却说贾珍、贾琏暗暗预备下大笸箩的钱,听见贾母说赏,忙命小厮们快撒钱,只听满台钱响,贾母大悦。
TO CONTINUE OUR STORY: Cousin Zhen and Jia Lian had secretly instructed their pages to have a large flat-bottomed basket of largesse-money in readiness, and when they heard Grandmother Jia call out ‘Largesse!” they told the pages to take this basket and empty it onto the stage.
The money showered down on the boards with a tremendous ringing clatter, which greatly delighted the old lady.
只听满台钱响,贾母大悦。
and the clink and jingle of money on the stage delighted the old lady.
二人遂起身,小厮们忙将一把乌银新暧壶递过来,贾琏捧在手内,随了贾珍先至李婢席上,躬身取下杯来,回身,贾琏忙斟了一杯;然后便至薛姨妈席上,也斟了一杯。
Then, as both men rose from their seats, a page brought Jia Lian a silver pot of freshly-heated wine which he carried himself as he followed Jia Zhen inside.First Jia Zhen bowed to Aunt Li and, taking her cup, turned round so that Jia Lian might fill it.
He then bowed to Aunt Xue and filled her cup as well.
散了又齐备,我们这里也不耽心,又可以全他的礼,岂不三处有益。
Then we here needn't worry, while she can observe the proprieties.Isn't that better all round?”
贾母听了这话,忙说:"你这话很是,比我想的周到, 快别叫他了。
“You're quite right,” said the Lady Dowager.“Trust you to have thought it all out.
Don't send for her.
但只他妈几时没了,我怎么不知道?"
But when did her mother die?”How is it I didn't know?”
凤姐笑道:"前儿袭人去亲自回老太太的,怎么倒忘了?"
“Have you forgotten, madam?”Xifeng smiled. “The other day she came herself to report to you.
贾母想了一想,笑说:"想起来了。
The old lady thought back and chuckled. “So she did.
众人都笑说:"老太太那里记得这些事?"
‘You can't remember everything' the others said reassuringly.
贾母因又叹道:"我想着,他从小儿伏侍了我一场,又伏侍了云儿一场,末后给了一个魔王宝玉,亏他魔了他这几年。
“She was only a child when she came to wait on me,” recalled the old lady with a sigh.“Then she waited on Xiangyun for a time, until finally I gave her to our young demon king, and what a dance her's led her all these years!
他又不是咱们家根生土长的奴才,没受过咱们什么大恩典,他娘没了,我想着要给他几两银子发送他娘,也就忘了。”
I remember thinking at the time that we owe the girl a bit of kindness - especially as she's not one of our own home-reared servants but one who came to us from outside - and meaning to ask them to give her something towards the funeral when I heard that her mother had died, but I'm afraid that afterwards I forgot.”
凤姐道:"前儿太太巳赏了他四十两银子,也就是了。”
“The other day the mistress gave her forty taels, and that should have been enough,” interposed Xifeng.
贾母听说,点头道:"这还罢了。
The Lady Dowager nodded. “That's all right then.
正好鸳鸯的娘前儿也没了,我想他老子娘都在南边,我也没叫他 家去走走守孝,如今叫他两个一处作伴儿去。
As it happens, Yuanyang's mother has just died too; but because her home's in the south I didn't send her back for the funeral.Now they can keep each other company.”
竹又命婆子将 些果子菜馔点心之类与他两个人吃去。
She ordered some of the women in attendance to make a selection of the cakes and other delicacies they had been eating and take them for Faithful to eat with Aroma in Green Delights.
说着,大家又吃酒看戏。
They went on with their feast then, still watching the opera.
且说宝玉一径来至园中,众婆子见他回房,便不跟去,只坐在园门里茶房里烤火,和管茶的女人偷空饮酒斗牌。
Meanwhile Baoyu had gone straight back to the Garden.
And seeing that he was going to his own quarters, the nurses did not follow him but sat down by the stove in the Garden gatehouse to drink and gamble with the women in charge of making tea there.
麝月道:"他们都睡了不成?
‘Surely they can't all have gone to bed?” said Musk.
咱们悄悄的进去唬他们一跳。”
“Let's go in quietly and give them a fright.”
于是大家蹑足潜踪的进了镜壁一看,只见袭人和一人对面,都歪在地炕上,那一头有两三个老嬷嬷打盹。
Bao-yu and the four girls tiptoed through the outer room and peeped through the apertures of the mirror-wall into the room within.
Aroma and another girl were lying facing each other on the nearer side of the kang.
At the further end two or three old women appeared to be taking a nap.
宝玉只当他两个睡着了,才要进去,忽听鸳鸯叹了一声,说道:"可知天下的事难定。
Baoyu thought they were asleep.He was on the point of going in when he heard Yuanyang say with a sigh: “There's no telling what will happen in this life.
论理你单身在这里,父母在外头,每年他们东去西来,没个定准,想来你是再不能送终的了,偏生今年就死在这里,你倒出去送了终。”
Look at you, f6r example, on your own here with a free family living outside, never sure from one year to the next where they might move to: you never expected to be with your mother at the end, did you?” Yet it just so happened that this year she was living near at hand and you were able to be a good daughter to her when she died.”
袭人道:“正是,我也想不到能够看着父母殡殓。
“I never thought I'd be able to be there when she breathed her last.
太太又赏了四十两银子,这倒也算养我一场,我也不敢妄想了。”
And the mistress gave me forty taels too, which was a very handsome reward to her for having brought me up, and more than I dared hope for.”