Isaeng gyujangjeon — Scholar Yi Peers Over the Wall李生窺牆傳
松都有李生者，居駱駝橋之側。年十八，風韻淸邁，天資英秀。常詣國學，讀詩路傍。善竹里，有巨室處崔氏，年可十五六，態度艶麗，工於刺繡，而長於詩賦。世稱：「風流李氏子。窈窕崔家娘。才色若可餐，可以療飢腸。」
In Songdo there was a man called Scholar Yi (李生), and he lived beside Nakta Bridge. He was eighteen. His bearing was clear and fine, and his native gifts were outstanding. He went always to the National Academy, and he read poems by the roadside.
In Seonjuk-ri there was an unmarried daughter of a great house, of the Choe family. She was about fifteen or sixteen, and her manner was lovely and beautiful. She was skilled at embroidery and excelled at poems and rhapsodies. The world said of them:
The elegant son of the Yi house, the lovely daughter of the Choe house. If talent and beauty could be eaten, they would cure a starving belly.
李生嘗挾冊詣學，常過崔氏之家，北牆外，垂楊裊裊，數十株環列，李生憩於其下。一日窺牆內，名花盛開，蜂鳥爭喧，傍有小樓，隱映於花叢之間，株簾半掩，羅幃低垂。有一美人，倦繡停針，支頥而吟曰：
Scholar Yi once carried his books to the school, and he always passed the house of the Choe family. Outside the north wall several dozen weeping willows stood in a ring and swayed, and Scholar Yi rested beneath them.
One day he peered inside the wall. Famous flowers were in full bloom, bees and birds cried and vied with one another, and beside them stood a small upper chamber that shone faintly among the clumps of flowers. A beaded blind was half drawn and a silk curtain hung low, and there was a beautiful person there. Weary of her embroidery, she had stopped her needle, and she leaned on her chin and chanted.
獨倚紗窓刺繡遲，百花叢裏囀黃鸝。無端暗結東風怨，不語停針有所思。
Alone I lean on the gauze window, and my embroidery is slow; in the clumps of a hundred flowers the oriole sings. For no reason I have quietly tied a grudge against the east wind, and I stop my needle without a word, for there is something in my thought.
路上誰家白面郞，靑衿大帶映垂楊。何方可化堂中燕，低掠珠簾斜度墻。
Whose house is he from, the fair-faced young scholar on the road? His blue collar and broad sash shine against the weeping willows. How can I turn into a swallow of the hall, brush low past the beaded blind and slant across the wall?
生聞之，不勝技癢，然其門戶高峻，庭闈深邃，但怏怏而去。還時以白紙一幅，作詩三首，繫瓦礫投之曰：
Scholar Yi heard her and could not master the itch of his own skill. Yet the gate of that house was high and its inner court was deep, so he only went away downcast. On the way back he wrote three poems on a sheet of white paper, tied it to a piece of roof tile, and threw it in.
巫山六六霧重回，半露尖峰紫翠堆。惱却襄王孤枕夢，肯爲雲雨下陽臺。
Mist turns fold on fold over the thirty-six peaks of Mount Wu, and the sharp summits half show, purple and green heaped high. It troubles the dream of King Xiang (襄王) on his lonely pillow. Will you gladly come down to Yangtai (陽臺) as cloud and rain?
相如欲挑卓文君，多少情懷已十分。紅粉墻頭桃李艶，隨風何處落繽紛。
Sima Xiangru would tempt Zhuo Wenjun, and how much of his heart had already come to the full. Red powder on the wall top, the peach and the plum are lovely. Where will they fall, scattered on the wind?
好因緣邪惡因緣，空把愁腸日抵年。二十八字媒已就，藍橋何日遇神仙。
Is it a good bond, or is it an ill bond? In vain I hold a grieving heart and count a day as a year. With twenty-eight characters the match is already made. On what day shall I meet an immortal at Lanqiao (藍橋)?
崔氏，命侍婢香兒，往取見之，卽李生詩也。披讀再三，心自喜之。以片簡，又書八字，投之曰：「將子無疑，昏以爲期。」生如其言，乘昏而往，忽見桃花一枝，過墻而有搖裊之影。往視之則以鞦韆絨索，繫竹兜下垂。生攀緣而踰，會月上東山，花影在地，淸香可愛。生意謂已入仙境，心雖竊喜，而情密事秘，毛髮盡竪，回眄左右，女已在花叢裏，與香兒，折花相戴，鋪罽僻地，見生微笑，口占二句，先唱曰：
Choe sent Hyanga, the maid who waited on her, to fetch it and look, and it was Scholar Yi's poem. She spread it out and read it two or three times, and in her heart she was glad. On a slip of paper she wrote eight more characters and threw it out.
