第七十八篇第七十八篇Story Seventy-Eight

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狐聯

狐联

Story Seventy-Eight · Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio

The Fox’s Couplet

A line drawing in the manner of a late-Qing lithographed edition: on a moonlit night in a garden study, a bearded scholar sits on a bench beside his writing table with a book open, frowning and stroking his beard in thought, while an elder girl leans one hand on the table and smiles as she speaks, and a younger girl behind her hides a smile behind her sleeve, with a lamp, brushes and incense burner on the table, bamboo and a rock beyond the open lattice window, and a bookshelf at the right.

焦生,章丘石紅先生之叔弟也。讀書園中。宵分,有二美人來,顏色雙絕。一可十七八,一約十四五,撫幾展笑。焦知其狐,正色拒之。長者曰:「君髯如戟,何無丈夫氣?」焦曰:「僕生平不敢二色。」女笑曰:「迂哉,子尚守腐局耶?下元鬼神,凡事皆以黑為白,況床笫間瑣事乎?」焦又咄之。女知不可動,乃云:「君名下士,妾有一聯,請為屬對,能對我自去。戊戌同體,腹中止欠一點。」焦凝思不就。女笑曰:「名士固如此乎?我代對之可矣:己巳連蹤,足下何不雙挑?」一笑而去。

焦生,章丘石红先生之叔弟也。读书园中。宵分,有二美人来,颜色双绝。一可十七八,一约十四五,抚几展笑。焦知其狐,正色拒之。长者曰:「君髯如戟,何无丈夫气?」焦曰:「仆生平不敢二色。」女笑曰:「迂哉,子尚守腐局耶?下元鬼神,凡事皆以黑为白,况床笫间琐事乎?」焦又咄之。女知不可动,乃云:「君名下士,妾有一联,请为属对,能对我自去。戊戌同体,腹中止欠一点。」焦凝思不就。女笑曰:「名士固如此乎?我代对之可矣:己巳连踪,足下何不双挑?」一笑而去。

Jiao was a younger cousin of Mr. Shihong of Zhangqiu. He studied in a garden. Around midnight two beautiful women came to him, each as lovely as the other. One looked seventeen or eighteen, the other fourteen or fifteen. They leaned on his desk and smiled. Jiao knew they were foxes, and with a stern face he sent them off. The elder said, “Your beard bristles like halberds. Why are you so unmanly?” “All my life I have never dared touch any woman but my wife,” said Jiao. The girl laughed. “What a pedant! Are you still keeping to those musty rules? Down in the lower world the ghosts and gods call black white in everything, let alone a little matter of the bed.” Jiao rebuked her again. Seeing that she could not move him, she said, “You are a scholar of name. I have the first line of a couplet. Please match it. If you can, I will go of my own accord. ‘Wu and xu share one body; in the belly just one dot is wanting.’” Jiao thought hard but could not find a match. The girl laughed. “So this is what a famous scholar is like? Then I will match it myself: ‘Ji and si go foot to foot; why don’t you, sir, hook up with both?’” And laughing, they were gone.

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