英语笔译：《幽梦影》——林语堂译（人生卷三）

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        人生——之十六
        万事可忘，难忘者名心一段；千般易淡，未淡者美酒三杯。
        竹坡曰：是闻鸡起舞，酒后耳热气象。
        丹麓曰：予性不耐饮，美酒亦易淡，所最难忘者，名耳。
        云士曰：惟恐不好名，丹麓此言，具见真处。
        One can forget everything except the thought of fame, and learn to be cool toward everything
        except three cups of wine.
        Chupo: Now I hear someone who is feeling hot behind the ears and who wants to get up at dawn
        and practice fencing.
        Tanlu: I can't drink, but I cannot forget the thought of fame.
        Yunshih: It is not a bad occupation, this thought about fame. Tanlu is sincere.
        人生——之十七
        物之能感人者，在天莫如月，在乐莫如琴，在动物莫如鹃，在植物莫如柳。
        Of all things in the universe, those that move men most deeply are the moon2 in heaven, the chin
        in music, the cuckoo among birds, and the willow among plants.
        人生——之十八
        阅《水浒传》，至鲁达打镇关西，武松打虎，因思人生必有一桩极快意事，方不枉在生一场。
        即不能有其事，亦须著得一种得意之书，庶几无憾耳。
        竹坡曰：此等事必须无意中方做得来。
        弟木山曰：兄若打中山狼更极快意。
        When you read the Shuihu and come to the passage where Luta smashes Chenkuanshi or where
        Wusung kills the tiger with his bare hands, you feel good. A man must have such moments of
        supreme satisfaction in his life. Then he will not have lived in vain. If he cannot, he can hope to
        make up for it by writing a fine book.
        Chupo: Such moments of supreme satisfaction have to happen naturally. They cannot be striven
        for.
        [Younger brother] Mushan: If elder brother could kill the Ungrateful Wolf [in a story], it would be
        one of those moments.
        人生——之十九
        胸藏丘壑，城市不异山林；兴寄烟霞，阎浮有如蓬岛。梧桐为植物中清品，而形家独忌之甚，
        且谓梧桐大如斗，主人往外走??俗言之不足据，类如此夫。
        含徵曰：爱碧桐者遂艰于白镪。造物盖忌之，如靳之也，有何吉凶休咎之可关。只是打秋风
        时，光棍样可厌耳。
        In possession of a lively imagination, one can live in the cities and feel like one is in the
        mountains, and following one's fancies with the clouds, one can convert the dark continent of the
        south into fairy isles. A great wrong has been committed on the plane tree by the necromancers
        who regard it as bringing bad luck, saying that when a plane tree grows in the yard, its owner will
        live abroad...Most superstitions are like that.
        Hanchen: Those who love the plane tree are often poor. But that is because the Lord does not want
        us to have all the blessings at the same time. It is true, however, that in autumn its bare-knuckled
        and knobbed branches are difficult to look at.
        人生——之二十
        有地上之山水，有画上之山水，有梦中之山水，有胸中之山水。地上者妙在邱壑深邃，画上
        者妙在笔墨淋漓，梦中者妙在景象变幻，胸中者妙在位置自如。
        星远曰：心斋《幽梦影》中文字，其妙亦在景象变幻。
        （殷）日戒曰：若诗文中之山水，其幽深变幻，更不可以名状。
        含徵曰：但不可有面上之山水。
        （余）香祖曰：余境况不佳，水穷山尽矣。
        There are hills and waters on the earth, in paintings, in dreams, and in one's imagination. The
        beauty of such hills and waters on the earth is in their grace and variety; that in paintings, richness
        of ink and freedom of the brush; that in dreams, their changefulness; and that in one's imagination,
        good composition.
        Shingyuan: The writing of this book has grace and variety also.
        Jihchieh: In literature, the changes and surprises are even more exciting and difficult to describe.
        Hanchen: But please not those changes of expression on the face (of snobbery, etc.)!
        Shiangtsu: But sometimes when one meets hardships, the hills seem blocked and the waters come
        to a dead end, as in my case.
        人生——之二十一
        鳞虫中金鱼，羽虫中紫燕，可云物类神仙。正如东方曼倩避世金马门，人不得而害之。
        含徵曰：金鱼之所以免汤镬者，以其色胜而味苦耳。昔人有以重价觅奇特者，以馈邑侯。
        邑侯他日谓之曰：“贤所赠花鱼殊无味。”盖已烹之矣。世岂少削圆方竹杖者哉。
        Be a goldfish among the fish and a swallow among the birds. There are like Taoist fairies who go
        through life like the witty Tungfang Manching, safe from harm from those in power.
        Hanchen: The goldfish escapes from harm because its flesh is bitter to the taste. Once there was a
        man who paid a high price for a beautiful variety and sent it as a present to a magistrate. Later the
        magistrate said to him, “The beautiful fish you sent me seemed to be perfectly tasteless." He
        meant that he had cooked and tasted it. There are such people in the world!
            