"Do not doubt me. Take the dusk as our appointed time."
Scholar Yi did as she said and went at dusk. Suddenly a branch of peach blossom came over the wall, and there was a swaying shadow. He went and looked, and it was a bamboo basket tied to a swing rope and let down. Scholar Yi took hold of it and climbed over. The moon had just risen on the eastern hill, the shadows of the flowers lay on the ground, and the clear fragrance was lovely.
Scholar Yi thought he had already entered the land of the immortals. In his heart he was secretly glad, but the feeling was close and the matter was a secret, and all his hair stood on end. He looked about him, and the woman was already among the clumps of flowers. She was breaking off flowers with Hyanga and setting them in each other's hair. A rug was spread in a hidden place. She saw Scholar Yi and smiled softly, and she made two lines on the spot and chanted first.
桃李枝間花富貴，鴛鴦枕上月嬋娟。
Among the branches of peach and plum the flowers are rich and noble, above the mandarin-duck pillow the moon is fair.
生續吟曰：
Scholar Yi chanted on.
他時漏洩春消息，風雨無情亦可憐。
On another day, when the news of spring leaks out, the wind and the rain will be heartless, and that too will be a pity.
女變色而言曰：「本欲與君，終奉箕帚，永結歡娛，郞何言之若是遽也？妾雖女類，心意泰然，丈夫意氣，肯作此語乎？他日閨中事洩，親庭譴責，妾以身當之。香兒可於房中，賫酒果以進。」兒如命而往，四座寂寥，闃無人聲，生問曰：「此是何處？"
The woman changed her look and said.
"From the first I meant to take up the basket and the broom for you to the end, and to tie a lasting joy with you. Why does my lord speak so hastily? Though I am but a woman, my mind is at ease. How could a man of spirit say such a thing? If on another day the matter of the inner rooms leaks out and my parents scold me, I will bear it in my own body.
Hyanga, bring wine and fruit from the room and set them out."
The girl went as she was told, and all around was still, and there was not one human voice.
Scholar Yi asked, "Where is this place?"
女曰：「此是北園中小樓下也。父母以我一女，情鍾甚篤，別構此樓于芙蓉池畔，方春時，名花盛開，欲使從侍兒遨遊耳。親闈之居，閨閤深邃，雖笑語啞咿，亦不能卒爾相聞也。」女酌綠蟻一巵，口占古風一篇曰：
The woman said.
"This is below the small upper chamber in the north garden. My father and mother have only me for a daughter, and their love is very deep, so they built this chamber apart for me beside the lotus pond. When spring comes and the famous flowers open, they mean me to walk here with the girl who waits on me. Where my parents live, the inner rooms are deep, so even if we laugh and talk aloud it can scarcely be heard there."
The woman poured a cup of green wine and made a piece in the old style on the spot.
曲欄下壓芙蓉池，池上花叢人共語。香霧霏霏春融融，製出新詞歌白紵。月轉花陰入氍毹，共挽長條落紅雨。風攪淸香香襲衣，賈女初踏春陽舞。羅衫輕拂海棠枝，驚起花間宿鸚鵡。
The curved railing presses down on the lotus pond, and above the pond, in the clumps of flowers, people talk together. The fragrant mist is thick and the spring is mellow, and we make a new song and sing "Baizhu (白紵)". The moon turns through the flower shade and comes onto the rug, and together we pull the long branch down and let a red rain fall. The wind stirs the clear fragrance, and the scent soaks into our clothes, and the daughter of the Jia house first treads the dance of the spring sun. Her silk jacket brushes lightly against the crabapple branch, and startles awake the parrot that slept among the flowers.
生卽和之曰：
Scholar Yi answered her at once.
誤入桃源花爛熳，多少情懷不能語。翠鬟雙綰金▩低，楚楚春衫裁綠紵。東風初拆竝帶花，莫使繁枝戰風雨。飄飄仙袂影婆婆，叢桂陰中素娥舞。勝事未了愁必隨，莫製新詞敎鸚鵡。
By mistake I have entered the Peach Blossom Spring (桃源), where the flowers are in riot, and how much of my heart I cannot say. Her green coils are bound in two, and the gold □ hangs low, and her fine spring jacket is cut from green ramie. The east wind has just opened the flowers on their paired stems. Do not let the crowded branches fight the wind and the rain. The immortal sleeves flutter and their shadows sway, and in the shade of the clustered cinnamon Chang'e dances. Before the good thing is done, sorrow must follow. Do not make a new song and teach it to the parrot.
