The shining Genji was dead, and there was no one quite like him. —
发光的源氏已经去世了，世上再也找不出他的对手。 —

It would be irreverent to speak of the Reizei emperor. —
谈及冷泉帝皇是不恭的。 —

Niou, the third son of the present emperor, and Kaoru, the young son of Genji’s Third Princess, had grown up in the same house and were both thought by the world to be uncommonly handsome, but somehow they did not shine with the same radiance. —
目前天皇的第三个儿子银之助和源氏第三女儿生下的薰，一起长大在同一个屋檐下，他们俩都被世人誉为颜值超群，但却不及源氏那般璀璨。 —

They were but sensitive, cultivated young men, and the fact that they were rather more loudly acclaimed than Genji had been at their age was very probably because they had been so close to him. —
他们只是些敏感、有教养的年轻人，之所以比源氏年轻时更受赞赏，很可能是因为他们与源氏的亲近有关。 —

They were in any event very well thought of indeed. —
不管怎样，在人们心目中他们都深得好评。 —

Niou had been reared by Murasaki, her favorite among Genji’s grandchildren, and still had her Nijō house for his private residence. —
银之助被女儿婉蓝撫养长大，仍以她的二条宅为私宅。 —

If the crown prince was because of his position the most revered of the royal children, Niou was his parents’ favorite. —
虽然皇太子因地位崇高备受尊崇，但银之助却是父母的掌上明珠。 —

They would have liked to have him with them in the palace, but he found life more comfortable in the house of the childhood memories. —
他们想让他和他们住在一起，但他更愿意生活在充满童年回忆的宅子里。 —

Upon his initiation he was appointed minister of war.
初任时他被任命为战争大臣。

The First Princess, his sister, lived in the east wing of Murasaki’s southeast quarter at Rokujō. —
他的姐姐第一王女住在婉蓝所在的东侧六条庵。 —

It was exactly as it had been at Murasaki’s death, and everything about it called up memories. —
在婉蓝去世后，一切都保持原状，这一切都带来了无限回忆。 —

The Second Prince had rooms in the main hall of the same quarter and spent much of his spare time there. —
第二亲王在同一个庵的大厅里有自己的房间，闲暇时喜欢待在那里。 —

The Plum Court was his palace residence. —
梅苑是他的宫殿住所。 —

He was married to Yūgiri’s second daughter and was of such high character and repute that he was widely expected to become crown prince when the next reign began.
他娶了婉蓝的次女，品行高尚，声誉卓著，被广泛期望在下一任皇位的开始时成为皇太子。

Yūgiri had numerous daughters. The oldest was married to the crown prince and had no rival for his affections. —
婉蓝有很多女儿，最年长的嫁给了皇太子，对他的爱没有任何竞争者。 —

It had been generally assumed that the younger daughters would be married to royal princes in turn. —
大家普遍认为年轻的女儿们将依次嫁给皇室王子。 —

The Akashi empress, Yūgiri’s sister, had put in a good word for them. —
因为明石皇后、弓切的姐姐替她们说了好话。 —

Niou, however, had thoughts of his own. He was a headstrong young man who did exactly what he wanted to do. —
但尼奥有自己的想法。他是一个任性的年轻人，只做自己想做的事情。 —

Yūgiri told himself that there were after all no laws in these matters, meanwhile making sure that his daughters had every advantage and letting it be known that princes who came paying court would not be turned away. —
弓切告诉自己，在这些事情上实际上没有规定，同时确保自己的女儿们得到一切优势，让人们知道前来求爱的王子不会被拒绝。 —

Princes and high courtiers who flattered themselves that they were among the eligible had very exciting reports about the sixth daughter.
自以为是有资格的王子和高官对第六女儿都传得很激动人心。

Genji’s various ladies tearfully left Rokujō for the dwellings that would be their last. —
源氏的各位女性们含泪离开了六条，去他们最后的住所。 —

Genji had given the lady of the orange blossoms the east lodge at Nijō. Kaoru’s mother lived in her own Sanjō mansion. —
源氏把橙花院的女士分配到了二条的东边别墅。薰的母亲住在她自己的三条府第。 —

With the Akashi empress now in residence at the palace, Rokujō had become a quiet and rather lonely place. —
随着明石皇后现在住在宫中，六条变得宁静而有点寂寞。 —

