Confusing Family Relationships
I’m going to make this segment short again, but this is mostly because of the confusing relationship between the characters. I’ll say a bit more about this in tomorrow’s commentary post. Normally I’d see this scene out to its conclusion, but the way these characters are referring to each other can be kind of confusing. More on that tomorrow.
My Translation
Once Lady You caught sight of Wang Xifeng, she joked with her for a little while. She then took Baoyu by the hand and led them into the main room, where they all sat down. Lady Qin served team.
“Why did you invite me here?” asked Xifeng. “What offerings do you have for me? If you’ve got something to give me, bring it out now. I have other matters to attend to.”
Before Lady You could respond, one of the ladies of the household laughed. “Ms. Wang,” she said, “if you hadn’t come today that would be one thing. But, now that we’re here, we’re afraid we can’t let you have your way!”
Just as she was speaking, Jia Rong came in to say hello.
“Isn’t Jia Zhen going to be home today?” Baoyu asked him.
“He’s out of town today to pay respects to his father,” replied Lady You. “But you must be bored to death. Why sit here with the rest of us? Why don’t you go outside and play?”
“It’s a great coincidence,” said Lady Qin with a smile. “Uncle Bao, the last time you were here, you said you wanted to meet my brother. Well, he’s here today, and is sitting in the study. Why don’t you go see him?”
Baoyu wanted to go at once.
Translation Critique
Hawkes
Even though I complain loudly about issues I have with the Hawkes translation, it does save me every once in a while. Today’s brief passage is an excellent example of why.
I had no idea who Jia Baoyu was referring to when he said 大哥哥. It was The Story of the Stone that made it clear that Baoyu was referring to “Cousin Zhen,” or Jia Zhen.
逛逛 literally means “go for a stroll.” Hawkes translates this as “Why don’t you go off and amuse yourself inside?” That’s a pretty finicky point, I know, but it’s another example of Hawkes adding something in to the text that isn’t really there.
Yang
The Yangs also have Jia Baoyu inquiring “if Chia Chen were at home” when Jia Rong comes in.
Also, the Yangs translate 逛逛 as “go out for a stroll,” which is a more accurate translation.
Chinese Text
那尤氏一見了鳳姐，必先嘲笑一陣，一手拉了寶玉，同入上房裡坐下。秦氏獻了茶。鳳姐便說：「你們請我來作什麼？拿什麼孝敬我？有東西就獻上來罷，我還有事呢。」尤氏未及答應，幾個媳婦們先笑道：「二奶奶，今日不來就罷；既來了，就依不得你老人家了。」正說著，只見賈蓉進來請安。寶玉因道：「大哥哥今兒不在家麼？」尤氏道：「今兒出城請老爺的安去了。」又道：「可是你怪悶的，坐在這裡作什麼？何不出去逛逛呢？」秦氏笑道：「今日可巧。上回寶二叔要見我兄弟，今兒他在這裡書房裡坐著呢。為什麼不瞧瞧去？」寶玉便要去見。
Translation Notes
幾個媳婦們先笑道 obviously means that several of the daughters-in-law (which I translated as “ladies of the household”) laughed and spoke. However, it’s naturally implausible that several of them said the exact same thing at the same time, which is why I decided to treat this as an individual person speaking.
The phrase 就依不得你老人家了 has got to be intentionally ironic. Wang Xifeng is almost certainly younger than these other ladies, which makes it hilarious that they call her “你老人家.” Of course, this is hard to translate properly into English.
大哥哥 is very confusing. Jia Baoyu is asking about Jia Zhen, who is Jia Rong’s father. Now, the wording here isn’t very clear: in fact, at first I assume that Jia Baoyu was referring to Jia Rong, who is already married and has a child.
We actually covered this in chapter 5, back when one of Jia Baoyu’s elderly maids protested that Jia Baoyu should not sleep in Qin Keqing’s room because it’s improper for an uncle to sleep in the room of his nephew’s wife (那裡有個叔叔往侄兒房裡睡覺的禮呢？). See this post for more details:
If you remember my textual note from that translation segment, I showed that Jia Baoyu is actually from a more senior generation than Jia Rong. This is why Jia Rong and his wife refer to Jia Baoyu as “Uncle Bao,” or 寶二叔 in this segment.
There’s no evidence of a close connection between Jia Baoyu and Jia Zhen, which is one of the reasons why that 大哥哥 statement is really confusing. Jia Baoyu asked about 大哥哥 in part out of the respect naturally due to an older person who comes from the same generation. In other words, Jia Baoyu isn’t being deliberately informal here; in fact, there’s no evidence that he has any sort of relationship with Jia Zhen. He’s actually doing exactly what custom dictates that he should do.
逛逛 means to go out and take a walk. In this context, it’s pretty clear that it means to “go out and play” in English. This verb shows up a few times in Dream of the Red Chamber in similar contexts.