Rhetorical Selves

等柔嘉睡熟了，他想现在想到重逢唐晓芙的可能性，木然无动于中，真见了面，准也如此。缘故是一年前爱她的自己早死了，爱好，怕苏文纨，给鲍小姐诱惑这许多自己，一个个全死了。有几个死掉的自己埋葬在记里，立碑志墓，偶一凭吊，像对唐晓芙的一番情感，有几个自己，仿佛是路毙的，不去收拾，让它们烂掉化掉，给鸟兽吃掉——不过始终消灭不了，譬如向爱尔兰人买文凭的自己。

When his wife had fallen asleep, he began reflecting on how cold and indifferent he felt now at the thought of possibly meeting Tang Xiaofu again. If he really did meet her, it would be just the same. That was because the self, which had loved her a long year ago, had long since died. The selves which had loved her, which had been afraid of Su Wenwan, and which had been seduced by Miss Bao, had all died one after another. He had buried some of his dead selves in his memory, erected a monument to them, and occasionally paid them homage, such as by a moment of feeling for Tang Xiaofu. Others seemed to have died by the wayside and been left there to rot and decompose or be devoured by birds and beasts – but never to be completely obliterated such as the self which had bought the diploma from the Irishman.