〔One character is missing in the base text after "gold (金)".〕
吟罷，女謂生曰：「今日之事，必非小綠，郞須尾我，以遂情款。」言訖，女從北窓入，生隨之，樓梯在房中。綠梯而昇，果其樓也。文房几案，極其濟楚。一壁展煙江疊嶂圖，幽篁古木圖，皆名畵也。題詩其上，詩不知何人所作。其一曰：
When the chanting was done, the woman said to Scholar Yi, "What has happened today is surely no small bond. My lord must follow me, and let us fulfil the kindness of our hearts."
When she had spoken, the woman went in by the north window, and Scholar Yi followed. The stair of the chamber was inside the room. He climbed the stair, and it was indeed that chamber.
The armrest and the desk of the study were kept in the best order. On one wall were spread Mist River and Layered Peaks (煙江疊嶂圖) and Deep Bamboo and Old Trees (幽篁古木圖), and both were famous paintings. Poems were inscribed above them, and it is not known who made them. The first said:
何人筆端有餘力，寫此江心千疊山。壯哉方壺三萬丈，半出縹緲烟雲間。遠勢微茫幾百里，近見崒嵂靑螺鬟。滄波淼淼浮遠空，日暮遙望愁鄕關。對此令人意蕭索，疑泛湘江風雨灣。
What man had strength to spare at the tip of his brush to paint these thousand folded hills in the heart of the river? How grand, the thirty thousand fathoms of Fanghu (方壺), half risen out of the faint mist and cloud. The far shapes are dim, and how many hundred li are they? Seen near, they stand sheer, like coils of green snail hair. The blue waves spread wide and float on the far sky, and at sunset I look off and grieve for my home. Facing this, a man's mind grows bleak, as if he floated in a windy, rainy bend of the Xiang River (湘江).
其二曰：
The second said:
幽篁蕭颯如有聲，古木偃蹇如有情。狂根盤屈惹苺苔，老幹夭矯排風雷。胸中自有造化窟，妙處豈與傍人說。韋偃與可已爲鬼，漏洩天機知有幾。晴窓嗒然淡相對，愛看幻墨神三昧。
The deep bamboo rustles as if it had a voice, the old tree bends as if it had feeling. The wild roots coil and twist and draw the moss to them, the old trunk writhes and pushes the wind and the thunder aside. In the breast there is a cave of making and changing, and how should its wonder be told to the man beside you? Wei Yan (韋偃) and Wen Yuke (文與可) are ghosts already, and how many are there who have let out the secret of heaven? By a bright window I sit blank and face it quietly, and I love to watch the spell of the ink and its divine samadhi.
一壁貼四時景，各四首，亦不知爲何人所作。其筆，則摹松雪眞字，體極精姸。其一幅曰：
On one wall were pasted the scenes of the four seasons, four poems for each, and again it is not known who made them. The writing copied the regular script (眞字) of Songxue (松雪), and its form was most fine and lovely. The first sheet said:
芙蓉帳暖香如縷，窓外霏霏紅杏雨。樓頭殘夢五更鐘，百舌啼在辛夷塢。燕子日長閨閤深，懶來無語停金針。花底雙雙飛蝶蛺，爭趰落花庭院陰。嫩寒輕透綠羅裳，空對春風暗斷腸。脉脉此情誰料得，百花叢裏舞鴛鴦。春色深藏黃四家，深紅淺綠映窓紗。一庭芳草春心苦，輕揭珠簾看落花。
The lotus curtain is warm and the scent is like a thread, and outside the window a red apricot rain falls thin. At the chamber head, in the last of a dream, the fifth-watch bell. Birds of every sort cry on the bank where the magnolias bloom.
The swallow's days grow long and the inner room is deep, and idly, without a word, she stops her golden needle. Beneath the flowers the butterflies fly two by two, vying to chase the fallen petals in the shaded court.
A soft chill passes lightly through her green silk skirt, and for nothing she faces the spring wind and quietly breaks her heart. Who can measure this feeling that says nothing? Among the clumps of a hundred flowers the mandarin ducks dance.
The spring light is hidden deep in the house of Huang Si (黃四), and deep red and light green shine on the gauze of the window. A courtyard of sweet grass makes the spring heart bitter, and she lifts the beaded blind lightly and watches the flowers fall.
其二幅曰：
The second sheet said:
小麥初胎乳燕斜，南園開遍石榴花。綠窓工女幷刀饗，擬試紅裙剪紫霞。黃梅時節雨簾纖，鸎囀槐陰燕入簾。又是一年風景老，棟花零落笋生尖。手拈靑杏打鸎兒，風過南軒日影遲。荷葉已香池水滿，碧波深處浴鸕鶿。藤牀筠簟浪波紋，屛畵瀟湘一抹雲。懶慢不堪醒午夢，半窓斜日欲西曛。
The wheat has just formed in the ear and the young swallows fly aslant, and in the south garden the pomegranate flowers have opened all around. At the green window the weaving girl plies her shears, and to make a red skirt she cuts the purple sunset cloud.
