（紅樓夢詩詞選譯）枉凝眉 - 曹雪芹

枉凝眉 - 曹雪芹

 

一个是阆苑仙葩，

一个是美玉无瑕。

若说没奇缘，

今生偏又遇着他，

若说有奇缘，

如何心事终虚化。

 

一个枉自喈呀，

一个空劳牵挂。

一个是水中月，

一个是镜中花。

想眼中能有多少泪珠儿，

怎经得秋流到冬尽，

春流到夏？

 

Wrinkled the brow in Vain

by Cao Xueqin

 

One’s an enchanted flower from an ethereal place,

The other’s a jade immaculately grace.

If it were not a fated tie,

Such mutual thrills how could they come by?

If it were fate-crafted one,

Why on earth their wishes could yield none.

 

One can only sigh on and on,

The other overstrains his yearning like a moron.

One seems the moon in water,

The other simply a flower in mirror.

Alas, how many tears could well forth in her eye,

O, how could her tears-sheding ne’er die

From fall to winter without a break

Of spring and summer in the wake?

 

 

*I try my hand at it for fun...bricks are welcome!