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‘Now, my dears, you can enjoy yourselves!’Grandmother Jia said as soon as he had left the room; and the words were nosooner out of her mouth than Bao-yu leaped up from his seat and over to thescreen and began criticizing the riddles on it - this one had a line wronghere—that one’s words didn’t suit the subject—pointing with his finger andcapering about for all the world like a captive monkey that had just been letoff its chain.‘Can’t we sit down and enjoy ourselvesquietly, as we were doing just now,’ said Dai-yu, ‘instead of all this prancingabout?’ 且说贾母见贾政去了，便道：“你们可自在乐一乐罢。”一言未了，早见宝玉跑至围屏灯前，指手画脚，满口批评，这个这一句不好，那一个破得不恰当，如同开了锁的猴子一般。宝钗便道：“还像适才坐着，大家说说笑笑，岂不斯文些儿！”Xi-feng put in a word too, emerging fromthe inner room to say it:‘You ought to have Uncle Zheng with you every day and never budge aninch from his side!’ She turned to the others: ‘What a pity I didn’t think ofit at the time: we ought to have got Uncle to make him compose some moreriddles for us. Then we should have seen him sweat!’ 凤姐自里间忙出来插口道：“你这个人，就该老爷每日令你寸步不离方好。适才我忘了，为什么不当着老爷，撺掇叫你也作诗谜儿。若果如此，怕不得这会子正出汗呢。”Bao-yu was greatly exasperated by thisremark and tried to seize hold of her. Xi-feng tried to ward him off, and the resultwas that the two of them became locked in a sort of playful wrestling-match. 说得宝玉急了，扯着凤姐儿，扭股儿糖似的只是厮缠。Grandmother Jia continued for a while tolaugh and joke with Li Wan and the girls, but soon began to feel tired andsleepy. The night-drum was sounding, and when they stopped to listen they foundit was already the beginning of the fourth watch. She ordered the food to becleared away, telling the servants that they might have what was left over forthem¬selves.‘Time for bed, children!’ she said, risingto her feet. ‘We can do this again tomorrow, if you like; but now we must havesome sleep.’With that the party gradually broke up and they all dis¬persed totheir rooms.What happened thereafter will be told in the following chapter. 贾母又与李宫裁并众姊妹说笑了一会，也觉有些困倦起来。听了听已是漏下四鼓了，命将食物撤去，赏给众人。随起身道：“我们安歇罢。明日还是节下，该当早起。明日晚间再玩罢。”于是众人方慢慢的散去。后事下回分解。CHAPTER 23 Words from the ‘Western Chamber’supply a joke that offends And songs from the ‘Soul’s Return’ move a tenderheart to anguish第二十三回 西厢记妙词通戏语 牡丹亭艳曲警芳心Some time after her return from theVisitation the Imperial Concubine commissioned Tan-chun to make her a copy ofall the poems about Prospect Garden that had been written during her visit, andhaving rearranged them in what she considered to be their order of merit, furtherinstructed that they should be engraved on stone in the Prospect Gardenitself—a lasting memorial to the precocious talent of her gifted family. 话说贾元春自那日幸大观园回宫去后，便命将那日所有的题咏，命探春依次抄录妥协，自己编次，叙其优劣，又命在大观园勒石，为千古风流雅事。
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