原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
十八獄
The Roll of the Eighteen Hells
吊筋獄、幽枉獄、火坑獄，寂寂寥寥，煩煩惱惱，盡皆是生前作下千般業，死後通來受罪名。吊筋狱、幽枉狱、火坑狱，寂寂寥寥，烦烦恼恼，尽皆是生前作下千般业，死后通来受罪名。
酆都獄、拔舌獄、剝皮獄，哭哭啼啼，悽悽慘慘，只因不忠不孝傷天理，佛口蛇心墮此門。酆都狱、拔舌狱、剥皮狱，哭哭啼啼，凄凄惨惨，只因不忠不孝伤天理，佛口蛇心堕此门。
磨捱獄、碓搗獄、車崩獄，皮開肉綻，抹嘴咨牙，乃是瞞心昧己不公道，巧語花言暗損人。磨挨狱、碓捣狱、车崩狱，皮开肉绽，抹嘴咨牙，乃是瞒心昧己不公道，巧语花言暗损人。
寒冰獄、脫殼獄、抽腸獄，垢面蓬頭，愁眉皺眼，都是大斗小秤欺痴蠢，致使災屯累自身。寒冰狱、脱壳狱、抽肠狱，垢面蓬头，愁眉皱眼，都是大斗小秤欺痴蠢，致使灾屯累自身。
油鍋獄、黑暗獄、刀山獄，戰戰兢兢，悲悲切切，皆因強暴欺良善，藏頭縮頸苦伶仃。油锅狱、黑暗狱、刀山狱，战战兢兢，悲悲切切，皆因强暴欺良善，藏头缩颈苦伶仃。
血池獄、阿鼻獄、秤杆獄，脫皮露骨，折臂斷筋，也只為謀財害命，宰畜屠生，墮落千年難解釋，沉淪永世不翻身。血池狱、阿鼻狱、秤杆狱，脱皮露骨，折臂断筋，也只为谋财害命，宰畜屠生，堕落千年难解释，沉沦永世不翻身。
一個個緊縛牢拴，繩纏索綁。一个个紧缚牢拴，绳缠索绑。
差些赤髮鬼、黑臉鬼，長槍短劍；差些赤发鬼、黑脸鬼，长枪短剑；
牛頭鬼、馬面鬼，鐵簡銅鎚：只打得皺眉苦面血淋淋，叫地叫天無救應。牛头鬼、马面鬼，铁简铜锤：只打得皱眉苦面血淋淋，叫地叫天无救应。
逐句解 Line by line
吊筋獄、幽枉獄、火坑獄，寂寂寥寥，煩煩惱惱，盡皆是生前作下千般業，死後通來受罪名。
吊筋狱、幽枉狱、火坑狱，寂寂寥寥，烦烦恼恼，尽皆是生前作下千般业，死后通来受罪名。
The Hell of Hung Sinews, the Hell of Dark Injustice, the Hell of the Fire-Pit — silent and forlorn, fretful and anguished: all who are here wrought a thousand evils in life, and after death come hither to bear the name of the guilty.
The roll begins. 吊筋 is hanging by the sinews; 幽枉, "dark wrong," is for those condemned unjustly. 業, yè, is karma — deeds that accumulate and must be paid off, the moral equivalent of a debt following you between lives. 盡 is jìn.
酆都獄、拔舌獄、剝皮獄，哭哭啼啼，悽悽慘慘，只因不忠不孝傷天理，佛口蛇心墮此門。
酆都狱、拔舌狱、剥皮狱，哭哭啼啼，凄凄惨惨，只因不忠不孝伤天理，佛口蛇心堕此门。
The Hell of Fengdu, the Hell of Tongue-Pulling, the Hell of Flaying — sobbing and wailing, wretched and grievous: only for the unfaithful and unfilial, who wounded the bonds of Heaven, and the Buddha-mouthed but serpent-hearted, who fall through this gate.
Three hells, and the sins that fill them. 酆都 uses dū. 拔舌, tongue-pulling, is the specific punishment for slander — the offending organ removed. And 佛口蛇心, "a Buddha's mouth and a snake's heart," is a phrase still in daily use for a hypocrite: sweet talk, venom underneath. 佛 is fó.
磨捱獄、碓搗獄、車崩獄，皮開肉綻，抹嘴咨牙，乃是瞞心昧己不公道，巧語花言暗損人。
磨挨狱、碓捣狱、车崩狱，皮开肉绽，抹嘴咨牙，乃是瞒心昧己不公道，巧语花言暗损人。
The Hell of the Grinding-Mill, the Hell of the Pestle-Pound, the Hell of the Rending Cart — skin split and flesh burst, mouths agape and teeth bared: these are they who cheated their own hearts against all justice, and with honeyed words and flowery speech did men secret harm.