In the season of the yellow plum the rain is fine as a blind, the oriole sings in the pagoda-tree shade and the swallow comes in past the blind. Another year of the world's scenery is growing old, the chinaberry flowers fall, and the bamboo shoots come up sharp.
She takes a green apricot in her hand and throws it at the oriole. The wind passes the south porch and the shadow of the sun is slow. The lotus leaves are fragrant now and the pond water is full, and deep in the green waves a cormorant bathes.
On the rattan couch and the bamboo mat a wave pattern rises, and on the screen, over the painted Xiaoxiang (瀟湘), one streak of cloud. She is too idle to wake from the midday dream, and the slanting sun at the half-open window is going down in the west.
其三幅曰：
The third sheet said:
秋風策策秋露凝，秋月娟娟秋水碧。一聲二聲鴻雁歸，更聽金井梧桐葉。床下百蟲鳴喞喞，床上佳人珠淚滴。良人萬里事征戰，今夜玉門關月白。新衣欲裁剪刀冷，低喚丫兒呼熨斗。熨斗火銷全未省，細撥秦箏又搔首。小池荷盡芭蕉黃，鴛鴦瓦上粘新霜。舊愁新恨不能禁，況聞蟋蟀鳴洞房。
The autumn wind rustles and the autumn dew gathers, the autumn moon is fair and the autumn water is green. One cry, two cries, and the wild geese go home, and again she hears the paulownia leaves by the golden well.
Under the bed a hundred insects chirp and chirp, and on the bed the lovely one lets fall her pearl tears. Her lord is ten thousand li away at the business of war, and tonight the moon must be white over Yumen Pass.
She would cut out new clothes, but the shears are cold, and she calls the maid low and asks for the iron. She does not even know that the fire in the iron has gone out, and she plucks the Qin zither (秦箏) softly, then scratches her head again.
In the small pond the lotus is gone and the plantain is yellow, and on the mandarin-duck tiles the new frost settles. She cannot bear the old sorrow and the new regret, still less to hear the cricket crying in the deep room.
其四幅曰：
The fourth sheet said:
一枝梅影向窓橫，風緊西廊月色明。爐火未銷金筋撥，旋呼丫髻換茶鐺。林葉頻驚半夜霜，回風飄雪入長廊。無端一夜相思夢，都在氷河古戰場。滿窓紅日似春溫，愁鎖眉峰著睡痕。膽甁小梅腮半吐，含羞不語繡雙鴛。剪剪霜風掠北林，寒鳥啼月正關心。燈前爲有思人淚，滴在穿絲小挫針。
A branch of plum casts its shadow slanting toward the window, the wind is hard in the west corridor and the moonlight is bright. The brazier fire is not out yet, and she stirs it with golden tongs, then quickly calls the maid to change the teapot.
The leaves of the wood start again and again at the midnight frost, and a whirling wind blows the snow into the long corridor. For no reason, one night's dream of longing is all on the frozen river, on an old field of battle.
The red sun fills the window and is warm as spring, and sorrow locks the peaks of her brows, where the mark of sleep is left. The small plum in the gall vase (膽甁) half opens its cheek, and holding her shyness she says nothing and embroiders a pair of mandarin ducks.
The frost wind snips and snips and sweeps the north wood, and a cold bird cries at the moon, and truly it catches at the heart. Before the lamp there are the tears of one who thinks of a man, and they fall in drops on the small bent needle with its threaded silk.
一傍，別有小室一區，帳褥衾枕，亦甚整麗。帳外爇麝臍，燃蘭膏，熒煌映徹，恍如白晝。生與女，極其情歡，遂留數日，生謂女曰：「先聖有言，父母在。遊必有方，而今我定省。已過三日，親必倚閭而望，非人子之道也。」女惻然而頷之，踰垣而遣之。生自是以後，無已不往。
On one side there was a separate small room, and the curtain and the mattress and the quilt and the pillow were also very neat and lovely. Outside the curtain they burned musk and lit orchid oil, and the glittering light shone through, so that it was as bright as day.
Scholar Yi and the woman gave their feeling and their joy to the full, and at last he stayed there several days. Scholar Yi said to the woman.
"A sage of old said, 'While your father and mother live, if you travel you must let them know where you go.' It is already three days since I paid my morning and evening greeting, and my parents must be leaning at the village gate and looking for me. This is not the way of a son."
The woman nodded sadly and sent him over the wall. From this time on there was no evening when Scholar Yi did not go.
