刘姥姥一看，又惊又喜：惊的是一连十个，挨次大小分下来，那大的足有小盆子大，第十个极小的还有手里的杯子两个大；喜的是雕镂奇绝，一色山水树木人物，并有草字图记。
What alarmed her was their size.
The largest was as big as a small hand-basin and even the smallest one was twice as big as the cup she held in her hand.
What delighted her was the consummate artistry of the carving.
On each of the ten cups, in smaller and smaller replicas, was the same landscape with little trees and human figures in it and even some lines of minute ‘grass character' writing and a tiny carved representation of an artist's seal.
姥姥既要使，好容易寻了出来，必定要挨次吃一遍才使得。”
Now that you've asked for them and we've been to the trouble of getting them out for you, we must insist on your drinking from every one of them.”
贾母、薛姨妈、王夫人知道他有年纪的人， 禁不起，忙笑道:"说是说，笑是笑，不可多吃了，只吃这头一杯罢。”
Grandmother Jia, Aunt Xue and Lady Wang all realized that a person of Grannie Liu's advanced years could not possibly be expected to imbibe so huge a quantity of liquor without the direst consequences, and laughingly pleaded for her. ‘Come now, a joke is a joke.
You mustn't make her drink too much.
Let her just drink from the largest one.”
刘姥姥道："阿弥陀佛！
“Amida Buddha!”cried the old woman.
我还使小杯吃罢。
“Let me use the small one, and put that big one aside.
贾母薛 姨妈都道："慢些吃，不要呛了。”
‘Drink it slowly, now,' Grandmother Jia and Aunt Xue counselled her. ‘Don't make yourself choke.”
薛姨妈又命凤姐儿布个菜儿。
Aunt Xue told Xi-feng to offer the old woman something to eat with her bowlful.
刘老老道：“我知道什么名儿，样样都是好的。”
‘I don't know the names of any of these dishes,'said Grannie Lin. ‘Anything you like.
They all taste good to me.”
贾母笑道:"你把茄胙搛些喂他。”
“Give her some fried egg-plant,” proposed the Lady Dowager with a smile.
凤姐儿听说，依言夹些茄鲞送入刘老老口中，因笑道：“你们天天吃茄子，也尝尝我们这茄子，弄的可口不可口。”
Xi-feng collected some between her chopsticks and held it up to Grannie Liu's mouth. ‘There.I expect at home you eat aubergines every day.
Try some of ours and see what you think of it.”
刘姥姥笑道:"别哄我了，茄子跑出这个味儿来了，我们也不用种粮食，只种茄子罢了。”
‘You're having me on,' said Grannie Liu, when she had eaten the proffered mouthful. ‘No aubergine ever had a flavour like that.
If it did, we'd give up growing other crops and grow nothing but aubergines!
众人笑道：“真是茄子，我们再不哄你。”
‘It really is aubergine,'the others laughingly assured her. ‘This time we're not having you on.”
刘姥姥诧异道:"真是茄子?我白吃了半日。
“Really egg-plant, is it?” marvelled the old woman. “All this time I'd no idea.
凤姐儿果又夹了些放入他口内。
Xi-feng took up some more from the dish in her chopsticks and popped it into Grannie Liu's mouth.
话说刘姥姥两只手比着说道："花儿落了结个大倭瓜。”
Granny Liu's gestures and response, “A huge pumpkin forms when the flowers fall,”
于是吃过门杯，因又斗趣笑道：“今儿实说罢，我的手脚子粗，又喝了酒，仔细失手打了这磁杯。
She drank the ‘pass' cup. ‘To be truthful,' she said, aiming for another laugh, ‘I'm but a clumsy body at the best of times, and having drunk so much, I'm scared of breaking this pretty cup you've given me.
凤姐儿听如此说，便忙笑道：“果真要木头的，我就取了来，可有一句话先说下，这木头的可比不得磁的，那都是一套，定要吃遍一套才算呢。”
but Xi-feng pretended to take her seriously:‘If you really want a wooden cup to drink out of, I can find you one.
But I'd better warn you.
The wooden ones aren't like these porcelain ones; they come in sets of different sizes, and if we get them out for you, you'll have to drink out of every one in the set.”
刘姥姥听了，心下掂掇道:"我方才不过是趣话取笑儿，谁知他果真竟有。
The old woman thought: I was only trying to raise a laugh, but it seems they really do have them.
我时常在村庄乡绅大家子也赴过席，金杯银杯倒都也见过，从来没见有木头的。
When I've dined with the gentry back home, I've seen many a gold and silver cup in their houses, but never a wooden one.
哦，是了，想必是小孩子们使的木碗儿，不过诓我多吃两碗。
I know These must be wooden bowls that the children use.
She just wants to fool me into drinking more.
想毕，便说："取了来再商量。”
So she said, “Fetch them, and we'll see.”
凤姐乃命丰儿:"到前面里间屋，书架子上有十个竹根套杯取来。”
Xifeng told Fenger: “Bring that set of ten cups carved out of bamboo root on the bookshelf in the inner room.
丰儿听了才要去取，鸳鸯笑道：“我知道，你那十个杯还小；况且你才说木头的，这会子又拿了竹根的来，倒不好看。
The maid assented, but as she was about to go on this errand Yuanyang put in with a smile: “I know that set, it's too small.
你把四、五月里的新茄 包儿摘下来，把皮和穰子去尽，只要净肉，切成头发细的丝儿，晒干了，拿一只肥母鸡，靠出老汤来，把这茄子丝上蒸 笼蒸的鸡汤人了味，再拿出来晒干，如此九蒸九晒，必定晒脆了，盛在瓷罐子里封严了，要吃时拿出一碟子来，用炒的 鸡瓜子一拌就是了。”
“Pick some early eggplant and peel it, keeping only the best part, which must be cut into small pieces and fried with chicken fat.Then get some chicken breast, fresh mushrooms, bamboo shoots, dried mushrooms, spiced dried beancurd and various kinds of preserved fruit.Dice these too and boil them with the egg-plant in chicken soup, then add sesame oil and pickles and store it in a tightly-sealed porcelain jar.
That's all.”