What’s in a name in A Dream of Red Chamber (紅樓夢)?

If one reads article discussing the many hundreds of characters, main or minor, of A Dream of Red Chamber, one may not read about Hongyu (紅玉) or better known as Xiaohong (小紅).  In fact, this post was written after reading why Hongyu (紅玉) had to be called Xiaohong (小紅).

又問名字。小紅道：「原叫紅玉，因為重了寶二爺，如今只叫小紅了。」鳳姐聽說，將眉一皺，把頭一回，說道：「討人嫌的很！得了玉的便宜似的，你也玉，我也玉。」
Next she was asked her name,
“I was first called Hongyu (紅玉),” she answered, “but because of the ‘yu’ in Master Bao’s name they call me Xiaohong (小紅) now. Xifeng (鳳姐) frowned and tossed her head.
“Disgusting! You’d think there was something special about ‘yu’ (玉), the way everybody wants that name.” ß English translation in book

My comment:
Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) has a penchant of playing the names of his characters, such as 賈元春 (first spring), 賈探春 (seeking spring), 賈迎春 (welcoming spring), 賈惜春 (treasuring spring). Even the last name of 賈 has a special meaning, but that is beyond the scope of this writing.

The three love birds (three major protagonists) in a “triangle love” (or so I thought?) are 賈寶玉 (Jia Baoyu) and 林黛玉 (Lin Daiyu) that shares the “yu” (玉); another couple is 賈寶玉 (Jia Baoyu) and 薛寶釵 (Xue Baochai) that shares the “Bao” (寶).  There is another character of  Miaoyu (妙玉), of whom I know little yet, other than she is a nun.

Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) is aware that so many characters (male or female) have a yu (玉) in their name, thus we read this in Chapter 27, “得了玉的便宜似的，你也玉，我也玉。」”  It was translated as “You’d think there was something special about ‘yu’ (玉), the way everybody wants that name.” (the original says nothing “special” about “yu”).  It seems logical to say that, but a more faithful translation is “It costs nothing to have yu (玉) in their name, everyone wants it.” (Even Mei-Yu wants it.)

 

In Chapter 24 we began to know who is Lin Hongyu (林紅玉, Red Jade) whose family served the Jias (賈府) for generations, so she was sent to Happy Red Court (怡紅院) as a maid when she was fourteen (English translation says “sixteen”).

 

這小紅雖然是個不諳事體的丫頭，因他原有幾分容貌，心內便想向上攀高，每每要在寶玉面前現弄現弄. 只是寶玉身邊一干人都是伶牙俐爪的， 那裡插的下手去？

Simple as Xiaohong was, with her good looks (幾分容貌) she was foolishly eager to climb up in the world.  She had long been looking for a chance to attract Baoyu’s attention, but his other attendants were too smart to allow her to put herself forward.  ßEnglish translation in book

 

My comment:

This is fairly good and faithful translation, talking about the “ambition” of a maid with a good look

 

誰知寶玉昨兒見了他也就留心， 想著指名喚他來使用. 一則怕襲人等多心， 二則又不知他是怎麼個情性，

Now Baoyu (寶玉) had been so struck by Xiaohong the previous day that he would have liked to have her wait on him, but he feared this might upset Xiren and the others; besides, there was no saying how the girl would turn out.   ßEnglish translation in book

 

My comment:

This English translation author loves to use “upset”; he used it for “感傷歎息”; here he used it for “多心”, which is probably “worry or concern”.

 

情 (sentiment) 性 (personality, character). Baoyu knows Xiaohong has a good look, but no way to tell whether she is a gentle and loyal or one with a hot temper and a railing tongue.  I don’t quite like “there was no saying how the girl would turn out”, but I cannot make it better.

Translating literary Chinese into English is a daunting task

When I lament I only know English and yet I long for to learn French deep in my heart, Janice always reminds me I do know Chinese, not as much as I should though.

The strength of Chinese language lies in its aesthetic quality, thus its literary beauty is unmatched by English.  But one should never learn science, especially chemistry or math in Chinese, which is inherently a bad tool for this task.

While writing about the English translation of “A Dream of Red Chamber” (紅樓夢), I wrote, “No matter how good a translation, the beauty of the Chinese language was lost in translation.”  I am not the only one hold this view.  In his The Importance of Living, Lin Yutang wrote ,“One is often forced to write bad English in trying to express such Chinese aesthetic ideas or notions, . . .”

Chapter 5 of the Dream is important in foretelling, through Baoyu’s dream in fantasy, the unfortunate fate (薄命) of the Twelve Beauties of Chinling (金陵十二釵).

