Mingyan Gets It On
Today Jia Baoyu discovers his servant Mingyan in the middle of sexual activity with a girl we haven’t met yet.
My Translation
Baoyu looked around and realized that there was nobody else there. “I remember there being a small study here,” he thought to himself. “I’m pretty sure that there’s a scroll painting of a beautiful woman hanging in that room, one that looks absolutely lifelike. With all the commotion today, I’m sure that the room is empty. The beautiful woman in that painting must be feeling lonely. I ought to pay her a visit to cheer her up.” And so he went over to the room.
He had just reached the window when he heard heavy breathing coming from the room. “Has the beautiful woman truly come to life?” thought Baoyu in amazement. Baoyu eventually worked up his courage, licked a hole in the paper of the window, and peeked inside.
It turns out that the beauty in the scroll hadn’t come to life. Instead, Baoyu saw Mingyan on top of a girl, doing the thing that the Goddess had taught Baoyu earlier. The two of them were in a deep passionate moment, and they were moaning loudly.
Baoyu couldn’t stop himself from yelling. “My God!” he cried out. He kicked the door open, and the two were scared so badly that they were shaking.
When Mingyan saw Baoyu he quickly knelt down and started to beg for mercy.
“it’s the middle of the day!” exclaimed Baoyu. “What are you doing? If Jia Zhen finds out, you’re as good as dead!”
Meanwhile, Baoyu looked at the girl. She was fair and clean, and had something appealing about her. She stood there with her head down, blushing red to her ears, saying nothing.
“Get out of here!” shouted Baoyu, stamping his foot. That snapped her out of her trance, and she ran off as quickly as she could. Baoyu chased after her, calling out, “Don’t be scared! I won’t tell anyone!”
“Geez!” came Mingyan’s frantic voice from behind him. “Now you’ve basically told everybody!”
“How old is she?” asked Baoyu as he turned to Mingyan.
“She’s about sixteen or seventeen” came Mingyan’s reply.
“You didn’t even ask her age before doing this?” asked Baoyu incredulously. “You just went straight into the act! She sure wasted her time getting to know you! Poor thing, poor thing!” He turned and asked Mingyan another question. “What’s her name?”
“There’s a long story behind this,” said Mingyan with a grin, “and it’s a strange story at that. She said that when her mom was giving birth to her, she had a dream in which she received a bolt of brocade with a five-color endless ‘good fortune’ pattern. And so her name is ‘Wan’er.’”
“Well, she must have good fortune coming her way!” Baoyu replied with a laugh. “I’ll put in a good word for you tomorrow and will get her for you as a wife; how does that sound?”
Translation Critique
Hawkes
Hawkes has Mingyan state that the girl was “not more than fifteen or so.” The Chinese states 不過十六七了, which translates to 16 or 17.
Hawkes has Wan’er’s mother give her the name “Swastika” because of the pattern. “Swastika,” of course, is kind of a strange name to give a girl, whereas 萬兒 (Wan’er) is at least plausible.
Yang
The Yangs stick with “sixteen or seventeen” as stated in the Chinese original. However, they also give the poor girl the odd “Swastika” name.
Chinese Text
寶玉見一個人沒有，因想：「素日這裡有個小書房，內曾掛著一軸美人，畫的很得神。今日這般熱鬧，想那裡自然無人，那美人也自然是寂寞的，須得我去望慰他一回。」想著，便往那裡來。剛到窗前，聽見屋裡一片喘息之聲。寶玉倒唬了一跳，心想：「美人活了不成？」乃大著膽子，舔破窗紙，向內一看。那軸美人卻不曾活，卻是茗煙按著個女孩子，也幹那警幻所訓之事，正在得趣，故此呻吟。寶玉禁不住大叫：「了不得！」一腳踹進門去，將那兩個唬的抖衣而顫。
茗煙見是寶玉，忙跪下哀求。寶玉道：「青天白日，這是怎麼說！珍大爺要知道了，你是死是活？」一面看那丫頭，倒也白白淨淨兒的，有些動人心處，在那裡羞的臉紅耳赤，低首無言。寶玉跺腳道：「還不快跑！」一語提醒那丫頭，飛跑去了。寶玉又趕出去，叫道：「你別怕，我不告訴人。」急的茗煙在後叫：「祖宗，這是分明告訴人了！」
寶玉因問：「那丫頭十幾歲了？」茗煙道：「不過十六七了。」寶玉道：「連他的歲數也不問問，就作這個事，可見他白認得你了！可憐，可憐！」又問：「名字叫什麼？」茗煙笑道：「若說出名字來，話長，真正新鮮奇文！他說，他母親養他的時節，做了一個夢，夢得了一疋錦，上面是五色富貴不斷頭的『卍』字花樣；所以他的名字就叫作萬兒。」寶玉聽了，笑道：「想必他將來有些造化。等我明兒說了給你作媳婦，好不好？」
Translation Notes
畫的很得神 is a bit confusing. 得神 is an old term in Chinese art criticism that means something like “transmitting the spirit.”
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Mingyan (茗煙). We first encountered him near the end of chapter 9:
Mingyan is Jia Baoyu’s favorite young servant.
那警幻所訓之事 refers to the sexual instruction that the Goddess Who Unveils Illusion taught to Jia Baoyu back at the end of chapter 5:
As you might recall, Jia Baoyu then used these techniques in his first sexual encounter at the beginning of chapter 6. His target was his maid, Hua Xiren:
Jia Baoyu exclaims “了不得!” which probably translates best as something like “This is too much!” or “What a disaster!” It’s an exclamation filled with somewhat mild panic.
唬的抖衣而顫 literally means that the two were so scared that they shook all over, so much that even their clothes were trembling.
卍 (wàn) is a Buddhist symbol that was originally intended to convey good fortune or well-being. It was eventually taken over by the Nazi party in Germany.
The name 萬兒 (Wan’er) is a play on words. 萬 means ten thousand and conveys the idea of ten thousand blessings or endless wealth or something like that. Plus, it is pronounced the same as the character 卍.