题曰：§十二花容色最新，不知谁是惜花人。
The theme: Twelve maids pretty as flowers,But who is it that loves them?”
相逢若问何名氏，家住江南姓本秦。
Do you ask the name of the one he meets?”It is Qin whose home is south of the Yangtze River.
话说周瑞家的送了刘老老去后，便上来回王夫人话，谁知王夫人不在上房，问丫鬟们，方知往薛姨妈那边说话儿去了。
When Zhou Rui's wife had finished seeing off Grannie Liu, she went to Lady Wang's place to report.
Lady Wang, however, was not in her apartment.
The maids said that she had gone off to visit Aunt Xue.
周瑞家的听说，便转东角门出，至东院，往梨香院来。
Zhou Rui's wife accordingly went out by the gate in the east corner of the compound, crossed the eastern courtyard, and made her way to Pear Tree Court.
刚至院门前，只见王夫人的丫鬟金钏儿和那一个才留头的小女孩儿站在台阶儿上玩呢。
As she reached the gate of the Court, she came upon Lady Wang's maid, Golden, playing on the front steps with a young girl.
看见周瑞家的进来，便知有话来回，因往里努嘴儿。
Realizing that Mrs. Zhou had come on business, Jinchuan nodded towards the door.
周瑞家的轻轻掀帘进去，只见王夫人和薛姨妈长篇大套的说些家务人情的话。
Zhou Rui's wife gently raised a side of the portière and entered.
She found the two sisters in the midst of a seemingly interminable discussion of some domestic odyssey.
周瑞家的不敢惊动，遂进里间来。
Not daring to interrupt it, she passed on into the inner room,
只见薛宝钗穿着家常衣服，头上只散挽着髮儿，坐在炕里边,伏在小炕几上同丫鬟莺儿正描花样子呢。
where Baochai in a house dress, her hair pinned into a loose knot, was copying an embroidery pattern with her maid Yinger at the low table on the kang.
见他进来，宝钗便放下笔，转过身来，满面堆笑让:"周姐姐坐。”
Seeing Zhou Rui's wife enter, she laid down her tracing brush, turned towards her with a smile, and invited her to sit with them.
一面坑沿边坐了，因说:"这有两三天也没见姑娘到那边逛逛去，只怕是你宝玉兄弟冲撞了你不成?"
and sitting down on the edge of the kang. 'I haven't seen you over our side these last two or three days.
Has Master Bao been upsetting you?”
凭你什么名医仙药，不见一点儿效。
The most famous physicians and the most fabulous drugs were of no use at all.
后来还亏了一个和尚，专治无名的病症，因请他看了。
In the end we were fortunate enough to hear of a monk who specialized in treating illnesses that other people couldn't diagnose and asked him to have a look at me.
他说我这是从胎里带来的一股热毒，幸而我先天健壮，还不相干；若吃凡药，是不中用的。
and he diagnosed my trouble as a choleric humour I'd brought from the womb, but which thanks to my good constitution wasn't too serious.No ordinary pills bring any relief,
他就说了一个海上方，又给了一包末药作引，异香异气的，不知是那里弄来的。
and he gave us a prescription supposed to have been handed down from the Immortals of the Islands.
He also gave us a packet of powder with a very unusual fragrance which he said was to be used as the base.
周瑞家的因问道："不知是个什么海上方儿?
“What is this prescription from across the seas?”
姑娘说了，我们也记着，说与人知道，倘遇见这样的病，也是行好的事。”
If you will tell me, I shall try to remember it so that I can pass it on to others.
宝钗见问，乃笑道："不问这方儿还好，若问起这方儿，真真把人琐碎坏了。
“Well, better not ask.But if you must know, it's the most troublesome prescription.”Baochai laughed.
东西药料一概都有限易得的，只难得’可巧’二字：要春天开的白牡丹花蕊十二两，夏天开的白荷花蕊十二两，秋天开的白芙蓉蕊十二两，冬天开的白梅花蕊十二两。
It's not so much the materials.
There is, after all, a limit to the number of drugs from one part of the world or another that are available.
It's the timing involved that is so difficult. 'You have to take twelve ounces of stamens of the spring-flowering white tree-peony, twelve ounces of stamens of the summer-flowering white water-lily, twelve ounces of stamens of the autumn-flowering white lotus, and twelve ounces of stamens of the winter-flowering white plum
将这四样花蕊于次年春分这一天晒干，和在末药一处，一齐研好，又要雨水这日的天落水十二钱……”周瑞家的笑道：“嗳呀，这么说就得三年的工夫呢。
These four kinds of stamens must be dried in the sun on the following vernal equinox, then mixed well with the powder.
又要雨水这日的雨水十二钱……
Then you must take twelve drains of rain that fell on the day Rain Begins.
倘或雨水这日竟不下雨，这又怎处呢?"
And what if it doesn't rain on the day Rain Begins?”
白露这日的露水十二钱，霜降这日的霜十二钱，小雪这日的雪十二钱，把这四样水调匀，和了丸药，再加十二钱烽蜜，十二钱白糖，丸成龙眼大的丸子，盛在旧磁坛内，埋在花根底下。
Then you have to collect twelve drams of dew on the day White Dew in the ninth month, twelve drams of frost at Frost Fall in the tenth, and twelve drams of snow at Lesser Snow in the last month of the year,
若发了病的时候儿，拿出来吃一丸，用一钱二分黄柏煎汤送下。”
When the illness comes on, this jar can be dug up and one pill taken with twelve candareens of a phellodendron concoction.”