寶玉喜不自勝，抬頭看這司的匾上，乃是「薄命司」三字，兩邊寫著對聯道：「春恨秋悲皆自惹，花容月貌為誰妍？」
Baoyu (寶玉) was overjoyed.  He looked up and saw on the tablet the name Board of Ill-Fated.  This is flanked by the couplet:

They brought to themselves spring grief and autumn anguish;

Wasted, their beauty fair as flower and moon?

 

My comment:

“Overjoy” is a very appropriate translation for 喜不自勝.  There is nothing wrong to translate 薄命 (“thin fate”) as “ill-fated”, but Chinese readers know that it is conventionally used in describing the ill-fate in a marriage or a relationship of a woman, such as the idiom of 红颜薄命 (a great beauty suffers ill-fate).

 

春恨秋悲皆自惹,   They brought to themselves spring grief and autumn anguish;

花容月貌為誰妍？    Wasted, their beauty fair as flower and moon? ß translation in book

                                    [For whom the delicate beauty wasted?] ß my translation

My comment:
花容月貌 is “as beautiful as flower and moon”.  妍 is elegantly pretty of women.  妍 is an adjective, but it is used as a verb here.  It basically says “nobody is around to appreciate such a delicate beauty, thus wasted.”

早有一位仙姬在內，其鮮豔嫵媚，大似寶釵，嬝娜風流，又如黛玉.
More amazing still, he saw there a girl whose charm reminded him of Baochai (寶釵, with whom Baoyu eventually married), her grace of Daiyu (黛玉)  ß translation in book

My comment:
豔 is gorgeously beautiful, dazzlingly beautiful, passionate, voluptuous (like Mae West ß Lin Yutang’s example).  媚 is seductive, enticing, beauty of softness.  It is fitting to translate 鮮豔嫵媚 into “charm”, which is so plain that the “great charm and beauty” of Chinese language was lost.  The same is also true for 嬝娜風流 as “grace”. (I’ll devote a post just talking about 風流).

騷 is poetic, sentimental; we call poet 騷人.  We have a friend well versed in classic Chinese literature, 出囗成詩 真是騷人一個. Although one has to be careful using 騷. 風騷 is amorous, lustful, passionate, more of sensual love, or in a way, “hot”. 發勞騷 is complain, grumble, vent.

It is imperative to know that our 騷人 (the one we know) does not 發勞騷, nor 風騷.

Portrait of a character in novel: Xichun (賈惜春) in A Dream of Red Chamber (紅樓夢)

The essence of a good novel is that what a character does, large or small (小動作 in Chinese) or says, a speech or a sentence, fits perfectly his or her character, personality or sentiment.  This is why I am attracted to George Eliot’s Middelmarch.

The following two paragraphs are how George Eliot describes the refinement and cleverness of Rosamond.  Keep in mind that Dr. Lydgate studied medicine in London, Edinburgh and Paris; has seen the “world”, so to speak; Rosamond spent all her life in pastoral Middlemarch (the town name, also the title of the novel).
 
Certainly, small feet and perfectly turned shoulders aid the impression of refined manners, and the right thing said seems quite astonishingly right when it is accompanied with exquisite curves of lip and eyelid.
 
“Tell me what you saw in London.” “Very little.” (A more naive girl would have said, “Oh, everything!” But Rosamond knew better.)
 
Ji Xichun (賈惜春) is one of the Jinling Twelve Beauties, the second cousin of Jia Baoyu (賈寶玉) in A Dream of Red Chamber (紅樓夢).  She had a sexual intimacy (溫存了一番) in Chapter 6.  Reading the English version one gets an impression that she is a “coquettish” and flirtatious young lady.  But that was not my impression reading the Chinese version.

說到雲雨私情，羞的襲人掩面伏身而笑。寶玉亦素喜襲人柔媚姣俏，遂強拉襲人同領警幻所秘授之事。襲人自知賈母曾將他給了寶玉，也無可推託的，扭捏了半日，無奈何，只得和寶玉溫存了一番。
 
I will comment on the following English translation.
 
寶玉亦素喜襲人柔媚姣俏
Since Bayou had long been attracted by Xichun’s gentle, coquettish ways. (English translation in book

My comment:

It says Baoyu (寶玉) had long been attracted by Xichun (惜春) because Xichun is 柔媚姣俏, which is “gentle, gorgeous, and attractive”.  It doesn’t imply coquettish (flirtatious, a playful sexual attraction; teasing; make sexual overture).  柔媚姣俏 may be more of sensual beauty than of sensuous beauty, but still not any tone or suggestion of “coquettish”.

