Sorrow In The Midst Of Joy
Why bother with fate?
Sorrow In The Midst Of Joy
It’s time for another cryptic poem. The Chinese in this poem is a bit more difficult to figure out. Once you unravel the meaning, though, it’s pretty plain and clear. For the moment, however, the identity of this character is a mystery; she won’t show up for several more chapters. That’s Cao Xueqin for you, always the tease.
My Translation
Sorrow In The Midst Of Joy
While she was still in swaddling clothes, her parents sighed and died.
Though she was raised in luxury, who ever spoiled her?
Fortunately, she was born heroic, broad-minded, and magnanimous,
And never once allowed silly emotions to fester in her heart.
She was like a clear moon and a bright breeze illuminating a hall of jade.
She married a gifted and handsome man
Gambling that this will be an everlasting bond,
To compensate for her difficult childhood.
In the end, the clouds over Gaotang scatter
And the Xiang River runs dry.
Suffering in this mortal world is fated;
So why bother feeling sorrow?
Translation Critique
Hawkes
David Hawkes provides an accurate translation of this poem. However, he gives no explanation of what “Gao-tang” refers to, or the watres of Xiang (though you might recall that the Xiang River has come up before in Dream of the Red Chamber). The result is a poem that is hopelessly cryptic.
Hawkes does provide a little bit of an explanation of “the clouds of Gao-tang” in the Appendix. However, his explanation is far too simplistic and does not provide much detail. More on this in tomorrow’s commentary post.
Yang
The Yang translation doesn’t make much sense.
For example, take this phrase:
Like bright moon and fresh breeze in a hall of jade
She is matched with a talented and handsome husband;
It’s not clear what these two lines have to do with each other, and yet they are paired together in an extremely mysterious way. It’s actually pretty clear that 好一似霽月光風耀玉堂 ought to be together with 幸生來英豪闊大寬巨集量 and 從未將兒女私情略縈心上. Or, in other words, this girl is “like a bright moon and a fresh breeze in a hall of jade” because she grows up unencumbered by deep emotional feelings and with an open mind. It has nothing to do with her eventual marriage.
The next line seems to be at odds with the poem itself:
May she live with him for long years
To make up for her wretched childhood!
The problem here is 博得. While it means “to win” or “to gain,” 博得 here has a connotation of her taking a chance on fate. 博 is a character used in the modern Chinese word 讀博 (to gamble), and I strongly feel that is the way it should be interpreted here. This girl is taking a chance on love with somebody who seems to be the perfect gentleman (才貌仙郎) in hopes of making up for her childhood. In other words, 博得個地久天長，准折得幼年時坎坷形狀 is not a blessing or wish uttered by the poet, but, rather, is a reflection of this character’s most heartfelt desires.
And, in the end, the Yangs don’t bother to tell us why it’s significant that “over the Kaotang Tower the clouds disperse” or what it means when “the river Hsiang runs dry.”
Chinese Text
樂中悲
襁褓中，父母嘆雙亡。縱居那綺羅叢，誰知嬌養？幸生來英豪闊大寬巨集量，從未將兒女私情略縈心上，好一似霽月光風耀玉堂。廝配得才貌仙郎，博得個地久天長，准折得幼年時坎坷形狀。終久是雲散高唐，水涸湘江：這是塵寰中消長數應當，何必枉悲傷？
Translation Notes
綺羅 means fine silks and beautiful clothes. 叢 means a thicket or grove of trees. 綺羅叢 is therefore a description of having more fine silks and beautiful clothes than you could count.
嬌養 means to pamper a child – or to spoil a child. 誰知嬌養 implies that even the luxurious things around her didn’t actually “spoil” (嬌養) her – likely because of the lack of emotional correction.
兒女私情 means something like “the silly love games that children play.” The subject of this poem never allowed those games to “linger in her heart” (略縈心上). Note also that 縈 means “to entangle,” which means the feeling here is a little bit stronger than just “linger” or “fester.” The subject of this poem is basically the exact opposite of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, who are consumed by emotion (情) to the point where it defines their character.
霽月 means “the bright moon after rain;” we’ve seen it before, though it’s not a common phrase. The overall feeling of a clear moon after rain and a bright breeze that illuminates the jade hall (玉堂) seems to imply that this person will be a bright spot of some sort during a dark spot in Jia Baoyu’s life.
才貌仙郎 means a talented, handsome, and “immortal” (仙) husband – basically, the knight in shining armor.
博得 means to gain (favor or sympathy) or to win. Notice, however, that 博 itself means “to gamble.”
准折 means to compensate for; the closest equivalent in modern Chinese is probably 抵償. 坎坷形狀 means an ill-fated life, and 幼年時 means one’s youth. The line means that the subject of this poem hopes that her marriage to “prince charming” (才貌仙郎) will compensate for the pain of her youth.
高唐 is difficult to understand. This refers to the Gaotang Shrine (高唐之觀) in the Chinese literary tradition, which is a reference to an old poem called 高唐賦 written by the Warring States poet Song Yu. I’ll write more on this in tomorrow’s commentary post, since this is a pretty complex subject. While you can indeed think of 高唐 as the place where lovers meet (高唐之觀) as Wiktionary states, the truth is that there is also a sense of the inevitability of parting in this literary reference as well. This is clearly alluded to here by the phrase “the clouds part” (雲散), which itself is also a reference to the 高唐賦.
湘江 refers to the Xiang river, well known as the place where two consorts of Emperor Shun cried after his death. Legend has it that the bamboo of the Xiang River region became spotted with red after their tears turned to blood (and, yeah, the Chinese mythological tradition is certainly graphic). Both women then threw themselves into the river and drowned. See more here. The image of the Xiang River running dry (水涸) here is a direct reference to the death of one’s love.
塵寰 is the mortal world or the world of humans