话说那赵姨娘和贾政说话，忽听外面一声响，不知何物，忙问时，原来是外间窗屉不曾扣好，滑了屈戌掉下来。
As we were saying at the end of the last chapter, Aunt Zhao and Jia Zheng were interrupted in the midst of their discussion by a sudden crash.
The maids, when questioned, said that it had been caused by an outer casement of one of the windows falling.
It could not have been properly fastened and must have slipped its catch.
赵姨娘骂了丫头几句，自己带领丫鬟上好，方进来打发贾政安歇，不在话下。
Concubine Zhao reprimanded the maids and got them to fix it in place, then helped Jia Zheng to bed.
却说怡红院中宝玉方才睡下，丫鬟们正欲各散安歇，忽听有人来敲院门。
Meanwhile, in Happy Red Court, Baoyu had just gone to bed and his maids were thinking of turning in themselves when someone knocked at the gate.
只见宝玉才睡下，晴雯等犹在床边坐着，大家玩笑，见他来了，都问："什么事，这时候又跑了来作什么？”
to find Baoyu already in bed, with Qingwen and some other maids sitting chatting beside him.“What's happened?” they asked. “What brings you here at this hour?”
说着回身就走，袭人命留他吃茶，因怕关门，遂一直去了。
Aroma told someone to run after her and ask her to stay for a cup of tea, but she was afraid of being shut inside the Garden when they closed the gate, and insisted on going back immediately.
宝玉听了，知道赵姨娘心术不端，合自己仇人似的，又不知他说些什么，便如孙大圣听见了紧箍儿咒的一般，登时四肢五内一齐皆不自在起来。
Bao-yu knew that in Aunt Zhao's twisted imagination he was regarded as an enemy, and though he did not know what she had said, the mere fact that she had been talking about him was enough to make him feel uncomfortable all over, much as Monkey did when he heard Tripitaka reciting the spell for tightening the iron band round his head.
想来想去，别无他法，且理熟了书了书预备明儿盘考，只能书舛不错，就有别事也可搪塞。
After giving the matter some thought, he concluded that the only practical way in which he could prepare himself for the morrow would be by revising his texts.
Should his father take it into his head to test him, he reasoned, then if only he could be word-perfect in his texts, it would not be so difficult to bluff his way through whatever else he might ask him.
只书内不舛错，便有他事，也可搪塞一半。
He fancied that if he could give correct answers from his books, other lapses would be overlooked and he might muddle through.
心中又自后悔，这些日子只说不提了，偏又丢生，早知该天天好歹温习些。
bitterly regretting that Jia Zheng's silence on the subject of lessons since his last return from duty had lulled him into a false sense of security. ‘I ought to have had more sense,' he told himself.
如今打算打算，肚子内现可背诵的，不过只有"学""庸""二论"是带注背得出的。
Now, the only ones of the Four Book he knew by heart together with the commentaries were the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean and the Analects.
至上本《孟子》，就有一半是夹生的，若凭空提一句，断不能接背的；至下《孟子》，就有一大半忘了。
The first half of Mencius he knew reasonably well, but certainly not well enough to be able to carry on from any sentence given him at random.
The second half was virtually terra incognita.
算起"五经"来，因近来作诗，常把《诗经》读些，虽不甚精阐，还可塞责。
Of the Five Classics he was fairly familiar with the Poetry Classic because he was frequently having to read bits of it in connection with his own versifying.
Though far from word-perfect, he probably knew it well enough to scrape through a test.
别的虽不记得，素日贾政也未曾吩咐过读的，纵不知，也还不妨。
It did not matter that he had forgotten the rest, as his father had never told him to study them.
至于古文，还是那几年所读过的几篇《左传》、《国策》、《公羊》、《谷梁》、汉、唐等文，这几年未曾读得，不过一时之兴，随看随忘，未曾下过苦功，如何记得？
As for classical prose, in the past few years he had read several dozen works including the Zuo Annals, Anecdotes of the Warring States, the commentaries of Gongyang and Guliang, and some writings of the Han and Tang dynasties no more than a few score works in all; but he was quite unable to quote from them,
虽闲时也曾遍阅，不过一时之兴，随看随忘，未曾下苦工夫，如何记得。
for he had only glanced at them when at a loose end and in the mood.Never having studied them hard, he had since forgotten them
这是断难塞责的。
and if tested on them now would be floored.
更有时文八股一道，因平素深恶此道，原非圣贤之制撰，焉能阐发圣贤之微奥，不过是后人饵名钓禄之阶。
Then there were the fashionable eight-section essays which he had always loathed, taking the view that as these were not written by sages or worthies they could not expound the wisdom of sages or worthies and were simply ladders by which later examination candidates climbed up to bureaucratic advancement.
虽贾政当日起身时，选了百十篇命他读的，不过偶因见其中或一二股内，或承题之中，有做的或精致、或流荡、或游戏、或悲感，稍能动心悦意者，偶一读之，不过供一时之兴趣，究竟何曾成篇潜心玩索。
Before he left, Jia Zheng had selected a hundred of these essays for him to read; but Bao-yu had only glanced at them occasionally, reading a paragraph here and a paragraph there as some particularly felicitous expression or the extravagance, humour or melancholy of the writer happened to catch his attention.
He had never settled down to the serious analytical examination of even a single essay.
如今若温习这个，又恐明日盘究那个；若温习那个，又恐盘驳这个：一夜之工，亦不能全然温习。
He began to revise; but the trouble was that whatever he revised now, he was sure to be asked about something else next day, and the whole night would not be long enough to revise everything.
况一夜之功，亦不能全然温习。
and it was out of the question to revise the whole lot in one night.
因此越添了焦躁。
These reflections made him more and more frantic.
自己读书不致紧要，却带累着一房丫鬟们皆不能睡。
While Baoyu was dilly-dallying over his studies, none of the girls in his place could go to bed either.
袭人、麝月、晴雯等几个大的是不用说，在旁剪烛斟茶；那些小的，都困眼朦胧，前仰后合起来。
Aroma and the other senior maids could at least occupy themselves by trimming his lamp, pouring him cups of tea and so forth; but the younger ones could neither go to bed nor find any employment to keep themselves awake, and sat about the place, drooping and nodding in various attitudes of fatigue.
晴雯因骂道:"什么蹄子们，一个个黑日白夜挺尸挺不够，偶然一次睡迟了些，就装出这腔调来了。
“Little bitches!”Qingwen scolded. “You all sleep like the dead every day ---are you so short of sleep that you can't even sit up late for once?”