第一回: Chunk 14

Hi derek,

Thanks again for your posting. I really appreciate your contribution. I know it’s not an easy job to translate (or decipher) this kind of Chinese sentences from scratch. On the other hand, just “nitpicking” is a carefree way to take part in these 红楼梦 threads…hehe!

听 (listen) 毕 (finish) = having finished listening to
善哉 (shan4 zai1) = 好啊！”哉” is an often used interjection. 
有却有些乐事 = 有是有/一些乐事 = although there are some pleasures
Please be noted, this is 却 (que4, but), but not 缺 (que1, lack)

紧相连属 = close relationship, closely connected
乐极悲生 (乐极生悲) = Extreme pleasure generates tragedy.
人非 = The person is not what he used to be. People change.
物换 = Times change. (Everything changes)
万境 = every circumstances, all things

Thank you for both the pioneering and the "nitpicking"!  There is a third, very satisfying position – watching the combined results and profiting!  I am especially taken with the new potential of realizing 非 as a verb! (I just saw it as an old-fashioned negation so far.)

I have another question for the 先 生, or whoever, and it is a real question, not an attempt to be smart-alecky.  My translation of the

美中不足,好事多魔

was:

„In beauty there’s no enough, good things are full of devilish lure“ .  I thought this sounded pretty Buddhist: a warning against desires/addiction.  But Derek's version makes good sense, too and convinces re grammar.  "Nothing is perfect."

The question is:  where are the pointers which make my interpretation impossible or less likely?  (Of course -- there is also always a margin of doubt and several interpretations can be possible.)

I promise to disappear into the woodwork when this place gets busier but right now the opportunity to be taught is too good.

Hi liansuo,

Your translation for “美中不足，好事多魔” also makes sense in the context, although I still believe that derek’s version is more appropriate. Let me try to explain why I think so.

If you translate 美中不足 into modern Chinese, it should be 美中有所不足(的地方), and the character 中 clearly indicates that shortcomings (不足的地方) exist inside of the beauty. If you would like to mean “not satisfied with something”, you have to use “对” instead of “中”, like 对～有所不满(的地方), but I don’t know if 对 was also used in this sense in old Chinese…...

As for 好事多魔, actually there is the same saying in Japanese too, “好事魔多し (kouji-ma-ooshi)”, of course it came from China, which should be translated as “Happy events tend to be accompanied by problems.” In old Chinese, the character “魔” is sometimes used in the sense of “hindrance, impeder, interrupter”, according to my dictionaries. Hope this would help.

Changye Sensei, this is too good to be true or rather last for a long time – but meanwhile thank you very much!!  I take all your explanations to heart and realize once more that my margin for self-doubt cannot be wide enough, even if something seems to make good sense. And what an extra bonus to observe the influence of Chinese in Japanese culture.  It is as if I had come full circle – my infatuation with 漢 字 started in Kyoto, many years ago...

Thanks to everybody for your contributions, 红楼梦 is certainly one of the finest pieces of literature ever written in any language. I should be reviewing my company's tax return now, 好无聊, I would rather study 红楼梦. :)