青凤（选自《聊斋志异》）英译文
Pu SongLing / Strange Tales from the Make-Do Studio
TRANSALTED BY DENIS C. & VICTOR H. MAIR
1989 FOREIGN LANGUE PRESS, BEIJING
The Gengs of Taiyuan were an aristocratic family of long standing who lived in an enormous manor. Eventually their fortunes declined and half of the rambling complex of storiedbuildings and living quarters was left desolate. This gave rise to hauntings: the door to the main hall often opened and closed by itself, and the household members repeatedly broke the night stillness with terrified cries.
Geng found this so disturbing that he moved to a contry residence, leaving an old caretaker to watch the gate. From then on the place became even more neglected and overgrown. Laughter and music could sometimes be heard within. Geng had a nephew named Sickness-free, who was a wild, uninhibited youth. The nephew instructed the caretaker to report anything he saw or heard without delay. One night lamplight was seen flicking in one of the storied buildings.
When the caretaker rushed to inform. him of this, the scholar wanted to enter the building and observe the disturbances. Attempts to dissuade him were in vain. He had long been familiar with the layout of the buildings, but this time he had pushed a circuitous way through thick mugworts and brambles. He climbed to the upper story of one building without seeeing anything suspicious. Passing through the building, his ears caught the sibilance of human speech.
Peeking into a room lighted in daylike brilliance by a pair of large candles, he saw a man in a scholar's cap seated facing a woman at the south of the room. Both were in their forties. On the east side was a young man, probally in his twenties, and on his right was a young woman who had just reached the hairpin age of fifteen. They sat talking jovially around a table laden with meat and wine. The scholar barged in and cried out laughingly:
"An uninvited guest has arrived."
The frighted group ran to hide. The old man alone came out and asked in rebuking tones: "Who are you that you dare to enter other people's private chambers?"
"These are my family's chambers,"said the scholar. "You have taken them over. You drink exquiste wine by yourselves without so much as asking the master of the house to join you. Aren't you pushing your stinginess to far?"
"You are not the master of the house," said the old man, inspecting him with a sidelong glance.
"I am the way ward scholar Geng Sickness-Free, nephew of the master of this house."
The old man utterewd a respectful greeting: "I've long looked up to your luminosity!"
After bowing the scholar into the room, he called on his servants to replace the food on the table. The scholare stopped him, so the old man poured wine for his guest.
The scholar said, " There is friendship between our families, so the guest who were just at table need not remain separate. I earnestly hope you will call then back to have a drink."
"Xiao-er!" called the old man. A young man came quickly from outside. The older man said, "This is my humble child." The youth bowed and sat down. The conversation opened with inquires into each others backgrounds. The older man volunteered:
"My foster-father is surnamed Fox."
The scholar had always been outgoing, and his conversation sparked with wit. Xiao-er, too had and easy, charming, manner. In the course of the fourthright conversation, each felt attached to the other. The scholar, being twenty-one years old, was two years older then his friend, so he addressed Xiao-er as a younger brother.
The old man spoke up: "I've heard that your grandfather compiled "The Legends of Tushan."[*1] do you know about it?"
"Yes I do."
"I am descended from the Tushan line," said the old man. "I can remember my family tree to as far back as the Tang dynasty (618-906), but there are no records of our linage from the Five dynasties[*2] period and before. I would feel fortunate if you could impart some of what you know."
The scholar gave a brief account of the assistance which the maid of Tushan had rendered to Emperor Yu. He embellished the new story with many fine phrases, and his flow of captivating thoughts gushed forth like a spring. The old man said to his son in great delight:
"This is a chance to hear what we've never heard before. The young gentleman is not an outsider: go ahead and ask your mother and Qingfeng to listen with us, so they too will know of my ancestor's glory." Xiao-er went behind a curtain. In a moment the woman appeared with the girl. Geng took a good long look at her. Her dainty poise breathed loveliness, and her eyes rippled with brilliance like autumn pools. Nowhere in the world of men was such beauty to be seen.
The old man pointed first to his wife then to the girl: "This is my old wife, and this is my neice, Qingfeng. She has quite a head on her shoulders. She always remembers everything she hears and sees, so I called her hear to listen."
After the scholar finshed telling his tale the drinking began. He turned his eyes to the young woman and let his gaze rest upon her. Sensing his glance she did nothing but lower her head. The scholar furtively placed his foot on her lotus-like slipper. She drew her foot quickly away, but gave no sign of displeasure. The scholar roving thoughs robbed him of self-command. With a slap on the table he blurted:
"If I had a wife like this, I would not trade places with a king facing south on his throne!"
Seeing the scholar become even more boisterous as he succumbed to the wine, the woman and the girl rose, hurriedly parted the curtain and left the room. The disappointed scholar took leave of the old man and departed, but the threads of affection tugged at his heart, and he could not rid his thought of Qingfeng.
