《红楼梦》中预示金陵十二钗命运的套曲，第五回太虚幻境梦中，警幻仙子盛情邀请贾宝玉聆听十二位舞女的现场演唱。曲子共十四支，其中首支、末支分别为引子、收尾，中间十二支分咏金陵十二钗。曲子同金陵十二钗图册判词一样，为了解人物历史、情节发展以及四大家族的彻底覆灭提供了重要线索。
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警幻道：“此曲不比尘世中所填传奇之曲，必有生旦净末之则，又有南北九宫之调。此或咏叹一人，或感怀一事，偶成一曲，即可谱入管弦。若非个中人，不知其中之妙；料尔亦未必深明此调，若不先阅其稿，后听其歌，反成嚼蜡矣。”说毕，回头命小丫鬟取了《红楼梦》原稿来，递与宝玉。宝玉接过来，一面目视其文，耳聆其歌。（第5回）
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Preface of the Dream of the Red Chamber.〔引子〕
開闢鴻蒙，誰爲情種？都只爲風月情濃。
When the Heavens were opened and earth was laid out chaos prevailed! What was the germ of love? It arises entirely from the strength of licentious love.
What day, by the will of heaven, I felt wounded at heart, and what time I was at leisure, I made an attempt to disburden my sad heart;
趁著這奈何天，傷懷日，寂寥時，試遣愚衷。
and with this object in view I indited this Dream of the Red Chamber, on the subject of a disconsolate gold trinket and an unfortunate piece of jade.
因此上，演出這懷金悼玉的“紅樓夢”。
Waste of a whole Lifetime.〔終身誤〕*薛宝钗
都道是金玉良緣，俺只念木石前盟。
All maintain that the match between gold and jade will be happy. All I can think of is the solemn oath contracted in days gone by by the plant and stone!
空對著，山中高士晶瑩雪，終不忘，世外仙姝寂寞林。
Vain will I gaze upon the snow, Hsüeh, [Pao-ch’ai], pure as crystal and lustrous like a gem of the eminent priest living among the hills!
Never will I forget the noiseless Fairy Grove, Lin [Tai-yü], beyond the confines of the mortal world!
歎人間，美中不足今方信。縱然是齊眉舉案，到底意難平。
Alas! now only have I come to believe that human happiness is incomplete; and that a couple may be bound by the ties of wedlock for life, but that after all their hearts are not easy to lull into contentment.
Vain knitting of the brows.〔枉凝眉〕*林黛玉
一個是閬苑仙葩，一個是美玉無瑕。
The one is a spirit flower of Fairyland; the other is a beautiful jade without a blemish.
Do you maintain that their union will not be remarkable?
若說沒奇緣，今生偏又遇著他；若說有奇緣，如何心事終虛化？
Why how then is it that he has come to meet her again in this existence?
If the union will you say, be strange, how is it then that their love affair will be but empty words?
一個枉自嗟呀，一個空勞牽挂。一個是水中月，一個是鏡中花。
The one in her loneliness will give way to useless sighs.
The other in vain will yearn and crave.
The one will be like the reflection of the moon in water;
the other like a flower reflected in a mirror.
想眼中能有多少淚珠兒，怎禁得秋流到冬，春流到夏！
Consider, how many drops of tears can there be in the eyes? and how could they continue to drop from autumn to winter and from spring to flow till summer time?
卻說寶玉聽了此曲，散漫無稽，未見得好處；但其聲韻淒婉，竟能銷魂醉魄。因此也不問其原委，也不究其來歷，就暫以此釋悶而已。因又看下面道：
But to come to Pao-yü. After he had heard these ballads, so diffuse and vague, he failed to see any point of beauty in them; but the plaintive melody of the sound was nevertheless sufficient to drive away his spirit and exhilarate his soul. Hence it was that he did not make any inquiries about the arguments, and that he did not ask about the matter treated, but simply making these ballads the means for the time being of dispelling melancholy, he therefore went on with the perusal of what came below.
