好了歌 （曹雪芹：红楼梦）
世人都说神仙好，惟有功名忘不了，
古今将相在何方，荒冢一堆草没了。
世人都晓神仙好，只有金银忘不了！
终朝只恨聚无多，及到多时眼闭了。
世人都晓神仙好，只是娇妻忘不了！
君在日日说恩情，君死又随人去了。
世人都晓神仙好，只有儿孙忘不了！
痴心父母古来多，孝顺子孙谁见了？
Ts’ao-Hsueh-Ch’in :《The dream of the Red Chamber》Hung-lou-meng
The fag end of fortune
(Hao-liao-ge)
People say Celestial Being is the needful, but
couldn’t forget the honor of scepter; and
on harsh land an unknown grave among albescent grass
where are the golden rims with their eunuch-bearers?
People know Celestial Being is the needful, but
couldn’t refuse the only deity from wealth of promise
let-alone until their over-grasping when died.
People say Celestial Being is the needful, but
couldn’t forget his fair-lady in arm every day
your being alive makes all going easy,
seeing garden in bloom and waters in run;
yet watched a lover passed away, her mournful eyes
come across a token-flower within reviving- hand:
all the while birds back with renewing- spring.
And people say Celestial being is the needful, but
parents’ being in time-honored favor of blind love
is a sort of scene wherein winter blow
and snowflakes whiten their headstone alone.
Translation from the Chinese by jinsheng