At nightfall the next day he went back to the manor. Her orchid-musk remained in the air. He passed the night absorbed in waiting, but not so much as a cough of hers was heard. Returning home, he broached to his wife his plan to take the family there and stay, in hopes of having an encounter. Since his wife did not assent, he went alone. That night, as he sat reading at the desk in the lower story of the mansion, a wild-haired ghost with a lacquer-black face entered and stared wide-eyed at him. He laughingly dipped his fingers in freshly-rubbed ink, smeared it on his face and looked back at the ghost with a burning gaze. The ghost left in shame.
Late the following night he had blowen out his candle and was about to retire when he heard a bolt sliding open in the rear of his mansion, followed by the thud of an opening door. He rushed to take a look. A doorleaf was standing ajar. There wasa sudden pattering of slippers, and the light of a candle shone from inside. He saw that it was Qingfeng. Frightened at the unexpected sight of the scholar, she backed away and slammed the double-leaved door. The scholar knelt upright before her door and delivered his plea:
It was for your sake that I did not shrink from danger. By good fourtune no one else was here. If you were to grant me just once the joy of a touch of your hand, I would face death itself without regret."
The girl spoke through the intervening door: "Do not suppose that I know nothing of the heart-gripping longing you feel, but my uncle raised me by a stern code of womanly conduct: I dare not obey your wish."
The scholar kept pleading, nevertheless: I do not prsume to hope for bodily intimacy: is would be enough just see your face."
The girl seemed amenable to this. She opened the door and came out. In a paroxysm of delight the scholar took her arm and drew hew into the mansion, where he sat her on his lap and embraced her.
"It is fortunate that fate has brought us together," said the girl. "But now matter how much we yearn for each other, it will do us no good after tonight."
"Why is that?" asked the scholar.
"Your wildness frightened my uncle, so he disguised himself as a fierce ghost to frighten you, but you were not fazed. Now he has found another place to live. The whole family has taken our belongings and moved to our new home. They left me here to watch the place, but I have to leave tomarow."
Then she rose to leave,saying: "I'm afraid my uncle will come back."
The scholar, who wanted to enjoy himself with her, did his utmost to detain her. The matter was still under discussion when her uncle entered stealthily. The shamed, frighted girl would have crawled into a hole had there been one handy. She bowed her head and leaned against the bed, wordlessly fingering her sash.
"You are a disgrace to my family, you cheap chamber maid!" Roared the uncle.
"If you don't get out of here now, I'll speed you on your way with a whip." The girl rushed from the room, her head lowered ajectly, and her uncle followed. As the scholar trailed behind themlisting, the old man raving curses and Qingfeng'd muffled sobs pierced his heart.
"I am the guilty one," he shouted after them. "This is not Qingfeng's fault. If you'll be lenient with her, I'll gladly bear any punishment, be it by sword, saw, hatchet or axe."
All sounds died down into prolonged silence. The scholar went back to bed. From this time on not a breath of noise was heard in the mannor. The scholar's uncle, amazed by the news of these events, agreed to sell the mannor to his nephew without haggleing over price. The scholar was delighted: he moved into the mannor with his family. They lived there quite comforably for more then a year, but the scholar never forgot Qingfeng.
Then, while retuning from the family graves on Tomb Sweeping day, he happened to see to small foxes closely pursued by hounds. One of them ducked into the brush, but the other was so frighted it kept running on the road. Seeing the scholar, it clung to his side whinning pathetically, ears folded back and head hanging, as if to beg for help. The scholar's pity was aroused. He loosened his robe, picked up the fox and carried it home in his arms. When he closed the door to his room and out it onto the bed, it turned into Qingfeng. What joy he felt! He consoled her and asked how she had come to this pass.
"Just now I was out frolicking with a maid servant, when this terrrible calamity threatened us. If it had not been for you, I would be buried now in a dogs stomach. I hope you dont hate me for not being one of your kind."
The scholar replied," My constant yearing for you intrudes into the dreams of my soul. Seeing you is like discovering a precious treasure. How can you say "hate"?
"This meeting is fixed by the working of fate. If it had not been for that near calamity, how could I be able to serve you? Fortunately for us, the maidservant will surly think I'm dead. Now we can hold fast to out enternal vow."
With joy in his heart the scholar set the girl up in rooms separte from his family. Two years passed. One night the scholar was in the middle of his reading when Xiao-er came into his room. The startled scholar put down his book and asked the reason for his coming.
Xiao-er prostrated himself and said woefully: "My father is facing an unexpected diaster. Only you can save him. he would have come to plead with you himself, but he feared you would not grant his request, so he sent me."
"Well, what is it?" asked the scholar.
"Do you know Mo the third Son?"
"He is the son of a man who took examinations the year I did," said the scholar.
