young or go unrecognized. Cao Xueqin is subtly hinting here at the fact that the Jia family’s fate would be unfortunate, and that the talent in the family will be scattered in the end.

Notice that 神仙府, the “mansion for divine immortals,” is matched directly by 妃子家, or “the household of an imperial concubine.” This is a reminder of the actual state of the Jia family. As impressive as the building and garden might have seemed, the truth is that the family is in decline, and that it’s hanging on only because Jia Yuanchun happens to be an imperial concubine.

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My apologies, but today’s passage is another short one. I got part way through a longer translation segment and realized that I really needed to stop here. More tomorrow.

My Translation

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