Yūgiri had observed — it had been true long ago and it was still true — how quickly the mansions of the great fall into ruin. —
弓切注意到——很久以前就是如此，现在依然如此——大人们的府第如何迅速地毁灭。 —

Enormous expense and attention went into them, and one could almost see the beginning of the process when their eminent masters were dead, and so they became the most poignant reminders of evanescence. —
需要巨额开支和精心的关注，几乎可以看到这一过程的开始，当他们卓越的主人去世时，所以它们成为了无可挽回的消逝的提醒。 —

He did not want anything of the sort to happen at Rokujō. —
弓切不想在六条发生这样的事情。 —

He was determined that there would be life in the mansion and the streets around it while he himself was still alive. —
他决定，在他仍然活着的时候，府第和周围的街道将充满生机。 —

He therefore installed Kashiwagi’s widow, the Second Princess, in the northeast quarter, where he had lived as the foster son of the lady of the orange blossoms. —
因此他安置了柏木的寡妇，第二王女，住在东北区，那正是他作为橙花院女士的养子住过的地方。 —

He was very precise and impartial in his habits, spending alternate nights there and at his Sanjō residence, where Kumoinokari lived.
他的生活习惯非常准确和公正，每隔一晚住在那里或是他的三条住所，葵之香住在那里。

Genji had polished the Nijō house to perfection, and then the south-east quarter at Rokujō had become the jeweled pavilion, the center of life and excitement. —
源氏把二条的住所磨得完美，于是六条的东南角变成了宝石般的亭子，生活和兴奋的中心。 —

Now it was as if they had been meant all along for one among his ladies and for her grandchildren. —
现在看来，就好像他们一直都是为他的其中一位女性和她的孙子女而存在的。 —

There it was that the Akashi lady ministered to the needs of the empress’s children. —
此时明石神官在照料皇后的孩子们。 —

Making no changes in the ordering of the two households, Yūgiri treated Genji’s several ladies as if he were the son of them all. —
在两个家庭的秩序中没有做任何改变，弓切待遇源氏的几位女性，就好像他是她们所有人的儿子一样。 —

His strongest regret was that Murasaki had not lived to see evidences of his esteem. —
他最大的遗憾是紫女没能看到他对她的尊重的表现。 —

After all these years he still grieved for her.
这么多年过去了，他仍然为她悲伤。

And the whole world still mourned Genji. It was as if a light had gone out. —
整个世界依然为源氏哀悼。好像有一盏灯熄灭了。 —

For his ladies, for his grandchildren, for others who had been close to him, the sadness was of course more immediate and intense, and they were constantly being reminded of Murasaki too. —
对于他的女性，他的孙子女，以及其他与他亲近的人来说，悲伤当然更加直接和强烈，他们时常会被提醒起紫女。 —

It is true, they all thought: the cherry blossoms of spring are loved because they bloom so briefly.
的确，大家都认为，春天的樱花之所以受人喜爱，是因为它们开得如此短暂。

Genji had asked the Reizei emperor to watch over Kaoru. The emperor was faithful to the trust, and his empress, Akikonomu, sad that she had no children of her own, found her greatest pleasure in being of service to him. —
源氏请求令弟上林皇帝看管薰。上林皇帝忠心地托付了这个重任，而皇后秋宫，因为自己没有孩子，乐于为他效劳，从中找到了最大的快乐。 —

His initiation ceremonies, when he was fourteen, were held in the Reizei Palace. —
他十四岁的成人礼在上林宫里举行。 —

In the Second Month he was made a chamberlain and in the autumn Captain of the Right Guards. —
在二月份，他被任命为侍御史，在秋季被封为右卫大将。 —

This rapid promotion was at the behest of the Reizei emperor, who seemed to have his own reasons for haste. —
这种迅速的晋升是因为上林皇帝的命令，似乎有着自己的急迫原因。 —

So it was that Kaoru was a man of importance at a very early age. —
因此薰从很小的时候就成了一个重要的人物。 —

He was given rooms in the Reizei Palace and the Reizei emperor made it his personal business to see that all the ladies-in-waiting and even the maids and page girls were the prettiest and ablest to be had. —
他在上林宫里有自己的房间，上林皇帝亲自操心确保宫女、婢女和侍女们都是最漂亮、最能干的。 —

Similar attention went into fitting the rooms, which would not have offended the sensibilities of the most refined and demanding princess. —
同样的关注也体现在房间的装修上，这些房间不会让最具敏感和要求性的公主感到不悦。 —