            

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        人生——之二十二
        人须求可入诗，物须求可入画。
        （龚）半千曰：物之不可入画者，猪也，阿堵物也，恶少年也。
        竹坡曰：诗亦求可见得人，画亦求可像个物。
        （石）天外曰：人须求可入画，物须求可入诗，亦妙。
        So live that your life may be like a poem. Arrange things so that they look like they are in a
        painting.
        Panchien: There are things that will never look like they are in a painting: pigs, dollar bills, and
        juvenile delinquents.
        Chupo: Poems, on the other hand, would also like to be like real life, and paintings would like to
        be like things.
        Tienwai: It is also possible to say: "So live as to be like a painting, and arrange furniture so that
        the room looks like a poem."
        人生——之二十三
        昔人云，若无花、月、美人，不愿生此世界。予益一语云，若无翰墨、棋、酒，不必定作人
        身。
        日戒曰：枉为人身生在世界，急宜猛省。
        天石曰：海外诸国决无 墨棋酒，即有?亦不与吾同，一般有人，何也？
        （胡）会来曰：若无豪杰文人，亦不需要此世界。
        An ancient writer said, “Life would not be worth living if there were no moon, no flowers, and no
        beautiful women.” I might add, “It might not be important to be born a man, if there were no pen
        and paper, and no chess and wine."
        Jihchieh: Beware of living in vain!
        Tienchih: I am sure that foreigners have no pen and paper and chess and wine, or if they have,
        these things must be all different. Why, then, are human beings also born there?
        Hueilai: Life would not be worth living without great heroes and writers.
        人生——之二十四
        愿在木而为樗，愿在草而为蓍，愿在鸟而为鸥，愿在兽而为廌，愿在虫而为蝶，愿在鱼而为
        鲲。
        （郑）破水曰：我愿生生世世为顽石。
        悔庵曰：愿在人而为梦。
        慧珠曰：愿在梦而为影。
        That I might be the shy among the trees (which is never cut down because of its worthless timber),
        the shy among the grass (which can foretell events), the sea gull among the birds (which merges
        with the elements), the chih among animals (a kind of deer which attacks the guilty one), the
        butterfly among insects (which flits among flowers), and the kun among fish (which has the
        freedom of the ocean).
        Poshui: I wish to be a rock!
        Huei-an: I wish to be a dream!
        [Miss] Hueichu: I wish to be the shadow in a dream!
        人生——之二十五
        庄周梦为蝴蝶，庄周之幸也；蝴蝶梦为庄周，蝴蝶之不幸也。
        （黄）九烟曰：惟庄周乃能梦为蝴蝶，惟蝴蝶乃能梦为庄周耳。若世之扰扰红尘者，其能有
        此等梦乎？
        （孙）恺似曰：君于梦之中，又占其梦耶？
        含徵曰：周之喜梦为蝴蝶者，以其入花深也。若梦甫酣而乍醒，则又如嗜酒者梦赴席而为妻
        惊醒，不得不加痛诟谇矣。
        It was fortunate of Chuangtse to dream of being a butterfly, but a misfortune for the butterfly to
        dream of being Chuangtse.
        Chiuyuan: This is unfair to Chuangtse. Only he could have dreamed of being a butterfly.
        Kaisze: Are you dreaming of being a dream interpreter?
        Hanchen: Chuangtse had that dream because he was deeply associated with the flowers. Others
        might begin such a dream only, and it would be like a man dreaming of starting a wine dinner, to
        be rudely waked up by his wife!
        人生——之二十六
        假使梦能自主，虽千里无难命驾，可不羡长房之缩地；死者可以晤对，可不需少君之招魂；
        五岳可以卧游，可不俟婚嫁之尽毕。
        九烟曰：予尝谓鬼有时胜于人，正以其能自主耳。
        含徵曰：吾恐上穷碧落下黄泉，两地茫茫皆不见也。
        That one might control one's dreams! Then one could go anywhere one likes, conjure up the spirits
        of the past, and set out on a world trip without waiting for the sons and daughters to be married
        first.
        Chiuyuan: I sometimes think that ghosts have this advantage over men because they can go where
        they like.
        Hanchen: On the other hand, it is possible that ghosts go everywhere in the upper and the nether
        world and see nothing at all!
        人生——之二十七
        少年须有老成之识见，老成人须有少年之襟怀。
        含徵曰：今之钟鸣漏尽，白发盈头者，若多收几斛麦，便欲置侧室，岂非有少年之襟怀耶？
        独是少年老成者少耳。
        竹坡曰：十七八岁便有妾，亦居然少年老成。
        若金曰：老而腐板，定非豪杰。
        （王）司直曰：如此方不使岁月弄人。
        Young people should have the wisdom of the old, and old people should have the heart of the
        young.
        Hanchen: I do see white-haired old men with one foot in the grave take a concubine the moment
        they have a better harvest than usual. Don’t they also have "the heart of the young”? But the
        young people who have the wisdom of the old are rare.
        Chupo: There are young men who take a concubine at the age of seventeen or eighteen. So they,
        too, have the wisdom of the old.
        Jochin: A man who feels old cannot be a great soul.
        Szechih: Living this way, one is not indeed just a plaything of Father Time.
        人生——之二十八
        躬耕吾所不能，学灌园而已矣；樵薪吾所不能，学薙草而已矣。
        释菌人曰：以灌园薙草自任自持，可谓不薄；然笔端隐隐有非其种者锄而去之之意。
        司直曰：予自名为识字农夫，得毋妄甚？
        I cannot hope to be a farmer, but will learn watering flowers; cannot hope to become a woodcutter,
        but will be contented with pulling out weeds.
        [Monk] Chunjen: Watering and weeding the garden is after all not a bad life. One feels here,
        however, that the author has a hankering to weed out and cast off a lot of things he does not like.
        Szechih: I call myself a "literate farmer”. Is that presumptuous?