Es geht spürbar dem Ende zu...Band 4 des in fünf Bände aufgeteilten Werks bricht in zweierlei Hinsicht mit den Vorgängerbänden. Der erste Punkt ist, dass nun zwei Autoren genannt werden - neben Cao Xueqin taucht Gao E's Name auf dem Titel auf, der den Roman nach Caos Tod aus Manuskriptfragmenten fertiggestellt hat.Der zweite Punkt betrifft den Übersetzer; John Minford übernimmt den Staffelstab von David Hawkes.Man spürt als Leser den zweifachen Bruch nur unwesentlich. Die Geschichte selbst wird ab diesem Band zwar deutlich trister, doch das war wohl eh die ursprüngliche Absicht Caos. Die guten Zeiten sind vorbei für die Familie Jia, es häufen sich die Todesfälle, traurigen Ereignisse und Zwiste. Gegen Ende des Bandes fühlt man mit dieser vom Schicksal (und der eigenen Dekadenz) getroffenen Familie mit und fürchtet sich davor, was im letzten Band noch schlimmeres passieren kann.John Minford schafft den Übergang von David Hawkes reibungslos und übernimmt dessen Stil. Mir persönlich häuft sich das Latein in diesem Band zu sehr; bei den Kapiteln, die sich um die achtbeinigen Essays drehen, finde ich das extrem: Wieso, wenn er es schon nicht ins Englische übersetzt, lässt er dann nicht die chinesischen Fachbegriffe stehen? Warum überträgt er es von einer dem Leser wohl fremden Sprache in eine andere dem (heutigen) Leser fremde Sprache? Darüberhinaus fühlen sich diese Kapitel dadurch an wie ein Fremdkörper - man wird von China in ein englisches College versetzt und sieht plötzlich überall Leute mit engen Hosen und weißen Lockenperücken.Auch werden nun immer wieder chinesische Werke mit lateinischen Namen versehen ("liber ritualis"), und das muss nun wirklich nicht sein. Ich dachte darüber nach, für diese unnötige Verfremdung einen Stern abzuziehen, das würde aber der restlichen Übersetzungsleistung nicht gerecht.Von diesen Kritikpunkten abgesehen ist aber auch dieser Band Pflichtlektüre.
The last 40 chapters of 红楼梦 are now thought to be written by Gao E rather than Cao xueqin. Vol. 4 of the penguin translation is the first 20 of these chapters, (80-100). They also have a different translator. It's hard to say whether the different translator or the different editor/author makes a difference but this book has a much different feel to it. The characters seem to act quite differently at times. There is also much less empahsis on the maids and much more emphasis on the men in the family. The basic plot of this volume involves Bai Yu loosing his jade and going insane so the family decide to marry him off to Baichai as a chance to regain his sanity. This is largely due to a few chapters earlier Dai Yu attempting to starve herself to death when she hears Bai Yu is going to marry someone else. And it is this bout of ill health that finally convinces everyone she'd not make a good wife. I thought her dying scenes were some of the strongest parts of the book. It was also interesting to see my two new favorites, Tan Chun and Li Wan were the two of the women that were there for her death. The rest of the plots didn't seem to ammount to much. Xue Pan being arrested for murder again didn't seem quite as interesting as when this happened in the first volume. Likewise Baoyu's return to school wasn't as in depth. Xifeng seemed to hardly be around at all, sick for no reason, and just joking rather than controlling anything. I did however find it interesting when they had the nun perform spirit writing mediumship to find out what was wrong with Baoyu.
What do You think about The Debt Of Tears (1982)?
As is well-known this book had to be finished posthumously by Cao Xueqin's friends, from notes he had kept. Many people find this disconcerting, but I am just happy it was finished. The wedding scene was rather anticlimactic after all that had led up to it, but I get the sense that during many rituals, people were just present and quiet. This is what prevents things from coming apart! When Bao-yu lifts the veil and sees Bao-chai instead of Dai-yu, he is in a motionless daze. He thinks he is dreaming. It takes Bao-chai to stir him from his stupor, however, by telling him (against Grandmother Jia's express wishes) that Dai-yu has passed away.I am sure the next volume is simply the unwinding of this startling denouement.
—Connie Kronlokken
The fourth volume of The Story of the Stone continues to tell the winding tale of the Jia family in Imperial China: their changing fortunes, focusing on the love between Jia Baoyu and his orphaned cousin, Lin Daiyu. The backdrop to this is the everyday material and literary life of a wealthy family in the Qing Dynasty. This is the first volume not completed by Cao Xueqin; instead it was carefully edited together by Gao E. Though fragmentary, Gao E has managed to continue the story without too many glaring editorial errors and those that remain are not serious impediments to reading. Whether or not Gao E wrote the remaining 40 chapters or that they were edited together from Cao's notes is a discussion for redologists and not for this reviewer. The translator also changes: David Hawkes is replaced by John Minford. Minford continues to ably translate this daunting novel and he deals well with textual errors, which understandably begin to multiply. All that remains is to progress on to the fifth and final novel.
—James
The question of authorship of the last forty chapters beginning in volume four raises further questions of authenticity of the progression of the narrative. Like any text with such a history, the textual transmission over nearly three centuries undoubtedly had an impact despite the potential of another author taking up the last forty chapters of this 120 chapter novel. Yet it is impossible to know whether or not the narrative adheres to Cao Xueqin's (the original author) intentions. It is a worthwhile discussion nonetheless. The two worlds portrayed in this novel, visible from chapter one, remain central in the goings-on of volume four. The tension forever unresolved. The utopian world of the garden began to crumble drastically in volume three with the raid of the garden and it's commercialization. This decay is a rich social commentary: the struggle between an impossible ideal-world and the crushing reality of the laws of the actual-world.
—Laura Stahl