Indeed, the Reizei emperor and his empress forwent the services of the most accomplished women in their own retinue, that Kaoru might be more elegantly served. —
实际上，例冢天皇和皇后放弃了自己团队中最出色的女性的服务，以便更优雅地招待薰。 —

They wanted him to be happy at Reizei and could not have been more attentive to his needs if he had been their son. —
他们希望他在例冢开心，如果薰是他们的儿子，他们无法更加关心他的需求。 —

The Reizei emperor had only one child, a princess by a daughter of Tō no Chūjō. —
例冢天皇只有一个孩子，是藤中将序的女儿生的公主。 —

There was of course nothing that he was not ready and eager to do for her. —
当然，他愿意并渴望为她做任何事。 —

Perhaps it was because his love for Akikonomu had deepened over the years that he was equally solicitous of Kaoru. There were some, indeed, who did not quite understand this partiality.
可能是因为他对秋喜的爱随着岁月而加深，所以他同样体贴关怀薰。实际上有一些人并不能完全理解这种偏爱。

Kaoru’s mother had quite given herself up to her devotions. —
薰的母亲完全投身于她的虔诚。 —

She spared herself no expense in arranging the monthly invocation of the holy name and the semiannual reading of the Lotus Sutra and all the other prescribed rites. —
她不惜一切开销来安排每月的念佛和半年一次的读经仪式以及所有其他规定的仪式。 —

Her son’s visits were her chief pleasure. —
她儿子的拜访是她最大的快乐。 —

Sometimes he almost seemed more like a father than a son — a fact which he was aware of and though rather sad. —
有时他几乎更像是父亲而不是儿子 - 这一事实让他感到有些悲伤。 —

He was a constant companion of both the reigning emperor and the retired emperor, and was much sought after by the crown prince and other princes too, until he sometimes wished that he could be in two places at once. —
他是现任天皇和退位天皇的常伴，也备受太子和其他王子们的青睐，有时他甚至希望自己能同时身处两个地方。 —

From his childhood there had been things, chance remarks, brief snatches of an overheard conversation, that had upset him and made him wish that there were someone to whom he could go for an explanation. —
从小开始，有些事情，碰巧的话语，偶然听到的谈话片段，让他感到困扰，希望有人可以找个答案。 —

There was no one. His mother would be distressed at any hint that he had even these vague suspicions. —
但没有人。他的母亲甚至对于暗示他产生这些模糊疑虑都感到不快。 —

He could only brood in solitude and ask what missteps in a former life might explain the painful doubts with which he had grown up — and wish that he had the clairvoyance of a Prince Rāhula, who instinctively knew the truth about his own birth.
他只能独自沉思，问自己前世中可能犯下的错误是否能解释他从小就怀疑的痛苦 - 并希望自己能拥有王子罗睺拉的洞察力，直觉地了解自己出生的真相。

“Whom might I ask? Why must it be
“我应该问谁？为什么我不知道开始和结束？ 们的是”

That I do not know the beginning or the end?”
我要问谁？我为何不知起与终？”

But of course there was no one he could go to for an answer.
但当然，没有人可以回答他的问题。

These doubts were with him most persistently when he was unwell. —
当他身体不适时，这些疑虑最为持久。 —

His mother, taking the nun’s habit when still in the flush of girlhood — had it been from a real and thorough conversion? —
他的母亲在年少时就戴上修女的衣裳 — 这是否真正彻底的皈依? —

He suspected rather that some horrible surprise had overtaken her, something that had shaken her to the roots of her being. —
他怀疑更多的是，某种可怕的惊喜已经降临在她身上，某种事情已经彻底撼动了她的内心。 —

People must surely have heard about it in the course of everyday events, and for some reason had felt constrained to keep it from him.
人们肯定已经在日常生活中听说过这件事，而由于某种原因感到有必要瞒着他。

His mother was at her devotions, morning and night, but he thought it unlikely that the efforts of a weak and vacillating woman could transform the dew upon the lotus into the bright jewel of the law. —
他的母亲每天早晚都在念经，但他认为一个软弱犹豫的女人的努力很难将莲花上的露水变为佛法的光辉宝石。 —

A woman labors under five hindrances, after all. —
毕竟，一个女人面临着五种障碍。 —

He wanted somehow to help her towards a new start in another life.
他想以某种方式帮助她踏上另一种生活的新开始。

