I highly recommend reading Yu Yingshih’s article The Two Worlds of Hunglou meng. This and the next chapter are two of the most rich in hidden meanings, and even Yu only suggests a few of them. What do these interactions hint about Lin Daiyu, who will live in this house? What does Yuanchun, who Baoyu names this house in honor of, think about Daiyu?
Good point - and I'll have to give that article a read.
I'd go further, though, and would point out that this poem can refer to either Lin Daiyu or to Xue Baochai. I'll have a bit more to say about that in my post tomorrow.
The interesting thing about this book is that it always remains ambiguous. Though I think the vast majority of us want to see Lin Daiyu win out in the end, there's an argument to be made that Xue Baochai ought to be the winner. And there's another argument in here that the real villain of the novel is actually Jia Baoyu.
It’s interesting seeing how different translations interprets Baoyu’s emotional response to his dad’s glance. The Joly translation (1891) renders this as “so terrified did Baoyu feel that he hastily drooped his head”. This reaction is more extreme than your “startled” and reads very differently than Hawkes’ “embarrassed…shame” and the Yangs’ “confusion”.
I highly recommend reading Yu Yingshih’s article The Two Worlds of Hunglou meng. This and the next chapter are two of the most rich in hidden meanings, and even Yu only suggests a few of them. What do these interactions hint about Lin Daiyu, who will live in this house? What does Yuanchun, who Baoyu names this house in honor of, think about Daiyu?
Good point - and I'll have to give that article a read.
I'd go further, though, and would point out that this poem can refer to either Lin Daiyu or to Xue Baochai. I'll have a bit more to say about that in my post tomorrow.
The interesting thing about this book is that it always remains ambiguous. Though I think the vast majority of us want to see Lin Daiyu win out in the end, there's an argument to be made that Xue Baochai ought to be the winner. And there's another argument in here that the real villain of the novel is actually Jia Baoyu.
It’s interesting seeing how different translations interprets Baoyu’s emotional response to his dad’s glance. The Joly translation (1891) renders this as “so terrified did Baoyu feel that he hastily drooped his head”. This reaction is more extreme than your “startled” and reads very differently than Hawkes’ “embarrassed…shame” and the Yangs’ “confusion”.