Despicable Spirit of Death!〔恨無常〕*贾元春
喜榮華正好，恨無常又到。眼睜睜把萬事全抛。蕩悠悠，把芳魂銷耗。望家鄉，路遠山高。故向爹娘夢裏相尋告：兒命已入黃泉，天倫呵，須要退步抽身早！
You will be rejoicing that glory is at its height when hateful death will come once again, and with eyes wide with horror, you will discard all things, and dimly and softly the fragrant spirit wil lwaste and dissolve!
You will yearn for native home, but distant will be the way, and lofty the mountains.
Hence it is that you will betake yourself in search of father and mother, while they lie under the influence of a dream, and hold discourse with them. “Your child,” you will say, “has already trodden the path of death! Oh my parents, it behoves you to speedily retrace your steps and make good your escape!”
Separated from Relatives.〔分骨肉〕*贾探春
一帆風雨路三千，把骨肉家園，齊來抛閃。
You will speed on a journey of three thousand li at the mercy of wind and rain, and tear yourself from all your family ties and your native home!
恐哭損殘年，告爹娘，休把兒懸念。
Your fears will be lest anguish should do any harm to your parents in their failing years!
“Father and mother,” you will bid them, “do not think with any anxiety of your child.
From ages past poverty as well as success have both had a fixed destiny;
自古窮通皆有定，離合豈無緣？從今分兩地，各自保平安。奴去也，莫牽連。
and is it likely that separation and reunion are not subject to predestination? Though we may now be far apart in two different places, we must each of us try and preserve good cheer. Your abject child has, it is true, gone from home, but abstain from distressing yourselves on her account!”
Sorrow in the midst of Joy.〔樂中悲〕*史湘云
繈褓中，父母歎雙亡。縱居那綺羅叢，誰知嬌養？While wrapped as yet in swaddling clothes, father and mother, both alas! will depart, and dwell though you will in that mass of gauze, who is there who will know how to spoil you with any fond attention?
幸生來，英豪闊大寬宏量，從未將兒女私情略縈心上。好一似，霽月光風耀玉堂。
Born you will be fortunately with ample moral courage, and high-minded and boundless resources, for your parents will not have, in the least, their child’s secret feelings at heart!
You will be like a moon appearing to view when the rain holds up, shedding its rays upon the Jade Hall; or a gentle breeze (wafting its breath upon it).
廝配得才貌仙郎，博得個地久天長，准折得幼年時坎坷形狀。
Wedded to a husband, fairy like fair and accomplished, you will enjoy a happiness enduring as the earth and perennial as the Heavens! and you will be the means of snapping asunder the bitter fate of your youth!
終久是雲散高唐，水涸湘江。
But, after all, the clouds will scatter in KaoT’ang and the waters of the Hsiang river will get parched! This is the inevitable destiny of dissolution and continuance which prevails in the mortal world, and what need is there to indulge in useless grief?
Intolerable to the world.〔世難容〕*妙玉
氣質美如蘭，才華馥比仙。天生成孤癖人皆罕。
Your figure will be as winsome as an olea fragrans; your talents as ample as those of a Fairy! You will by nature be so haughty that of the whole human race few will be like you!
You will look upon a meat diet as one of dirt, and treat splendour as coarse and loathsome!
你道是啖肉食腥膻，視綺羅俗厭；卻不知太高人愈妒，過潔世同嫌。
And yet you will not be aware that your high notions will bring upon you the excessive hatred of man! You will be very eager in your desire after chastity, but the human race will despise you!
可歎這青燈古殿人將老，孤負了紅粉朱樓春色闌，到頭來依舊是風塵肮髒違心願。
Alas, you will wax old in that antique temple hall under a faint light, where you will waste ungrateful for beauty, looks and freshness! But after all you will still be worldly, corrupt and unmindful of your vows;
好一似無瑕白玉遭泥陷，又何須王孫公子歎無緣？
just like a spotless white jade you will be whose fate is to fall into the mire! And what need will there be for the grandson of a prince or the son of a duke to deplore that his will not be the good fortune(of winning your affections)?