一夕，李生之父，問曰：「汝朝出而暮還者，將以學先聖仁義之格言，昏出而曉還，當爲何事？必作輕薄子，踰垣牆，折樹壇耳。事如彰露，人皆譴我敎子之不嚴，而如其女，定是高門右族，則必以爾之狂狡，穢彼門戶，獲戾人家，其事不小，速去嶺南，率奴隷監農，勿得復還。」卽於翌日，謫送蔚州。
One evening Scholar Yi's father asked him.
"You go out in the morning and come back in the evening in order to learn the words of the sages of old on benevolence and right. But now you go out at dusk and come back at dawn. What is it you are doing? Surely you have become a light and shallow fellow, climbing walls and breaking the trees in another man's garden.
If the matter comes to light, everyone will blame me for not teaching my son strictly. And if that girl is truly of a high and noted lineage, your wild behavior will certainly defile that house and bring guilt upon another family. That is no small matter.
Go quickly to Yeongnam, take the servants and look after the farming, and do not come back."
The next day he was sent away to Ulju.
女每夕，於花園待之，數月不還。女意其得病，命香兒，密問於李生之鄰，鄰人曰：「李郞，得罪於家君，去嶺南，已數月矣。」女聞之，臥疾在床，轉轉不起，水醬不入於口，言語支離，肌膚憔悴，父母怪之，問其病狀，喑喑不言。搜其箱篋，得李生前日唱和詩，擊節驚訝曰：「幾乎失我女子矣。」問曰：「李生誰耶？」至是，女不能復隱，細語在咽中，告父母曰：「父親母親，鞠育恩深，不能相匿。竊念男女相感，人情至重。是以，摽梅迨吉，咏於周南，咸腓之凶，刑於羲易。自將蒲柳之質，不念桑落之詩，行露沾衣，竊被傍人之嗤。絲蘿托木，已作渭兒之行。罪已貫盈，累及門戶。然而彼狡童兮，一偸賈香，千生喬怨，以眇眇之弱軀，忍悄悄之獨處，情念日深，沈痾日篤，濱於死地，將化窮鬼。父母如從我願，終保餘生，倘違情款，斃而有已。當與李生，重遊黃壞之下，誓不登他門也。」
Every evening the woman waited in the flower garden, but for months he did not come back. She thought that he had fallen ill, and she sent Hyanga to ask quietly among Scholar Yi's neighbors. A neighbor said, "The young master Yi offended his father and went to Yeongnam. That was months ago."
When the woman heard this she fell sick and lay on her bed, turning and turning and unable to rise. Water and gruel would not go into her mouth, her speech wandered, and her skin withered.
Her parents thought it strange and asked what her sickness was, but she was silent and would not speak. They searched her chest and her box and found the poems she and Scholar Yi had exchanged, and they struck their knees and said in astonishment, "We came near to losing our daughter."
They asked, "Who is this Scholar Yi?"
At this the woman could hide it no longer, and in a thin voice in her throat she told her father and mother.
"Father, mother, the kindness with which you raised me is deep, and I cannot hide anything from you. I think quietly that a man and a woman feeling for each other is the weightiest thing in human feeling. And so, that one should not miss the good season when the plums are falling is sung in the Zhounan (周南), and the ill omen of the moving calf is set down as a warning in the Book of Changes.
With a body like a river willow I did not think of the poem of the falling mulberry leaves, and I wet my clothes in the dew of the road and quietly drew the laughter of those beside me. Like a dodder vine clinging to a tree I have already walked the walk of the girl by the Wei, and my fault is full to the brim, and the blame has reached my family.
Yet since that cunning boy stole the incense once, a thousand regrets have been born. With this slight and feeble body I have borne a still and lonely life, and my feeling and my longing grow deeper by the day, and my deep sickness grows heavier by the day, so that I am near the ground of death and am about to become a ghost in want.
If my father and mother follow my wish, I shall keep what is left of my life to the end. If you go against the kindness of my heart, I shall only die. I would sooner walk again with Scholar Yi under the yellow earth, and I swear that I will not go up to the gate of any other house."
於是，父母已知其志，不復問病，且警且誘，以寬其心，復修媒妁之禮，問于李家。李氏問崔家門戶優劣曰：「吾家豚犬，雖年少風狂，學問精通，身彩似人，所冀捷龍頭於異日，占鳳鳴於他年，不願速求婚媾也。」媒者，以言返告，崔氏復遣曰：「一時朋伴，皆稱令嗣才華邁人，今雖蟠屈，豈是池中之物。宜速定嘉會之晨，以合二姓之好。」媒者，又以其言，返告李生之父，父曰：「吾亦自少，把冊窮經，年老無成。奴僕逋逃，親戚寡助，生涯疎闊，家計伶俜，而況巨家大族，豈以一人寒儒，留意爲贅郞乎。是必好事者，過譽吾家，以誣高門也。」媒，又告崔家，崔家曰：「納采之禮，漿束之事，吾盡辨矣。宜差穀旦，以定花燭之期。」媒者，又返告之。李家至是，稍回其意，卽遣人，召生問之。生喜不自勝，乃作詩曰：
At this her parents already knew her mind, and they asked no more about her sickness. They warned her a little and coaxed her a little to ease her heart, and then they prepared the rites of a match again and sent to ask at the house of Yi.