He thought too of the gentleman who had died so young. —
他也想起那位过早去世的绅士。 —

His soul must still be wandering lost, unable to free itself of regrets for this world. —
他的灵魂必须仍在迷失间徘徊，无法摆脱对这个世界的遗憾。 —

How he wished that they could meet — there would be other lives in which it might be possible.
他多么希望他们能够相遇 — 在其他的生命中，这或许是可能的。

His own initiation ceremonies interested him not in the least, but he had to go through with them. —
他对自己的入门仪式毫不感兴趣，但他不得不参加。 —

Suddenly he found himself a rather conspicuous young man, indeed the cynosure of all eyes. —
突然间，他发现自己成为了一个颇具威望的年轻人，确实所有人注目的焦点。 —

This new eminence only made him withdraw more resolutely into himself.
这种新的显赫只让他更坚定地将自己与外界隔绝。

The emperor favored him because they were so closely related, but a quite genuine regard had perhaps more to do with the matter. —
皇帝喜欢他是因为他们关系密切，但也许还更多是因为真诚的友谊才有这样的事情。 —

As for the empress, her children had grown up with him and he still seemed almost one of them. —
至于皇后，她的孩子们与他一起长大，他似乎仍然几乎算是他们中的一员。 —

She remembered how Genji had sighed at the unlikelihood that he would live to see this child of his late years grown into a man, and felt that Genji’s worries had added to her own responsibilities. —
她记得源氏叹息着表示不大可能能看到他晚年的这个孩子成长为一个男子汉，感到源氏的担忧增加了她自己的责任。 —

Yūgiri was more attentive to Kaoru than to his own sons.
玉露对薰比对自己的儿子更关心。

The shining Genji had been his father’s favorite child, and there had been jealousy. —
这位光芒四射的源氏曾经是他父亲最宠爱的孩子，因此引起了嫉妒。 —

He had not had the backing of powerful maternal relatives, but, blessed with a cool head and mature judgment, he had seen the advantages of keeping his radiance somewhat dimmed, and so had made his way safely through a crisis that might have been disastrous for the whole nation. —
他没有强大的母亲亲属支持，但他头脑冷静、判断成熟，明白将自己的光芒略显黯淡的优势，所以安全度过了这场本可能对整个国家造成灾难的危机。 —

So it had been too with preparations for the world to come: —
如同准备迎接来世一样：一切都应该在适当的时机，悄无声息地进行。 —

everything in its proper time, he had said, going about the matter carefully and unobtrusively. —
“在适当的时间，一切尽在掌握之中。”他说，细心而又低调地处理这件事。 —

Kaoru had received too much attention while still a boy, and it may have been charged against him that he was not sufficiently aware of his limitations. —
薰还是个孩子的时候就受到了太多的关注，也许有人批评他没有足够意识到自己的限制。 —

Something about him did make people think of avatars and suspect that perhaps a special bounty of grace set him apart from the ordinary run of men. —
他有某种特质让人们想起化身，怀疑也许一种特别的优惠之恩使他脱离了普通人的行列。 —

There was nothing in his face or manner, to be sure, that brought people up short, but there was a compelling gentleness that was unique and suggested limitless depths.
他面容或举止中并没有让人哑口无言的部分，但有一种独特的温柔令人信服，表明存在着无尽的深度。

And there was the fragrance he gave off, quite unlike anything else in this world. —
还有他身上散发出来的香气，与这个世界上的任何东西都不同。 —

Let him make the slightest motion and it had a mysterious power to trail behind him like a “hundred-pace incense. —
只要他稍稍动弹，那种神秘的力量就像“百步香”一样在他身后飘荡。 —

” One did not expect young aristocrats to affect the plain and certainly not the shabby. —
人们并不期望年轻贵族会追求朴素，更不要说邋遢了。 —

The elegance that is the result of a careful toilet was the proper thing. —
优雅是合适的，这是一个慎重梳妆的结果。 —

Kaoru, however, wished often enough that he might be free of this particular mark of distinction. —
不过薰多次希望自己能摆脱这种特别的区别标志。 —

He could not hide. Let him step behind something in hopes of going unobserved, and that scent would announce his presence. —
他无法隐藏自己。让他躲在某处希望不被发现，但那股香味会宣告他的存在。 —

