The fisherman said: 'Your green hills are truly no match for my clear waters. I have besides a lyric to the tune Immortal of the Skies:'

真個 is 'truly, indeed,' a colloquial intensifier; 《天仙子》 (Tiānxiānzǐ) is a 詞牌 named for a 'sky-immortal.' In the tune-name the 子 is read zǐ, as in the titles 更漏子 and 采桑子; 一首 is 'one piece.'

A single leaf of a boat lodges wherever it will; amid ten thousand folds of misty wave I know no fear.

一葉小舟 ('a one-leaf skiff') is the classic image of the tiny boat on vast water; 隨所寓 is to dwell wherever chance sets one down, 萬疊 'ten-thousand-layered.'

Dropping the hook, casting the net, I take the fresh-scaled catch; no rich sauces, yet all the more savory for that — my old wife and little ones gathered round in a circle of content.

沒醬膩 is 'without greasy sauce,' plainly cooked; 偏有味 'yet all the more flavorful.' In 稚子 the 子 is the full-sense zǐ, 'young children'; 團圓 is family togetherness.

When the fish run thick I sell them off in the Chang'an market, trading them for fragrant unstrained wine to drink myself merry.

貨 is again verbal, 'to sell'; 香醪 (xiāng láo) is fragrant, unfiltered wine, and 長 in 長安 is cháng. 吃個醉 is 'to drink oneself a drunk.'

My straw rain-cape for a quilt, I lie out on the autumn river, snoring in my sleep, free of every worry, with no hankering after the world's glory and rank.

簑衣 is the woven-grass rain-cape of the fisherman, an emblem of the reclusive angler; 當被 is 'to serve as a quilt,' 不戀 'to feel no attachment to.' The 」 ends the fisherman's lyric.

The woodcutter said: 'Your clear waters are still no match for my green hills. I too have a lyric to Immortal of the Skies:'

還 is read hái, 'still, even so.' In the agent-word 樵子 the suffix 子 is the neutral zi, but in the tune-name 天仙子 it is zǐ; the woodcutter matches tune and form once more.

A thatched cottage of a few rafters, raised at the foot of the hill; pine, bamboo, plum, and orchid — how lovely they truly are.

茆舍 (= 茅舍) is a thatched hut, 數椽 ('a few rafters') a small dwelling. 松竹梅蘭 — pine, bamboo, plum, orchid — are the emblematic plants of the upright recluse.

Threading the woods and crossing the ridges to seek out dry firewood — no one takes it amiss; I sell it as I please, be it little or much, just as the world allows.

乾柴 is dry firewood (乾 read gān, not the 乾坤 reading qián); 從我賣 is 'sold at my own discretion,' 憑世界 'leaving it to how things go,' and 沒人怪 'no one finds fault.'

I take the coin and buy wine to my heart's delight; an earthen bowl, a porcelain cup — how utterly at ease I am.

將 in 將錢 ('taking the money') is jiāng; 沽酒 is to buy wine, 瓦缽磁甌 the rough earthenware and porcelain vessels of the poor-but-free, and 殊 'exceedingly.'

Reeling drunk, I lie down in the pine's shade, without a care to snag me, beyond all gain and loss, heedless of the world's rise and fall.

酕醄 (máotáo) is 'thoroughly, blind drunk'; 掛礙 ('hindrance, attachment') carries a Buddhist coloring — it is the word the Heart Sutra uses for what the awakened mind is free of. 了 here is the completive le, and 興 in 興與敗 is xīng, 'to rise, flourish'; the 」 closes the woodcutter's turn.