變作俊人 The Handsome Disguise
好怪物，他在那酒席間搖身一變，就變做一個俊俏之人。真個生得：好怪物，他在那酒席间摇身一变，就变做一个俊俏之人。真个生得：
逐句解 Line by line
A fine monster he was! There amid the banquet he gave his body a shake and transformed, becoming a handsome young man. Truly he was formed thus:
The lead-in 真個生得 ("truly he was formed thus") introduces the descriptive 賦. In 生得 the structural 得 is de; 酒席間 takes 間 as jiān ("amid").
His form and features elegant and refined, his frame lofty and striking;
崢嶸 ("towering, prominent") is more often said of peaks; applied to a man’s frame it lends him a mountainous distinction.
his speech much in the manner of a courtier, his bearing that of the very flower of youth.
行藏 ("one’s comportment, whether in action or in reserve") takes 行 as xíng and 藏 as cáng; 妙齡 is "the wondrous age," the bloom of youth. The disguise is pitched precisely at the courtly type he means to impersonate.
In talent a Cao Zhi, to whom the making of verse came easily; in looks a Pan An, at whom the tossed fruit flew light.
Two canonical allusions: 子建 is Cao Zhi (曹植), byword for literary genius; 潘安 is Pan Yue (潘岳), byword for male beauty. 擲果 ("throwing fruit") recalls the tale that the women of Luoyang pelted the lovely Pan An’s carriage with fruit. In 子建 the name-graph 子 is zǐ; 貌似 takes 似 as sì.
On his head a magpie-tail cap, his black cloud of hair gathered smooth beneath it;
鵲尾冠 is a "magpie-tail cap" (the noun 冠 read guān); 烏雲 ("black clouds") is a stock figure for luxuriant dark hair, here 斂伏, drawn tidily up under the cap.
on his body a robe of jade-white gauze and pleats, its wide sleeves fluttering as he came.
玉羅褶 is a pleated robe of fine, jade-pale silk gauze; 廣袖飄迎 — "broad sleeves streaming to greet [the beholder]" — completes the courtier’s costume.
On his feet black boots with figured creases; at his waist a phoenix sash agleam.
鸞帶 is a "simurgh sash," a sash worked with the mythical 鸞-bird; 腰間 takes 間 as jiān ("at, between").
In grace and spirit a truly rare figure of a man — towering, high-borne, a paragon of comely valor.
奇男子 ("an extraordinary man") takes 子 as zǐ; 聳壑軒昂 ("rising over the ravines, lofty and imposing") is a set phrase for a commanding, heroic bearing.
The portrait-賦 is a conventional set-piece of male beauty, framed on two canonical allusions: 子建 (Cao Zhi), the type of literary genius, and 潘安 (Pan Yue), the type of male loveliness, whose fabled looks drew the women of Luoyang to pelt his carriage with fruit. The demon’s disguise is assembled entirely from the stock furniture of the beautiful courtier.
Formally the passage is a descriptive 賦 embedded in the prose narrative: parallel couplets cataloguing dress and mien from cap to boots. The irony is structural — the more exquisitely the beauty is detailed, the more completely the monster is hidden, and the reader is made to hold both images at once.
Note that every ornament is courtly and civil — the magpie-tail cap, the gauze robe, the phoenix sash — fitting the demon’s design to pass as a 駙馬. The verse is not idle decoration but the very instrument of the imposture.