He used no perfume, nor did he scent his robes, but somehow a fragrance that had been sealed deep inside a Chinese chest would emerge the more ravishing for his presence. —
他不使用香水，也不给他的长袍涂抹香料，但在一个封存在中国柜子深处的芬芳总会因为他的出现而更加迷人。 —

He would brush a spray of plum blossoms below the veranda and the spring rain dripping from it would become a perfume for others who passed. —
他会在阳台下轻拂一簇梅花，春雨从中滴落，成为路人身边的香氛。 —

The masterless purple trousers would reject their own perfume for his.
无主的紫色裤子也为他而敬畏其香气。

Niou was his rival in everything and especially in the competition to be pleasantly scented. —
牛王是他在所有事情上的竞争对手，尤其是在向愉悦香氛方面。 —

The blending of perfumes would become his work for days on end. —
香气的融合成为他日复一日的工作。 —

In the spring he would gaze inquiringly up at the blossoming plum, and in the autumn he would neglect the maiden flower of which poets have made so much and the hagi beloved of the stag, and instead keep beside him, all withered and unsightly, the chrysanthemum “heedless of age” and purple trousers, also sadly faded, and the burnet that has so little to recommend it in the first place. —
春天他注视着梅花绽放，秋天他忽视那些诗人赞美的美丽花朵和石榴花，反而将那些枯萎难看、寡淡的菊花、“不管岁月”的紫色长裤以及雀麦摆放在身边。 —

Perfumes were central to his pursuit of good taste. —
香水是他追求好品味道路上的核心。 —

There were those who accused him of a certain preciosity. —
有些人指责他有点过分讲究。 —

Genji, they said, had managed to avoid seeming uneven.
他们说，源氏成功地避免了表现得不均衡。

Kaoru was always in Niou’s apartments, and music echoed through the halls and galleries as their rivalry moved on to flute and koto. —
香王总是在牛王的住所，音乐在走廊和画廊里回荡，因为他们的竞争转向了长笛和箜篌。 —

They were rivals but they were also the best of friends. —
他们是竞争对手，但也是最好的朋友。 —

Everyone called them (sometimes it was a little tiresome) “his perfumed highness” and “the fragrant captain. —
每个人都称他们(有时是有点烦人的)为“香气王子”和“芬芳队长”。 —

” No father of a pretty and nubile daughter was unaware of their existence or lost an opportunity to remind them that there were young ladies to be had. —
每个有漂亮可人女儿的父亲都知道他们的存在，并且不会错过向他们提醒有婚嫁女子的机会。 —

Niou would get off notes to such of them as seemed worthy of his attention and gather pertinent information about them, but no lady could thus far have been said to excite him unduly. —
牛王会给那些看似值得关注的女士写纸条，并收集关于她们的相关信息，但迄今为止没有一位女士被认为引起他过多的兴趣。 —

Or rather, there was one: the Reizei princess, who aroused thoughts of eventual marriage. —
或者说，确实是有一个：令人产生对未来婚姻的想法的Reizei公主。 —

Her maternal grandfather had been a very important man, and she was reputed to be something of a treasure. —
她的外祖父曾是一个非常重要的人，据说她是一位珍宝。 —

Women who had been briefly in her service would add to his store of information, until presently he was very excited indeed.
曾短暂在她身边服务过的女子们会增加他的信息储备，最终他的兴奋劲儿愈发高涨。

Kaoru was a different sort of young man. He already knew what an empty, purposeless world it is, and was reluctant to commit himself any more firmly than seemed quite necessary. —
Kaoru是一个不同寻常的年轻人。他早已知道这个空虚且无目的的世界是什么样子，不愿意比看似完全必要更加牢牢地扎根。 —

He did not want the final renunciation to be difficult. —
他不想最终的放弃变得困难。 —

Some thought him rather ostentatiously enlightened in his disdain for amorous things, and it seemed wholly unlikely that he would ever urge himself upon a lady against her wishes.
有人认为他在对爱情事物的轻蔑上有些夸张，而他似乎绝对不会强迫自己对一个女士表白。

He held the Third Rank and a seat on the council, still keeping his guards commission, when he was only nineteen. —
他19岁时已拥有三等爵位和议会席位，还保留着他的卫队职务。 —

The esteem of the emperor and empress had already made him an extraordinary sort of commoner; —
皇帝和皇后的尊重已让他成为一种非同寻常的平民； —

but the old doubts persisted, and with them a strain of melancholy that kept him from losing himself in romantic dalliance. —
但是旧的疑虑仍然挥之不去，伴随着一丝使他不至于沉湎于浪漫风流中的忧郁情绪。 —