 
扭捏了半日，無奈何，只得和寶玉溫存了一番
So they tried it out secretly together, and luckily they were not discovered. (English translation in book)

My comment:
In fact, Xichun (惜春) went along, only after much hesitation and reluctance (扭捏了半日，無奈何), which was entirely ignored and omitted in English version.
 
說到雲雨私情，羞的襲人掩面伏身而笑
Baoyu, then told her his dream in full, concluding with his initiation by Disenchantment into the “sport of cloud and rain.” Xiren [Xichun], hearing this, covered her face and doubled up in a fit of giggles. (English translation in book)

My comment:
雲雨私情 is translated as “sport of cloud and rain”.  I bet few English readers know what is “sport of cloud and rain”. 雲雨私情, as in 巫山雲雨, refers to “making love”.

襲人自知賈母曾將他給了寶玉，也無可推託的
As she [Xichun] knew that the Lady Dowager had given her to Baoyu she felt this would not be an undue liberty. (English translation in book)

My comment:

Xichun knew the Lady Dowager had “given her to Baoyu”.  In Chinese society the women were treated like an “object”, a “property”, Xichun was “given to Baoyu”, whatever that means; so Xichun felt it was not inappropriate or improper for her to go along with Baoyu’d demand.

Mao Zedong claimed he read A Dream of Red Chamber (紅樓夢) five times; he must be infatuated and infuriated by the corrupt society, the custom, the culture and the feudal system the novel exposed.  It must have intensified his revolutionary zeal.

 

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On translating “A Dream of Red Chamber” (紅樓夢)

I have been reading “A Dream of Red Chamber” (紅樓夢) in Chinese and in English side by side, in an attempt to learn the skill of translating Chinese into English.  English version also helps me better understand Chinese version here and there.

紅樓夢 was written two hundred some years ago; the language was different from modern vernacular Chinese (白話); to me it was a more concise, more refined and more beautiful language.  I liken it to Shakespeare’s language, comparing with modern English.

I will write about 紅樓夢 as I read or as I please, focusing on the aspect of English translation.  I am not well versed on either language, so this is just a comment, not a critique.  Janice always wanted to read the book in English, I never encouraged her; as she cannot appreciate as much as I can.  No matter how good a translation, the beauty of the Chinese language was lost in translation.

There was an abridged (about half the length of the original) translation of the book by Lin Yutang.

今年方五十上下，只有薛蟠一子。還有一女比薛蟠小兩歲，乳名寶釵，生得肌骨瑩潤，舉止嫻雅
She was about forty years of age and Xue Pan was her only son.  But she also had a daughter two years younger whose infant name was Baochai, a beautiful, dainty girl of great natural refinement. (translation in book)

My comments:
Xue Baochai (薛寶釵) eventually married Jia Baoyu (賈寶玉). 生得肌骨瑩潤，舉止嫻雅 is how she was described when I first came across her on the page.  “a beautiful, dainty girl of great natural refinement” is a good translation; I can do no better, but Baochai would say “I am better than that.”

今年方五十上下 was translated as “She was about forty years of age”.  I think the Chinese says “more or less fifty years of age”, which is “about fifty years of age”.

乳名 was translated as “infant name”; “childhood name” would be better.

只打了個落花流水，生拖死拽，把個英蓮拖去，如今也不知死活
He stared a big fight, and then dragged her off by force more dead than alive. What’s become of her since, I don’t know. (translation in book)

My comments:
落花流水 comes from a poem of “流水落花春去也，天上人間”.  The idiom of 落花流水 now means “involving a big fight and often was beaten”.  如今也不知死活  “What’s become of her since, I don’t know.” is an excellent translation by any measure.

落花流水, when reversed as 流水落花, the meaning remains the same; examples abound; that’s the beauty of Chinese language.

The flowers watched the tilting sighingly in silence (感傷歎息)

A few days ago we’re tilting, which is part of the clean-up job at the end of the gardening.  The nearby flowers, mostly zinnia, marigold and Sylvia, watched sighingly in silence (感傷歎息) for their days remained which were not many.

Speaking of 感傷歎息 which means “sigh in a lamenting way”.  I am reading “A Dream of Red Chamber (紅樓夢)” in Chinese and in English and noticed in one sentence the  感傷歎息 was translated as “very upset”, which, in my view, was not the best choice of word. “Upset” is emotionally disturbed; more of agitating or angry, than lament and sigh.

我將緣故回明, 那太爺感傷歎息了一回。

He seemed very upset when I explained all that had happened.