The Voluptuary.〔喜冤家〕*贾迎春
中山狼，無情獸，全不念當日根由。一味的驕奢淫蕩貪歡媾。
You will resemble a wolf in the mountains! a savage beast devoid of all human feeling!
Regardless in every way of the obligations ofdays gone by, your sole pleasure will be in the indulgence of haughtiness, extravagance, licentiousness and dissolute habits!
覰著那侯門豔質同薄柳，作踐的公府千金似下流。歎芳魂豔魄，一載蕩悠悠。
You will be inordinate in your conjugal affections, and look down upon the beautiful charms of the child of a marquis, as if they were cat-tail rush or willow; trampling upon the honourable daughter of a ducal mansion, as if she were one of the common herd. Pitiful to say, the fragrant spirit and beauteous ghost will in a year softly and gently pass away!
The Perception that all things are transient like flowers.〔虛花悟〕*贾惜春
將那三春勘破，桃紅柳綠待如何？把這韶華燈滅，覓那清淡天和。
You will look lightly upon the three springs and regard the blush of the peach and the green of the willow as of no avail. You will beat out the fire of splendour, and treat solitary retirement as genial!
說什麽天上夭桃盛，雲中杏蕊多，到頭來誰見把秋捱過？
What is it that you say about the delicate peaches in the heavens (marriage) being excellent, and the petals of the almond in the clouds being plentiful (children)?
Let him who has after all seen one of them,(really a mortal being) go safely through the autumn, (wade safely through old age),
則看那白楊村裏人嗚咽，青楓林下鬼吟哦，更兼著連天衰草遮墳墓。
behold the people in the white Poplar village groan and sigh; and the spirits under the green maple whine and moan! Still more wide in expanse than even the heavens is the dead vegetation which covers the graves!
這的是昨貧今富人勞碌，春榮秋謝花折磨。似這般生關死劫誰能躲？
The moral is this, that the burden of man is poverty one day and affluence another;
that bloom in spring, and decay in autumn, constitute the doom of vegetable life! In the same way, this calamity of birth and the visitation of death, who is able to escape?
聞說道西方寶樹喚婆娑，上結著長生果。
But I have heard it said that there grows in the western quarter a tree called the P’o So (Patient Bearing) which bears the fruit of Immortal life!
The bane of Intelligence.〔聰明累〕*王熙凤
機關算盡太聰明，反算了卿卿性命。
Yours will be the power to estimate, in a thorough manner, the real motives of all things, as yours will be intelligence of an excessive degree; but instead (of reaping any benefit) you will cast the die of your own existence!
生前心已碎，死後性空靈。
The heart of your previous life is already reduced to atoms, and when you shall have died, your nature will have been intelligent to no purpose!
家富人寧，終有個家亡人散各奔騰。
Your home will be in easy circumstances; your family will enjoy comforts; but your connexions will, at length, fall a prey to death, and the inmates of your family scatter, each one of you speeding in a different direction, making room for others!
枉費了意懸懸半世心，好一似蕩悠悠三更夢。
In vain, you will have harassed your mind with cankering thoughts for half a lifetime; for it will be just as if you had gone through the confused mazes of a dream on the third watch!
忽喇喇似大廈傾，昏慘慘似燈將盡。
Sudden a crash (will be heard) like the fall of a spacious palace, and a dusky gloominess (will supervene) such as is caused by a lamp about to spend itself!
呀！一場歡喜忽悲辛，歎人世終難定！
Alas! a spell of happiness will be suddenly(dispelled by) adversity!
Woe is man in the world! for his ultimate doom is difficult to determine!
Leave behind a residue ofhappiness!〔留餘慶〕*贾巧姐
留餘慶，留餘慶，忽遇恩人；幸娘親，幸娘親，積得陰功。
Hand down an excess of happiness; hand down an excess of happiness! Unexpectedly you will come across a benefactor! Fortunate enough your mother, your own mother, will have laid by a store of virtue and secret meritorious actions!
