The two, hand in hand and arm in arm, with all the little monkeys following after, climbed to the topmost peak of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit.

In 相攙 ("supporting each other") the graph 相 is xiāng; 概眾 is "the whole company"; 極巔, "the very summit." 那 is deictic nà.

A fine mountain! For since the Great Sage had come home, in these few days he had set it all to rights, restored to its old state and as good as new. Behold:

The lead-in to the descriptive 賦. 收拾得 takes the structural 得 as de; 復舊如新 is "restored to the old, as good as new." Both instances of 那 are deictic nà. The detail matters: the mountain is Wukong’s home, lovingly renewed.

Green as if of carved kingfisher-jade, high as though brushing the clouds;

In 高似 the graph 似 is sì. 削翠 ("carved kingfisher-green") and 摩雲 ("brushing the clouds") open the 賦 on color and height.

all round it, tigers crouch and dragons coil; on every side, gibbons cry and cranes call.

虎踞龍蟠 ("tigers crouching, dragons coiling") is a set phrase for a commanding, auspicious site; 猿啼鶴唳, "apes wailing, cranes crying," fills it with living sound.

At dawn, clouds come to seal the peak; at dusk, one sees the sun hung in the woods.

Here 朝 is read zhāo ("dawn, morning"), paired with 暮 ("dusk") — its first appearance in the chapter in this sense, distinct from the cháo of "court." 暮觀 takes 觀 as guān; 林間 takes 間 as jiān.

The flowing streams, murmuring, chime like jade girdle-pendants; the gorge-springs, dripping, play like a jasper zither.

玉珮 is a jade girdle-pendant; 瑤琴, a "jasper zither." The couplet turns water into music.

Before the mountain are cliffs and crags and sheer walls; behind it, flowers and trees in lush profusion.

峭壁 ("sheer cliff-face"); 穠華 ("lush blossoming"). Rugged front and flowering rear are set in balance.

Above, it joins the Jade Maiden’s washing-basin; below, it takes the branching waters of the River of Heaven.

玉女洗頭盆 ("the Jade Maiden’s hair-washing basin") is a celestial pool; 天河 is the River of Heaven, the Milky Way; 分派水 ("branching waters") takes 分 as fēn. The mountain is joined to the heavens above and below.

Heaven and Earth have knit their beauty here, outdoing Penglai; the pure and the turbid, refined, have bred a true grotto-heaven.

In 乾坤 ("Heaven and Earth") the graph 乾 is read qián (the 乾-trigram, Heaven). 蓬萊 is Penglai, the isle of immortals; 洞府, a "grotto-heaven," a Daoist paradise. The verse raises the mountain to a cosmic dignity.

The finest brush of the painter would be hard put to render it; an immortal’s own inspiration could not trace it out.

In 仙子 ("an immortal being") the graph 子 is zǐ; 天機 is "celestial ingenuity, inspired art"; 描不就, "cannot be sketched to completion." The topos of the indescribable exalts the scene.

Fantastic rocks all delicately wrought, and wrought rocks fantastic; a delicate splendor crowns the ridge and peak.

玲瓏 ("exquisite, finely wrought") is repeated in a chiastic play; 結綵 is "wreathed in bright colors." The verbal patterning mimics the intricacy it names.

As the sunlight stirs, a thousand strands of purple glory;

A short line varying the rhythm; 紫艷 ("purple splendor") begins the closing play of light.

as the auspicious vapors sway, ten thousand shafts of red cloud.

瑞氣 ("auspicious ether") and 紅霞 ("red-glowing cloud") complete the paired short lines, bathing the peak in numinous color.

A grotto-heaven, a blessed land, here in the world of men — all over the mountain, new trees and new flowers.

洞天福地 ("grotto-heaven and blessed land") is the standard Daoist term for a paradise on earth; 人間有, "here in the world of men." The 賦 closes on the freshly renewed growth — Wukong’s home made new.