Li Wan's Fate
The orchid in the pot
Li Wan's Fate
We’re finally back to a character we’ve actually met. This poem clearly refers to Li Wan.
My Translation
After that poem was a painting of a luxurious orchid in a pot. A beautiful woman wearing a phoenix hat and resplendent robes stood beside it. Its verdict read:
Peaches and plums stop bearing fruit with the spring winds,
But, in the end, who can compare to this orchid pot?
She’s clean like pure ice water, yet envied in vain
In the end, she is only an idle jest for others.
Translation Critique
Hawkes
David Hawkes refers to 鳳冠霞帔 as “in full court dress.” This is technically true, I suppose, but makes little sense when it refers to Li Wan. Li Wan has no real connections to the Emperor, nor does her son Jia Lan.
David Hawkes changes the meaning of the first two lines:
The plum-tree bore her fruit after the rest,
Yet, when all’s done, her Orchid was the best.
Technically, it is true that Jia Lan is the youngest of the Jia children. However, David Hawkes misses the fact that Jia Lan and Jia Baoyu are really the only two realistic legal heirs to the Jia family. In other words, we can’t really read “桃李春風結子完” as a comment on Li Wan being last to have a child. Rather, the important part here is that the other women in the Jia family are not having children; their barrenness (結子完) comes along with the spring wind (春風).
It’s not that Jia Lan is somehow “best.” It’s that he’s the only male heir other than Jia Baoyu – and, as we’ll see, Jia Baoyu really isn’t interested in taking over anything.
Yang
The Yangs seem to miss the meaning of the final two lines:
Pure as ice and water she arouses envy,
Vain the groundless taunts that are cast.
I’m not sure how they got to that point.
如冰水 from the third line does mean “pure as ice water,” sure. 空相妒 indicates that others envy (空) her in vain (空).
But the 枉 in the end doesn’t mean that the taunting of the others is in vain. Rather, it means that Li Wan’s purity (如冰水) is in vain. In the end, she simply becomes an object of gossip (作笑談) for other people (他人).
Of course, what this line is really referring to is how empty and pointless the envy of Li Wan really is. Sure, she has a boy, something that I’m sure the other women in the family want. However, her entire existence is centered around her son, to the point where she really doesn’t exist as an independent character. That’s the part that the Yangs miss in their translation.
Chinese Text
詩後又畫一盆茂蘭。旁有一位鳳冠霞帔的美人。也有判云：
桃李春風結子完，到頭誰似一盆蘭？如冰水好空相妒，枉與他人作笑談。
Translation Notes
茂蘭 means “luxuriant orchid” or “flourishing orchid.” Note that Li Wan’s son is named 賈蘭 (Jia Lan); the 蘭 character in both is identical. 一盆茂蘭, or a pot with a flourshing orchid (蘭), directly refers to Li Wan – and notice how her character is entirely defined by her relationship to her son.
冠 (guān) means hat or cap.
霞帔 means a colorful robe.
桃李 means peaches and plums; 李 is also Li Wan’s surname. Peaches and plums often represented beauty and fertility, and can be thought of as a reference to women who marry and bear children.
Notice the puzzling irony here. Spring winds (春風) usually represent fertility, not barrenness. This line likely refers to the fact that Li Wan’s son Jia Lan winds up becoming the only realistic family heir, since Jia Baoyu is certainly not interested in doing what needs to be done to keep the family prosperous.