The elder Yi asked how the house of Choe stood, high or low, and said.
"My own boy, though he is young and given to the wind, has gone deeply into learning and carries himself like a man. What I hope is that he will come first in the examination one day and make his name in a later year. I do not wish to seek a marriage in haste."
The matchmaker went back and reported these words, and the house of Choe sent again and said.
"The friends of his own day all say that your son's talent goes beyond other men. Though he is coiled and bent for now, how should he be a creature to stay in a pond? Set a day soon for the good meeting, and join the good fortune of the two families."
The matchmaker took these words back again to Scholar Yi's father, and the father said.
"I too took up books and studied the classics from my youth, and I have grown old with nothing accomplished. My servants have run off and my kin give little help, my way of living is thin and my household is poor. How much less would a great house of a great lineage set its mind on one cold scholar and take him in as a son-in-law? This must be some busybody who has praised my house too much and deceived a high family."
The matchmaker reported again to the house of Choe, and the house of Choe said, "The rite of the betrothal gifts and the sending of the cloth we will provide, all of it. Choose a good day and set the time for the wedding candles."
The matchmaker went back and reported once more. At this the house of Yi turned its mind a little, and they sent a man at once to call Scholar Yi and ask him. Scholar Yi could not master his joy, and he made a poem.
破鏡重圓會有時，天津烏鵲助佳期。從今月老纏繩去，莫向東風怨子規。
The broken mirror comes round again, and there is a time for it. The crows and magpies of the Heavenly Ford help the good season on. From now the old man of the moon will go and tie the thread. Do not face the east wind and blame the cuckoo.
女聞之，病亦稍愈，又作詩曰：
When the woman heard of it her sickness also eased a little, and she made a poem as well.
惡因緣是好因緣，盟語終須到底圓。共輓鹿車何日是，倩人扶起理花鈿。
The ill bond is the good bond after all, and the words we swore have come round whole at the last. On what day shall we pull the deer cart together? She asks for a hand to help her rise, and sets her flowered pin straight.
於是，擇吉日，遂定婚禮，而續其絃焉。自同牢之後，夫婦愛而敬之，相待如賓，雖鴻光鮑桓，不足言其節義也。生翌年，捷高科，登顯仕，聲價聞于朝著。
So a good day was chosen, the wedding was settled at last, and the broken string was joined again. After they had shared the one table, husband and wife loved and honored each other and treated each other as guests, so that even Liang Hong and Meng Guang, even Bao Xuan and Huan Shaojun, were not enough to speak of beside their faithfulness.
The next year Scholar Yi passed the high examination and rose to office, and his name was heard at court.
辛丑年，紅賊據京城，王移福州。賊焚蕩室廬，臠炙人畜。夫婦親戚，不能相保，東奔西竄，各自逃生。生挈家，隱匿窮崖。有一賊，拔劍而逐。生奔走得脫，女爲賊所虜，欲逼之，女大罵曰：「虎鬼殺啗我，寧死葬於豺狼之腹中，安能作狗彘之匹乎？」賊怒，殺而剮之。
In the year sinchuk the Red Turban bandits took the capital, and the king moved to Bokju. The bandits burned the houses and cut up men and beasts and roasted them. Husbands and wives and kinsfolk could not keep one another, and they fled east and hid west, each seeking a way to live.
Scholar Yi led his household and hid on a lonely cliff. One bandit drew his sword and came after them. Scholar Yi ran and got away, but the woman was taken. The bandit tried to force her, and the woman cursed him loudly.
"You tiger, you demon, kill me and eat me. I would sooner die and be buried in the belly of jackals and wolves than be the mate of a dog or a pig."
The bandit was angry, and he killed her and cut her flesh apart.
生竄于荒野，僅保餘軀。聞賊已滅，遂尋父母舊居，其家已爲兵火所焚。又至女家，廊廡荒凉，鼠喞鳥喧。悲不自勝，登于小樓，收淚長噓。奄至日暮，塊然獨坐，佇思前遊，宛如一夢。
Scholar Yi hid in the wild fields and barely kept the body that was left to him. He heard that the bandits were gone, and at last he sought the old house of his parents, but that house had already burned in the fires of war. He went on to the woman's house, and the corridors were waste and desolate, and there was only the squeaking of rats and the noise of birds.
