珍珠衫

From 夏志清 CT Hsia, Classic Chinese Novel, Appendix, p.317.

喻世明言第一卷, 蔣興哥重會珍珠衫
Cyril Birch trs., Stories from a Ming Collection

People generally find that if they don't entertain expectations, things don't bother them; once start expecting, and all kinds of silly idle dreams come crowding in and make the time pass with painful slowness.

大凡人不做指望，倒也不在心上；一做指望，便癡心妄想，時刻難過。

entertain expectations = 做指望
things don't bother them = 不在心上
idle dreams come crowding in = 癡心妄想
make the time pass with painful slowness = 時刻難過

Just because she put faith in what the soothsayer had said, Fortune (the wife) now found her every thought direccted towards her husband's return, and from this time onwards she spent much of her time in the front porch of the house, gazing out from behind the curtain.

三巧兒只為信了賣卦先生之語，一心只想丈夫回來， 從此時常走向前樓，在簾內東張西望。

put faith in = 信了
found her every thought = 一心
spent much of her time = 時常
behind the curtain = 在簾內
gazing out = 東張西望

* * *

Cont'd (not quoted in Hsia's book):

This went on until the beginning of the second month, when the cedar began to come into bud. Still there was no sign of her husband’s return.

直到二月初旬，椿樹抽芽，不見些兒動靜。

This went on until = 直到
Still there was no sign = 不見些兒動靜

Remembering his parting vow, Fortune grew more and more uneasy, and now went down several times a day to look out for him.

三巧兒思想丈夫臨行之約，愈加心慌，一日幾遍，向外探望。

Obviously, trouble was in store for her, she was fated to meet her elegant young man. Indeed,

也是合當有事，遇著這箇俊俏後生。 正是：

If the affinity is there, they will overcome a thousand-mile separation;
If the affinity is absent, they will not meet though face to face.

有緣千里能相會，無緣對面不相逢。

秦巨伯

干寶, 搜神記, 卷十六 (390).

夏志清 CT Hsia, Classic Chinese Novel (p.18).
quoted from Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang's (楊憲益, 戴乃迭) trs., The Man Who Sold a Ghost: Chinese Tales of 3rd--6th Cent.: `The Old Mand the Devils'.

Chin Chiu-Po of the principality of Langya was sixty. One night after drinking, as he passed Pengshan Temple, he saw his two grandsons comnig towards him.

瑯琊秦巨伯，年六十，嘗夜行飲酒，道經蓬山廟，忽見其兩孫迎之。

They took his arms and helped him along for about a hundred paces. Then they seized him by the neck and threw him to the ground.

`Old slave!' they swore. `You beat us up the other day, so today we are going to kill you.'

扶持百餘步，便捉伯頸著地，罵：「老奴！汝某日捶我，我今當殺汝。」

Rememering that he had indeed beaten the boys some days ago, he pretended to be dead, and they left him there. When he go home he decided to punish them.

伯思，惟某時信捶此孫。伯乃佯死，乃置伯去。 伯歸家，欲治兩孫。

Shocked and distressed they apololgized to him.
`How could your own grandsons do such a thing?' they protested. `Those must have been devils. Please make another test.'
He realized they were right.

兩孫驚惋，叩頭言： 「為子孫寧可有此？恐是鬼魅，乞更試之。」 伯意悟。

A few days later the old man pretended to be drunk and past the temple again. Once more the two devils came to take his arms, and this time he seized them so that they could not escape.

數日，乃詐醉，行此廟間，復見兩孫來扶持伯。 伯乃急持，鬼動作不得。

Reaching home, he put both devils on the fire, until their backs and bellies were scorched and cracked. He left them in the courtyard, and that night they escaped.

達家，乃是兩[偶]人也。 伯著火炙之，腹背俱焦坼，出著庭中，夜皆亡去。

Sorry that he had not killed them, about a month later the old man pretended to be drunk and went out at night again, taking a sword, unknown to his family.

伯恨不得殺之，後月餘，又佯酒醉夜行，懷刃以去，家不知也。

When he did not come back though it was very late, his grandsons feared the devils had caught him again. They went to look for him. And this time the old man hacked his own grandsons to death.

極夜不還，其孫恐又為此鬼所困，乃俱往迎伯，伯竟刺殺之。

*

夏志清按語 (p.19):

A discplinarian and self-righteous do-gooder, the old man is foolded the second time because he is too eager to punish and too much carried away by his sense of power.

His failure to tell appearance from reality indicates his moral condition, and in a sense the devils have picked him as their victim because they know it would appear to him quite normal that his grandsons should retaliate against his harshness.

中國吃

唐魯孫

故都的奶品小吃, P.84 首段: "奶餑餑是用稍厚點的奶皮子放在模子裡, 包上餡再搕出來, 有方有圓, ..."

搕, 字典音 hap9 合, 又音 hap7 洽. 疑即口語之 kap1 字. 然而 kap1 字亦可能來自英文 cup 字.

OALD: She held the bird gently in cupped hands. / He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.

*
燕京梨園滋味錄, P.89 首段:
宵夜