碓搗 is pounding in a mortar, 車崩 is being torn apart by carts. The sinners are cheats: 瞞心昧己, "to hide it from your heart and blind yourself to it," is the phrase for knowing perfectly well that what you are doing is wrong and doing it anyway.
寒冰獄、脫殼獄、抽腸獄，垢面蓬頭，愁眉皺眼，都是大斗小秤欺痴蠢，致使災屯累自身。
寒冰狱、脱壳狱、抽肠狱，垢面蓬头，愁眉皱眼，都是大斗小秤欺痴蠢，致使灾屯累自身。
The Hell of Frozen Ice, the Hell of Shell-Stripping, the Hell of Gut-Drawing — grimed of face and matted of hair, brows knit and eyes drawn tight: all are those who with big measures and small scales cheated the simple, and so drew calamity down upon themselves.
The commercial hells. 大斗小秤 — "a big peck and a small scale" — is the classic shopkeeper's fraud: buy with the oversized measure, sell with the undersized one. 都 here is dōu, "all." 屯, tún, is hardship.
油鍋獄、黑暗獄、刀山獄，戰戰兢兢，悲悲切切，皆因強暴欺良善，藏頭縮頸苦伶仃。
油锅狱、黑暗狱、刀山狱，战战兢兢，悲悲切切，皆因强暴欺良善，藏头缩颈苦伶仃。
The Hell of the Oil-Cauldron, the Hell of Utter Darkness, the Hell of the Knife-Mountain — trembling and quaking, grieving and sorrowing: all because they used force and violence to crush the good and gentle, and now, heads tucked and necks drawn in, suffer alone and forlorn.
刀山, the mountain of blades, is a fixture of Chinese hell imagery — "mountains of knives and seas of fire" is still the idiom for going through anything at all for someone. 強暴 uses qiáng, violent force. 藏 is cáng; 伶仃, líng dīng, is utterly alone.
血池獄、阿鼻獄、秤杆獄，脫皮露骨，折臂斷筋，也只為謀財害命，宰畜屠生，墮落千年難解釋，沉淪永世不翻身。
血池狱、阿鼻狱、秤杆狱，脱皮露骨，折臂断筋，也只为谋财害命，宰畜屠生，堕落千年难解释，沉沦永世不翻身。
The Hell of the Blood-Pool, the Avīci Hell, the Hell of the Scale-Beam — skin peeled and bone laid bare, arms broken and sinews snapped: all only for plotting after wealth and taking life, for slaughtering beasts and butchering the living — fallen a thousand years with no release, sunk for all eternity, never to rise again.
The deepest of them. 阿鼻, ā bí, is Avīci, the Sanskrit hell of unremitting torment, where the suffering never pauses even for an instant — the bottom floor. 為 here is wèi, "for the sake of." 宰畜, zǎi chù, is to slaughter livestock. 難 is nán, difficult.
一個個緊縛牢拴，繩纏索綁。
一个个紧缚牢拴，绳缠索绑。
One and all bound fast and tightly fettered, wound with cords and lashed with ropes.
一個個, "every last one"; the 一 is yí before a fourth tone.
差些赤髮鬼、黑臉鬼，長槍短劍；
差些赤发鬼、黑脸鬼，长枪短剑；
They dispatch red-haired ghosts and black-faced ghosts, with long spears and short swords;
差 is chāi, to send out. 長槍, cháng qiāng, is a long spear.
牛頭鬼、馬面鬼，鐵簡銅鎚：只打得皺眉苦面血淋淋，叫地叫天無救應。
牛头鬼、马面鬼，铁简铜锤：只打得皱眉苦面血淋淋，叫地叫天无救应。
Ox-Head ghosts and Horse-Face ghosts, with iron truncheons and copper mallets: they beat until brows furrow and faces contort and blood runs streaming, while the tormented cry to earth and cry to Heaven with none to answer.
鐵簡 are iron tallies used as clubs; 銅鎚 are copper mallets. In 打得, the de is the little hinge that links an action to its result: beat them until. 救應, jiù yìng, is to answer a cry for help; 應 is yìng. They shout at earth and heaven and neither picks up.
總評 Commentary
The catalogue of hells is a moral inventory as much as a map: each group of three prisons is matched to a class of sin — disloyalty and unfiliality, fraud in the market, violence against the weak, the taking of life. The rhetoric is relentlessly parallel, piling name on name and torment on torment, so that the passage reads like a penal code in verse.
What is striking is how ordinary its targets are. Not tyrants and monsters but shopkeepers with two sets of weights, and men with a Buddha's mouth and a snake's heart — the everyday betrayals, punished in Avīci.