He could not master his grief. He climbed the small upper chamber, dried his tears, and let out a long sigh. Before he knew it the sun had set. He sat alone and dazed, and he stood still in his thought of their walks of old, and it was plainly like a dream.
將及二更，月色微吐，光照屋梁。漸聞廊下，有跫然之音，自遠而近，至則崔氏也。生雖知已死，愛之甚篤，不復疑訝。遽問曰：「避於何處，全其軀命？」女執生手，慟哭一聲。乃敍情曰：「妾本良族，幼承庭訓，工刺繡裁縫之事，學詩書仁義之方，但識閨門之治，豈解境外之修。然而一窺紅杏之墻，自獻碧海之珠。花前一笑，恩結平生，帳裏重遘，情愈百年。言至於此，悲慙曷勝。將謂偕老而歸居，豈意橫折而顚溝，終不委身於豺虎，自取磔肉於泥沙，固天性之自然，匪人情之可忍。却恨一別於窮崖，竟作分飛之匹鳥。家亡親沒，傷殢魄之無依，義重命輕，幸殘軀之免辱。誰憐寸寸之灰心，徒結斷斷之腐腸，骨骸暴野，肝膽塗地。細料昔時之歡娛，適爲當日之愁寃。今則鄒律已吹於幽谷，倩女再返於陽閒。蓬萊一紀之約綢繆，聚窟三生之香芬郁，重契闊於此時，期不負乎前盟，如或不忘，終以爲好，李郞其許之乎？」生喜且感曰：「固所願也。」相與款曲抒情。言及家産被寇掠有無，女曰：「一分不失，埋於某山某谷也。」又問：「兩家父母骸骨安在？」女曰：「暴棄某處。」敍情罷，同寢極歡如昔。
As the second watch drew near, the moonlight came out faintly and its light lay on the beams of the house. Little by little a sound of footsteps was heard below the corridor, coming from far off and drawing near, and when it came it was Choe.
Scholar Yi knew that she had died, but he loved her very deeply and did not doubt again. He asked at once, "Where did you take shelter, that you kept your body and your life?"
The woman took Scholar Yi's hand and wailed aloud once. Then she opened her heart.
"I was born of a good lineage. From childhood I took the teaching of my family and was skilled at embroidery and at cutting cloth, and I learned poetry and letters and the way of benevolence and right. I knew only the ordering of the inner rooms. How should I have understood what is practiced outside them?
Yet once I peered over the wall of the red apricot, I offered up the pearl of the blue sea myself. At one smile before the flowers our bond was tied for a lifetime, and when we met again within the curtain, our feeling went past a hundred years. Now that my words have come to this, how can I bear the grief and the shame?
I thought that we would grow old together and go home together. How could I have known that I would be cut off before my time and left in a ditch? To the end I did not give my body to the jackal and the tiger, and I took upon myself the tearing of my flesh in the mud and the sand. This was truly the way my nature is of itself, and not a thing that human feeling can bear.
What I regret instead is that we parted once on that lonely cliff, and became at last two birds of a pair that fly apart. My house fell and my parents died, and it grieves me that my lingering soul has nothing to lean on. Right was heavy and life was light, and by good fortune the body left to me escaped disgrace.
Who will pity a heart burned to ash, inch by inch? To no purpose the rotted bowels are knotted and knotted, my bones lie bare in the fields, and my liver and gall are smeared on the ground. When I count over carefully the joy of those old days, it has become the very sorrow and grievance of this one.
Now the pipe of Zou Yan (鄒衍) has been blown in the deep valley, and Qiannü (倩女) has come back to this world again. The promise of twelve years at Penglai is bound close, and the incense of three lives from Juquzhou (聚窟洲) is sweet. Let us make much of this meeting again and keep faith with the oath we swore before. If you have not forgotten it and will hold it good to the end, will my lord Yi consent?"
Scholar Yi was glad and moved, and he said, "It is truly what I wished for."
They opened their hearts to each other in full. When the talk came to whether the goods of the house had been plundered by the bandits, the woman said, "Not one part is lost. They are buried in such a hill, in such a valley."
He asked again, "Where are the bones of the parents of our two houses?"
The woman said, "They lie bare and abandoned in such a place."
When they had opened their hearts they lay down together, and their joy was full as it had been of old.
明日，與生俱往尋瘞處，果得金銀數錠及財物若干。又得收拾兩家父母骸骨。貿金賣財，各合葬於五冠山麓，封樹祭獻，皆盡其禮。其後，生亦不求仕官，與崔氏居焉。幹僕之逃生者，亦自來赴。生自是以後，懶於人事，雖親戚賓客賀弔，杜門不出，常與崔氏，或酬或和，琴瑟偕和，荏苒數年。
The next day he went with her and sought the place where the things were buried, and they found several ingots of gold and silver and some goods besides. They also gathered up the bones of the parents of both houses. They sold the gold and sold the goods, and buried each pair together at the foot of Mount Ogwan, and raised the mounds and planted the trees and made the offerings, and did all of the rites in full.