Xiao-er said, "He will pass by here tomarrow. If he is carrying a fox taken in the hunt, please ask him to leave it here."
"The shame your father subjected me to in the mansion still burns in my heart. Let me hear no more of what does not concern me. If you insist on my doing what little I can, I will do only if Qingfeng comes to me first!"
"Cousin Qingfeng died in the field three years ago!" Xiao-er sniffed as he spoke.
The scholar retorted with a sweep of his sleeve, "If so my resentments is so much the greater!"
He picked up his book and loudly intoned a poem, without lifting his gaze in the slightest. Xiao-er rose and cried himself hoarse, then walked out, hiding his face in his hands. The scholar went to Qingfeng's room to let her know.
"Will you save him or not?" she asked, her face gone pale.
"I'll save him all right. My refusal just now was my way of repaying his past spitefulness."
At this the girl brightened: "I was orphaned at an early age, but my uncle took me in and raised me. Though he once offended you, that was only because of the family discipline he had demanded of me."
"True, said the scholar. "But one can't help holding it against him."
"You really are hard-hearted!" she said with a laugh.
Sure enough, Mo the third Son showed up the next day sporting engraved harness ornaments, a bowcase of tiger skin and an impressive entourage. Meeting him at the gate, the scholar saw that he had bagged a fair amount of game. Amoung it was a black fox, still warm to the touch, its fur matted with dark red blood. The scholar asked to have it, claiming that he needed the pelt to patch his worn fur coat. Mo parted with it magnanimously.
The scholar turned it over to Qingfeng and drank wine with his guest. When the guest had gone, the girl held the fox in her arms. After three days it came back to life. Then, through several stages, it changed back into her uncle.
Qingfeng was the first to meet his eyes when he looked up, which led him to suspect that he was no longer in the world of men. When the girl had gone through the true story, he bowed down and stammered an apology for his past offence. That done, he turned beamingly to the girl and said.
"I kept saying that you weren't dead: now it turns out that I was right!"
The girl said to the scholar: "I also beg you, if you care for me, to give us the use of a building, so that I can care for the one who has cared for me." The scholar assented.