Nothing seemed capable of penetrating his reserve. —
没有一样东西能够击穿他的保留。 —

To some, his precocious maturity seemed a little daunting.
对于一些人来说，他早熟的表现似乎有些令人畏惧。

He had rooms in the Reizei Palace of the princess who so interested Niou and had no trouble gathering intelligence about her. —
他在Reizei宫中有房间，那位令宁王如此感兴趣的公主，对她的情报轻而易举地就收集到了。 —

All of it suggested that she was a very unusual lady, indeed a lady in whom, were he interested in marriage himself, he might find the most fascinating possibilities. —
所有的情报都表明她是一个非常不同寻常的女子，的确是一个如果他对结婚感兴趣的话，他可能会发现极富吸引力的可能性的女子。 —

In all else completely open and unreserved, the Reizei emperor chose to surround his daughter with stern barriers. —
在其他一切方面完全坦诚且无保留，Reizei皇帝选择用严格的屏障环绕他的女儿。 —

Kaoru thought this not at all unreasonable of him, and made no effort to force his way through. —
Kaoru认为这一点一点也不过分，于是也没有试图强行突破。 —

He was a very prudent young man who did not choose to risk unpleasantness for himself or for a lady.
他是一个非常谨慎的年轻人，不愿为自己或一位女士冒险惹恼。

Because he was so universally admired, ladies were not on the whole disposed to ignore his notes. —
由于他备受普遍景仰，女士们通常不会忽略他的便条。 —

Indeed, the response was usually immediate, and so he had in the course of time had numerous little affairs, all of them very fleeting. —
实际上，反应通常是立竿见影的，因此他这段时间内发生了许多短暂的小事。 —

He always managed to seem interested but not fascinated. —
他总能显出兴趣但不会着迷。 —

Perversely, any suggestion that he was not wholly indifferent had a most heady effect, and so his mother’s Sanjō mansion swarmed with comely young serving women. —
指出他并非全然漠不关心的任何暗示都会产生极其兴奋的效果，因此他母亲的三条内宅住满了美丽的年轻侍女。 —

His aloofness did not please them, of course, but the prospect of removing themselves from his presence was far worse. —
他的冷漠当然不讨女士们的喜欢，但离开他的身边的前景更糟糕。 —

Numbers of ladies whom one would have thought too good for domestic service had come to put their trust in a rather improbable relationship. —
许多本来认为不适合做仆人的女士们却开始信赖这种看似不太可能的关系。 —

He was not very cooperative, perhaps, but there was no denying that he was a courteous gentleman of more than ordinary good looks. —
也许他并不是很合作，但无可否认他是一个有着超常好看外貌的有礼绅士。 —

Ladies who had had a glimpse of him seemed to make careers of deceiving themselves.
见过他的女士们似乎在自欺欺人。

It would be his first duty for so long as his royal mother lived, he often said, to be her servant and protector.
他常说，只要母亲尚在世，作为她的仆人和保护者是他的第一职责。

Though Yūgiri went on thinking how fine it would be to offer a daughter to Niou and another to Kaoru, he kept his own counsel. —
尽管弓切一直认为把女儿许配给仍二品凉亭或薄户无忌会多好，但他始终保持沉默。 —

Marriage to a near relative is not usually held to be very interesting, but he did not think he would find more desirable sons-in-law if he searched through the whole court. —
通常认为近亲结婚不太有趣，但他觉得如果在整个宫廷里找也不会找到更理想的女婿。 —

His sixth daughter, a grandchild of Koremitsu, was more beautiful than any of Kumoinokari’s daughters, and she had outdistanced them too in the polite accomplishments. —
他的第六位女儿，是惟光的孙女，比惟亲的女儿们更美丽，也在礼仪技能上胜过她们。 —

He was determined to make up for the fact that the world seemed to look down upon her because of her mother, and so he had made her the ward of the Second Princess, Kashiwagi’s widow, lonely and bored with no children of her own. —
他决心弥补因她母亲受世人轻视的事实，因此把她托付给了二品灌户寿后的遗孀、孤单无儿女的贵妃。 —

A casual hint to Niou or Kaoru was not likely to go unnoticed, he thought — for she was a young lady of remarkable endowments. —
他认为，对宁王或薄户无忌随口暗示是不容忽视的——因为她是一个具有非凡才能的年轻女士。 —

