水陸之珍 Delicacies of Water and Hill
漁翁道：「你山青不如我水秀，受用些好物。有一《鷓鴣天》為證：渔翁道：「你山青不如我水秀，受用些好物。有一《鹧鸪天》为证：
樵夫道：「你水秀不如我山青，受用些好物。亦有一《鷓鴣天》為證：樵夫道：「你水秀不如我山青，受用些好物。亦有一《鹧鸪天》为证：
逐句解 Line by line
Said the fisherman: 'Your green hills are no match for my clear waters — and mine yield the better things to enjoy. I have a lyric to Partridge Sky to prove it:'
受用 is to enjoy the use of, to profit from; 《鷓鴣天》 (Zhègūtiān, 'Partridge Sky') is another common 詞牌. 為 in 為證 is wéi; the 些好物 ('some fine things') are the delicacies the lyric will catalogue.
In this immortals' country of cloud and water, a livelihood is easily had; ply the oars, moor the boat athwart the stream, and there is home.
仙鄉 ('land of immortals') gilds the fisherman's watery world; 足生涯 is 'enough to make a living,' 擺櫓 to work the sculling-oar, 便是家 'and that is home.'
Fresh-scaled fish cut open live and green turtle stewed; on the instant, purple crabs steamed and red shrimp boiled.
鮮鱗 ('fresh scales') stands for the fish itself, 綠鱉 the green-shelled soft-shell turtle; 旋 is 'at once, on the spot' — a catalogue of the river's table.
Green reed-shoots, sprouts of floating-heart, and better still, water-chestnuts and gorgon-fruit.
荇 (xìng) is floating-heart, an aquatic herb; 菱角 the water caltrop, 雞頭 the seed-pod of the gorgon plant, so named for its shape. 可誇 is 'worth boasting of.'
Tender lotus-root and ripe lotus, the young leaves of water-celery; arrowhead tubers, wild-rice stems, and the blossoms of the marsh-flower.
慈菇 (cígū) is arrowhead, an edible tuber; 茭白 the swollen stem of wild rice. 鳥英花 names a marsh blossom whose exact species is uncertain, glossed here simply as a water-flower; the 」 closes the fisherman's lyric.
The woodcutter said: 'Your clear waters are no match for my green hills, and mine too yield the better things. I also have a lyric to Partridge Sky to prove it:'
亦有 ('I also have') is the answering formula; the woodcutter will meet the fisherman's water-catalogue phrase for phrase with a catalogue of the hills. 為 in 為證 is wéi.
Towering ranges and steep ridges run out to the edge of the sky; a thatched hut, a grass hermitage — that is my home.
崔巍 is lofty, towering; 草舍茅庵 a rustic thatched dwelling. The woodcutter answers the fisherman's boat-home with his mountain hut.
Salted and cured fowl and geese outdo your crabs and turtles; river-deer and wild sow, hare and deer, beat your fish and shrimp.
醃臘 is salt-cured, winter-preserved meat; the verbs 強 and 勝, 'to surpass,' answer the fisherman competitively. 豝 (bā) is a wild sow, 獐 the musk-deer.
Leaves of fragrant toon, sprouts of the golden chinaberry, and better still, bamboo shoots and mountain tea.
香椿 is the toon tree, whose young leaves are eaten in spring; 楝 (liàn) the chinaberry. The woodcutter caps the fisherman's water-plants with hill-plants, phrase against phrase.
Purple plums and red peaches, ripe mume and apricot; sweet pears, sour jujubes, and the blossom of the sweet-olive.
梅杏 is the Chinese plum, or mume, and the apricot; 木樨 (mùxī) the sweet osmanthus, or fragrant olive. The catalogue of orchard and hillside closes the round; the 」 ends the lyric.
The second round exchanges Butterflies in Love with Flowers for Partridge Sky, and the theme narrows from the general ease of the recluse's life to a competitive inventory of its table. The fisherman recites the bounty of the water — fish, turtle, crab, shrimp, and a train of edible aquatic plants; the woodcutter answers, phrase against parallel phrase, with the yield of the hills: cured fowl and game, wild greens, bamboo shoots, and orchard fruit.
The pleasure of the passage is largely lexical, a small feast of names, many of them for humble marsh and mountain foods that rarely enter high poetry. The verbs 強 and 勝, 'to outdo, to surpass,' keep the friendly rivalry explicit — each catalogue is offered not merely as description but as a rejoinder. Such encyclopedic listing, delighting in the sheer plenty and particularity of the natural world, is a hallmark of the novel's descriptive set-pieces.