The old man then excused himself blushingly and left. That night he returned with his whole family. From then on they lived like one big family, all ill feelings left in the past. The scholar lived a secluded life in his studio, but Xiao-er frequently joined him for wine and conversation. As the son born to scholar's wife grew older, Xiao-er was asked to act as tutor, because he was taught with skill and patience and conducted himself as a teacher should.
1Based on the mythological marriage of an ancient ruler Yu with a nine-tailed vixen from Tushan of Anhui province.
2Not the Five dynasties period usually referred to (907-960), but the one (420-618) before the Tang dynasty.
原文：
太原耿氏，故大家，第宅弘阔。后凌夷，楼舍连亘，半旷废之，因生怪异，堂门辄自开掩，家人恒中夜骇哗。耿患之，移居别墅，留一老翁门焉。由此荒落益甚，或闻笑语歌吹声。
耿有从子去病，狂放不羁，嘱翁有所闻见，奔告之。至夜，见楼上灯光明灭，走报生。生欲入觇其异，止之不听。门户素所习识，竟拨蒿蓬，曲折而入。登楼，初无少异。穿楼而过，闻人语切切。潜窥之，见巨烛双烧，其明如昼。一叟儒冠南面坐，一媪相对，俱年四十余。东向一少年，可二十许。右一女郎，才及笄耳。酒胾满案，围坐笑语。生突入，笑呼曰：“有不速之客一人来！”群惊奔匿。独叟诧问：“谁何入人闺闼？”生曰：“此我家也，君占之。旨酒自饮，不邀主人，毋乃太吝？”叟审谛之，曰：“非主人也。”生曰：“我狂生耿去病，主人之从子耳。”叟致敬曰：“久仰山斗！”乃揖生入，便呼家人易馔，生止之。叟乃酌客。生曰：“吾辈通家，座客无庸见避，还祈招饮。”叟呼：“孝儿！”俄少年自外入。叟曰：“此豚儿也。”揖而坐，略审门阀。叟自言：“义君姓胡。”生素豪，谈论风生，孝儿亦倜傥，倾吐间，雅相爱悦。生二十一，长孝儿二岁，因弟之。叟曰：“闻君祖纂《涂山外传》，知之乎？”答曰：“知之。”叟曰：“我涂山氏之苗裔也。唐以后，谱系犹能忆之；五代而上无传焉。幸公子一垂教也。”生略述涂山女佐禹之功，粉饰多词，妙绪泉涌。叟大喜，谓子曰：“今幸得闻所未闻。公子亦非他人，可请阿母及青凤来共听之，亦令知我祖德也。”孝儿入帏中。少时媪偕女郎出，审顾之，弱态生娇，秋波流慧，人间无其丽也。叟指媪曰：“此为老荆。”又指女郎：“此青凤，鄙人之犹女也。颇慧，所闻见辄记不忘，故唤令听之。”生谈竟而饮，瞻顾女郎，停睇不转。女觉之，俯其首。生隐蹑莲钩，女急敛足，亦无愠怒。生神志飞扬，不能自主，拍案曰：“得妇如此，南面王不易也！”媪见生渐醉益狂，与女俱去。生失望，乃辞叟出。而心萦萦，不能忘情于青凤也。
至夜复往，则兰麝犹芳，凝待终宵，寂无声咳。归与妻谋，欲携家而居之，冀得一遇。妻不从。生乃自往，读于楼下。夜方凭几，一鬼披发入，面黑如漆，张目视生。生笑，拈指研墨自涂，灼灼然相与对视，鬼惭而去。次夜更深，灭烛欲寝，闻楼后发扃，辟之閛然。急起窥觇，则扉半启。俄闻履声细碎，有烛光自房中出。视之，则青凤也。骤见生，骇而却退，遽阖双扉。生长跪而致词曰：“小生不避险恶，实以卿故。幸无他人，得一握手为笑，死不憾耳。”女遥语曰：“惓惓深情，妾岂不知？但吾叔闺训严谨，不敢奉命。”生固哀之，曰：“亦不敢望肌肤之亲，但一见颜色足矣。”女似肯可，启关出，捉其臂而曳之。生狂喜，相将入楼下，拥而加诸膝。女曰：“幸有夙分，过此一夕，即相思无益矣。”问：“何故？”曰：“阿叔畏君狂，故化厉鬼以相吓，而君不动也。今已卜居他所，一家皆移什物赴新居，而妾留守，明日即发矣。”言已欲去，云：“恐叔归。”生强止之，欲与为欢。方持论间，叟掩入。女羞惧无以自容，挽手依床，拈带不语。叟怒曰：“贱辈辱我门户！不速去，鞭挞且从其后！”女低头急去，叟亦出。生尾而听之，诃诟万端，闻青凤嘤嘤啜泣。生心意如割，大声曰：“罪在小生，与青凤何与！倘宥青凤，刀锯鈇钺，愿身受之！”良久寂然，乃归寝。自此第内绝不复声息矣。生叔闻而奇之，愿售以居，不较直。生喜，携家口而迁焉。居逾年甚适，而未尝须臾忘青凤也。
会清明上墓归，见小狐二，为犬逼逐。其一投荒窜去；一则皇急道上，望见生，依依哀啼，葛耳辑首，似乞其援。生怜之，启裳衿提抱以归。闭门，置床上，则青凤也。大喜，慰问。女曰：“适与婢子戏，遘此大厄。脱非郎君，必葬犬腹。望无以非类见憎。”生曰：“日切怀思，系于魂梦。见卿如得异宝，何憎之云！”女曰：“此天数也，不因颠覆，何得相从？然幸矣，婢子必言妾已死，可与君坚永约耳。”生喜，另舍居之。
积二年余，生方夜读，孝儿忽入。生辍读，讶诘所来，孝儿伏地怆然曰：“家君有横难，非君莫救。将自诣恳，恐不见纳，故以某来。”问：“何事？”曰：“公子识莫三郎否？”曰：“此吾年家子也。”孝儿曰：“明日将过，倘携有猎狐，望君留之也。”生曰：“楼下之羞，耿耿在念，他事不敢预闻。必欲仆效绵薄，非青凤来不可！”孝儿零涕曰：“凤妹已野死三年矣。”生拂衣曰：“既尔，则恨滋深耳！”执卷高吟，殊不顾瞻。孝儿起，哭失声，掩面而去。生如青凤所，告以故。女失色曰：“果救之否？”曰：“救则救之。适不之诺者，亦聊以报前横耳。”女乃喜曰：“妾少孤，依叔成立。昔虽获罪，乃家范应尔。”生曰：“诚然，但使人不能无介介耳。卿果死，定不相援。”女笑曰：“忍哉！”次日，莫三郎果至，镂膺虎皆，仆从甚赫。生门逆之。见获禽甚多，中一黑狐，血殷毛革。抚之皮肉犹温。便托裘敝，乞得缀补。莫慨然解赠，生即付青凤，乃与客饮。客既去，女抱狐于怀，三日而苏，展转复化为叟。举目见凤，疑非人间。女历言其情。叟乃下拜，惭谢前愆，喜顾女曰：“我固谓汝不死，今果然矣。”女谓生曰：“君如念妾，还祈以楼宅相假，使妾得以申返哺之私。”生诺之。叟赧然谢别而去，入夜果举家来，由此如家人父子，无复猜忌矣。生斋居，孝儿时共谈宴。生嫡出子渐长，遂使傅之，盖循循善教，有师范焉。
TAG:
I completely read it. Good.