He had chosen not to keep her behind the deepest of curtains, but had encouraged her to maintain a bright and lively salon, echoes of which were certain to reach the ear of an alert young gentleman.
他选择不将她藏在最深的帷幕之后，而是鼓励她维持一个明亮活泼的客厅，其中的回声一定会传达到警觉的年轻绅士的耳中。

The victory banquet following the New Year’s archery meet was to be at Rokujō this year. —
今年新年射箭比赛后的胜利宴会将在六条举行。 —

The preparations were elaborate, for it was assumed that the royal princes would all attend. —
准备工作非常精心，因为人们认为皇室王子们都会出席。 —

And indeed those among them who had come of age did accept the invitation. —
确实，其中已经年龄到了的王子们接受了邀请。 —

Niou was the handsomest of the empress’s sons, all of whom were handsome. —
尼忧是皇后的儿子中最英俊的，而他们所有人都很英俊。 —

Hitachi, the Fourth Prince, was the son of a lesser concubine, and it may have been for that reason that people thought him rather ill favored. —
比阿治王是位庶出的第四王子，也许正因为如此，人们认为他相貌相当不俊。 —

The Left Guards won easily, as usual, and the meet was over early in the day. —
左卫门在通常情况下轻松获胜，比赛很早就结束了。 —

Starting back for Rokujō, Yūgiri invited Niou, Hitachi, and the Fifth Prince, also a son of the empress, to ride with him. —
回六条的路上，幽园邀请了尼忧、比阿治王和第五王子，他们也是皇后的儿子，跟他一起骑马。 —

Kaoru, who had been on the losing side, was making a quiet departure when Yūgiri asked him to join them. —
卡兰在失败的一方默默地离开时，幽园请他一起加入他们。 —

It was a large procession, including numbers of high courtiers and several of Yū- giri’s sons — a guards officer, a councillor of the middle order, a moderator of the first order — that set off for Rokujō. —
队伍中有很多高级官员，还有幽园的几个儿子——一名卫队官员、一名中等级别的参议员、第一级别的调停人——一起启程前往六条。 —

The way was a long one, made more beautiful by flurries of snow. —
道路漫长，飘飞的雪花让景色更加美丽。 —

Soon the high, clear tone of a flute was echoing through Rokujō, that place of delights for the four seasons, outdoing, one sometimes thought, all the many paradises.
很快，一支高亢清晰的笛音在一年四季中快乐的六条回荡，有时人们甚至认为它胜过了所有的众多天堂。

As protocol required, the victorious guards officers were assigned places facing south in the main hall, and the princes and important civil officials sat opposite them facing north. —
按照礼仪，获胜的卫队官员被安排在大厅南面，王子和重要文官们则坐在他们对面的北面。 —

Cups were filled and the party became noisier, and several guards officers danced “The One I Seek”. —
酒杯满满，宴会变得更加热闹，几名卫队官员跳起了《我所追寻的人》。 —

Their long, flowing sleeves brought the scent of plum blossoms in from the veranda, and as always it took on a kind of mysterious depth as it drifted past Kaoru.
他们长长的摆袖从走廊中带来梅花的香气，如同往常一样，在飘过卡兰时带着一种神秘的深度。

“The darkness may try to keep us from seeing,” said one of the women lucky enough to have a good view of the proceedings, “but it can’t keep the scent away. —
“黑暗可能会试图阻止我们看清楚，”一位幸运能够看到整个过程的女士说道，“但它无法抹去气味。” —

And I must say there is nothing quite like it.”
“我必须说没有什么能与之相比。”

Yūgiri was thinking how difficult it would be to find fault with Kaoru’s looks and manners.
弓鬼心想要找到薰的外貌和举止上的任何瑕疵都很困难。

“And now you must sing it for us,” he said. —
“现在你必须为我们唱一首歌，”他说道。 —

“Remember that you are a host and not a guest, and it is your duty to be entertaining.”
“记住你是主人而不是客人，你的职责是要让人感到愉快。”

Kaoru obeyed, but not as if to join in the roistering. —
弓鬼顺从了，但并不是要加入喧闹。 —

“Where dwell the gods” — they were the grandest words of his song, but what went before had the same quiet dignity.
“神灵居住的地方”——这是他歌中最雄伟的词句，但前面的部分同样充满了静谧尊严。