原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
含詞賦 With rhapsody
奈河橋賦
Rhapsody on the Nai River Bridge
奔流浩浩之水，險峻窄窄之路。奔流浩浩之水，险峻窄窄之路。
儼如疋練搭長江，卻似火坑浮上界。俨如疋练搭长江，却似火坑浮上界。
陰氣逼人寒透骨，腥風撲鼻味鑽心。阴气逼人寒透骨，腥风扑鼻味钻心。
波翻浪滾，往來並沒渡人船；波翻浪滚，往来并没渡人船；
赤腳蓬頭，出入盡皆作業鬼。赤脚蓬头，出入尽皆作业鬼。
橋長數里，闊只三㪥，高有百尺，深卻千重。桥长数里，阔只三㪥，高有百尺，深却千重。
上無扶手欄杆，下有搶人惡怪。上无扶手栏杆，下有抢人恶怪。
枷杻纏身，打上奈河險路。枷杻缠身，打上奈河险路。
你看那橋邊神將甚兇頑，河內孽魂真苦惱。你看那桥边神将甚凶顽，河内孽魂真苦恼。
枒杈樹上，掛的是青紅黃紫色絲衣；枒杈树上，挂的是青红黄紫色丝衣；
壁斗崖前，蹲的是毀罵公婆淫潑婦。壁斗崖前，蹲的是毁骂公婆淫泼妇。
銅蛇鐵狗任爭餐，永墮奈河無出路。」铜蛇铁狗任争餐，永堕奈河无出路。」
逐句解 Line by line
奔流浩浩之水，險峻窄窄之路。
奔流浩浩之水，险峻窄窄之路。
Waters that rush in a vast, headlong flood; a road precipitous, narrow, and strait.
The opening antithesis of torrent and path frames the whole.
儼如疋練搭長江，卻似火坑浮上界。
俨如疋练搭长江，却似火坑浮上界。
Solemn as a bolt of white silk flung across the Yangtze; yet like a fire-pit floating up to the world above.
疋練 (pǐ liàn) a bolt of undyed silk, an image for the pale ribbon of the span. 長江 Chángjiāng, the Yangtze. 似 sì.
陰氣逼人寒透骨，腥風撲鼻味鑽心。
阴气逼人寒透骨，腥风扑鼻味钻心。
A shadow-vapor presses upon one, cold piercing to the bone; a reeking wind assails the nose, its stench boring to the heart.
腥風 a fishy, blood-smelling wind. 鑽 zuān, 'to bore.'
波翻浪滾，往來並沒渡人船；
波翻浪滚，往来并没渡人船；
Waves overturning, billows rolling — for those who come and go there is no boat to ferry them across;
並沒 'there is none at all'; 沒 méi. The want of a ferry is the terror of the crossing.
赤腳蓬頭，出入盡皆作業鬼。
赤脚蓬头，出入尽皆作业鬼。
Bare of foot and wild of hair, all who come and go are sin-working ghosts.
作業鬼 'karma-working ghosts,' those who wrought evil deeds. 盡 jìn.
橋長數里，闊只三㪥，高有百尺，深卻千重。
桥长数里，阔只三㪥，高有百尺，深却千重。
The bridge is several lǐ long, only three zhā across, a hundred chǐ high, and a full thousand-fold deep.
長 cháng. 㪥 (U+3AA5), a rare graph read zhā, here a measure of width — the point being the bridge's perilous narrowness; its exact value is uncertain, and other editions carry a different measure-word in this slot. 尺 chǐ, a Chinese foot; 里 lǐ. 重 here chóng, 'fold, layer.'
上無扶手欄杆，下有搶人惡怪。
上无扶手栏杆，下有抢人恶怪。
Above, no handrail or balustrade; below, fiends that snatch at men.
搶人 qiǎng rén, to seize people — the demons that drag down those who fall.
枷杻纏身，打上奈河險路。
枷杻缠身，打上奈河险路。
Cangues and manacles wound about their bodies, they are driven onto the perilous road of the Nai.
枷杻 (jiā chǒu) the cangue and hand-fetters, instruments of judicial restraint.
你看那橋邊神將甚兇頑，河內孽魂真苦惱。
你看那桥边神将甚凶顽，河内孽魂真苦恼。
Behold, at the bridge's edge, the spirit-generals, how fierce and truculent; within the river, the sinful souls, how truly wretched.
神將 shén jiàng, spirit-generals. 甚 shèn, 'how, exceedingly.' 孽魂 souls laden with sin.
枒杈樹上，掛的是青紅黃紫色絲衣；
枒杈树上，挂的是青红黄紫色丝衣；
On the forking branches of the trees hang robes of silk in green and red, yellow and purple;
枒杈 (yā chā) a forked branch. The bright garments are those stripped from the damned.
壁斗崖前，蹲的是毀罵公婆淫潑婦。
壁斗崖前，蹲的是毁骂公婆淫泼妇。
before the sheer cliff-face crouch the lewd and railing shrews who cursed their husbands' parents.
壁斗崖 a sheer, precipitous cliff; 斗 here dǒu, 'steep.' 毀罵公婆 to revile one's parents-in-law — a specifically domestic sin, singled out by name.
銅蛇鐵狗任爭餐，永墮奈河無出路。」
铜蛇铁狗任争餐，永堕奈河无出路。」
Copper serpents and iron dogs are left to fight over their flesh; forever fallen into the Nai, they have no way out.
銅蛇鐵狗 brazen snakes and iron hounds, the beasts of torment. 永墮 'fallen forever.' The rhapsody closes on eternal damnation.
總評 Commentary
The rhapsody on the Nai Bridge is the darkest of the chapter's set-pieces: a strait, rail-less span above a river of blood, with no ferry, snatching demons below, and copper serpents and iron dogs to devour the fallen. Its social specificity is striking — among the general damned it names the 'lewd and railing shrews who cursed their husbands' parents,' hanging their bright silks in the trees, so that even here the poem enforces a pointedly domestic and Confucian morality of filial obligation.