《红楼梦·终身误》英译

The Mistaken Marriage <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Let others all

Commend the marriage rites of gold and jade;

I still recall

The bond of old by stone and flower made;

And while my vacant eyes behold

Crystalline snows of beauty pure and cold,

From my mind cannot be banished

That fairy wood forlorn that from the world has vanished.

How true I find

That every good some imperfection bolds!

Even a wife so courteous and so kind

No comfort’ brings to my afflicted mind.

（David Hawkes 译）

A Life-long Mistake

All say that gold and jade are a happy affinity.

But think of the kermis covenant made between grove and stone.

In vain does he stand in the presence of the high officer in the mountains in clear crystal snow.

He never forgets the fairy beauty beyond the world-that quiet grove.

I sign because among the beauties of humankind there is not now one worthy of belief.

Granted that they lift the bowl to the level of their eyebrows,

After all, their minds are hard to tranquilize.

（B.S. Bonsall 译）

Waste of a Whole Lifetime

All maintain that the match between gold and jade will be happy.

All I can think of is the solemn oath contracted in days gone by by the plant and stone! Vain will I gaze upon the snow,

Hsueeh, pure as crystal and lustrous like a gem of the eminent priest living among the hills!

Never will I forget the noiseless Fairy Grove, Lin beyond the confines of the mortal world!

Alas! Now only have I come to believe that human happiness is incomplete;

And that a couple may be bound by the ties of wedlock for life,

But that after all their hearts are not easy to lull into contentment.

（H. Bencraft Joly 译）

A Life Misspent

Well-matched, all say, the gold and the jade;

I alone recall the pledge between plant and stone.

Vainly facing the hermit in sparkling snow-clad hills

I forget not the fairy in lone woods beyond the world.

I sign, learning that no man’s happiness is complete:

Even a pair thought well-matched

May find disappointment.

（杨宪益、戴乃迭 译）