After that Scholar Yi did not seek office either, and he lived with Choe. The servants who had run away also came back of themselves. From this time on Scholar Yi was idle in the affairs of men. Even when kinsmen and guests came with congratulations or with condolences, he shut his gate and did not go out. He was always with Choe, and they answered each other's poems, and they went together like the zither and the lute, and several years slipped by.
一夕，女謂生曰：「三遇佳期，世事蹉跎，歡娛不厭，哀別遽至。」遂嗚咽，生驚問曰：「何故至此？」女曰：「冥數不可躱也，天帝以妾與生，緣分未斷，又無罪障，假以幻體，與生暫割愁腸，非久留人世，以惑陽人。」命婢兒進酒，歌玉樓春一闋，以侑生，歌曰：
One evening the woman said to Scholar Yi, "Three times we have met at a good season, but the affairs of the world have gone awry. The joy is not yet done with, and the grief of parting has come all at once." Then she choked and wept.
Scholar Yi asked in alarm, "For what reason has it come to this?"
The woman said, "The reckoning of the dark world cannot be dodged. The Lord of Heaven saw that the bond between my lord and me was not yet broken and that there was no weight of sin upon me, and so he lent me a body of seeming, to ease the grieving heart of my lord for a while. It was not that I should stay long in the world of men and beguile the living."
She told the maid to bring wine, and she sang one measure of "Yulouchun (玉樓春)" and pressed it on Scholar Yi, and this was her song.
干戈滿目交揮處，玉碎花飛鴛失侶。殘骸狼籍竟誰埋，血汚遊魂無與語。高唐一下巫山女，破鏡重分心慘楚。從玆一別兩茫茫，天上人間音信阻。
Where shield and spear filled the eye and struck against each other, the jade broke and the flowers flew, and the mandarin duck lost her mate. Who at the last will bury the scattered bones? The wandering soul stained with blood has no one to speak with. Woman of Mount Wu, who came down once to Gaotang (高唐), the broken mirror is parted again, and the heart is bitter. From this one parting we are both far off, and between heaven above and the world of men no word can pass.
每歌一聲，飮泣數下，殆不成腔。生亦悽惋不已曰：「寧與娘子，同入九泉，豈可無聊獨保殘生。向者，傷亂之後，親戚僮僕，各相亂離，亡親骸狼籍原野，儻非娘子，誰能奠埋。古人云：生事之以禮，死葬之以禮。盡在娘子，天性之純孝，人情之篤厚也。感激無已，自愧可勝。願娘子，淹留人世，百年之後，同作塵土。」女曰：「李郞之壽，剩有餘紀，妾已載鬼籙，不能久視。若固眷戀人間，違犯條令，非唯罪我，兼亦累及於君。但妾之遺骸，散於某處，倘若垂恩，勿暴風日。」相視泣下數行云：「李郞珍重。」言訖漸滅，了無踪迹。
At every note she sang she swallowed her tears and let them fall again and again, until she could hardly hold the tune.
Scholar Yi too was grieved beyond measure, and he said.
"I would sooner go down to the Nine Springs with you than keep alone and idle what is left of my life. In those days after the troubles, when kinsmen and servants were all scattered and the bones of my dead parents lay strewn in the fields, if it had not been for you, who could have made the offering and buried them?
A man of old said, 'While they live, serve them by the rites; when they die, bury them by the rites.' All of that was in you. It is the pure filial love of your nature and the depth of your human feeling. I am moved past all measure, and I cannot master my own shame. I ask that you stay long in the world of men, and that after a hundred years we become dust and earth together."
The woman said.
"My lord's life still has years to spare, but I am already written in the register of the dead and cannot be seen for long. If I hold fast to the world of men and cling to it, I break the ordinances of the world below, and it will not be a fault in me alone, for the blame will reach my lord as well.
Only this. The bones left of me are scattered in such a place. If you would let your kindness fall on me, do not leave them bare to the wind and the sun."
They looked at each other and let fall a few lines of tears, and she said, "My lord Yi, take good care of yourself."
As her words ended she faded little by little, and there was not the least trace of her.
生拾骨，附葬于親墓傍。旣葬，生亦以追念之故，得病數月而卒。聞者莫不傷歎，而慕其義焉。
Scholar Yi gathered up her bones and buried them beside the graves of his parents. When the burial was done, Scholar Yi too, because he thought of her always, fell sick and died within a few months. There was no one who heard of it who did not grieve and sigh, and they held her faithfulness in admiration.