勸人生濟困扶窮，休似俺那愛銀錢忘骨肉的狠舅奸兄。
My advice to you, mankind, is to relieve the destitute and succour the distressed!
Do not resemble those who will harp after lucre and show themselves unmindful of the ties of relationship: that wolflike maternal uncle of yours and that impostor of a brother!
正是乘除加減，上有蒼穹。
True it is that addition and subtraction, increase and decrease, (reward and punishment,) rest in the hands of Heaven above!
Splendour at last.〔晚韶華〕*李纨
鏡裏恩情，更那堪夢裏功名！那美韶華去之何迅，再休提繡帳鴛衾。只這戴珠冠披鳳襖也抵不了無常性命。
Loving affection in a mirror will be still more ephemeral than fame in a dream.
That fine splendour will fleet how soon! Make no further allusion to embroidered curtain, to bridal coverlet; for though you may come to wear on your head a pearl-laden coronet, and, on your person, a jacket ornamented with phoenixes, yours will not nevertheless be the means to atone for the short life (of your husband)!
雖說是人生莫受老來貧，也須要陰騭積兒孫。
Though the saying is that mankind should not have, in their old age, the burden of poverty to bear, yet it is also essential that a store of benevolent deeds should be laid up for the benefit of sons and grandsons!
氣昂昂頭戴簪纓，光燦燦胸懸金印，威赫赫爵祿高登，昏慘慘黃泉路近！
(Your son) may come to be dignified in appearance and wear on his head the official tassel, and on his chest may be suspended the gold seal resplendent in lustre; he may be imposing in his majesty, and he may rise high in status and emoluments, but the dark and dreary way which leads to death is short!
問古來將相可還存？也只是虛名兒後人欽敬。
Are the generals and ministers who have been from ages of old still in the flesh, for sooth? They exist only in a futile name handed down to posterity to reverence!
Death ensues when thingspropitious reign!〔好事終〕*秦可卿
畫梁春盡落香塵。擅風情，秉月貌，便是敗家的根本。
Upon the ornamented beam will settle at the close of spring the fragrant dust! Yourreckless indulgence of licentious love and your naturally moonlike face will soon be the source of the ruin of a family.
箕裘頹墮皆從敬，家事消亡首罪寧，宿孽總因情！
The decadence of the family estate will emanate entirely from Ching; while the wane of the family affairs will be entirely attributable to the fault of Ning! Licentious love will be the main reason of the long-standing grudge.
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The flying birds each perch uponthe trees!〔收尾飛鳥各投林〕
爲官的家業雕零，富貴的金銀散盡。
The family estates of those in official positions will fade!
The gold and silver of the rich and honoured will be scattered!
有恩的死裏逃生，無情的分明報應。
those who will have conferred benefit will, even in death, find the means of escape!
those devoid of human feelings will reap manifest retribution!
欠命的命已還，欠淚的淚已盡：
Those indebted for a life will make, in due time, payment with their lives;
those indebted for tears have already (gone) to exhaust their tears!
冤冤相報自非輕，分離聚合皆前定。
Mutual injuries will be revenged in no light manner!
Separation and reunion will both alike be determined by predestination!
欲知命短問前生，老來富貴也真僥倖。
You wish to know why your life will be short; look into your previous existence!
Verily, riches and honours, which will come with old age, will likewise be a question of chance!
看破的遁入空門，癡迷的枉送了性命。
Those who will hold the world in light esteem will retire within the gate of abstraction;
while those who will be allured by enticement will have forfeited their lives (The Chia family will fulfil its destiny)
好一似食盡鳥投林，落了片白茫茫大地真乾淨！
as surely as birds take to the trees after they have exhausted all they had to eat, and which as they drop down will pile up a hoary, vast and lofty heap of dust, (leaving) indeed a void behind!
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