原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
金剛威儀
The Vajra-Guardians
那長老卻丟了錫杖，解下斗篷，整衣合掌，徑入山門。只見兩邊紅漆欄杆裡面，高坐著一對金剛，裝塑的威儀惡醜：那长老却丢了锡杖，解下斗篷，整衣合掌，径入山门。只见两边红漆栏杆里面，高坐着一对金刚，装塑的威仪恶丑：
一個鐵面鋼鬚似活容，一個燥眉圜眼若玲瓏。一个铁面钢须似活容，一个燥眉圜眼若玲珑。
左邊的拳頭骨突如生鐵，右邊的手掌崚嶒賽赤銅。左边的拳头骨突如生铁，右边的手掌崚嶒赛赤铜。
金甲連環光燦爛，明盔繡帶映飄風。金甲连环光灿烂，明盔绣带映飘风。
西方真個多供佛，石鼎中間香火紅。西方真个多供佛，石鼎中间香火红。
逐句解 Line by line
那長老卻丟了錫杖，解下斗篷，整衣合掌，徑入山門。
那长老却丢了锡杖，解下斗篷，整衣合掌，径入山门。
The elder set down his tin staff, unfastened his rain-cape, straightened his robe, pressed his palms together, and went straight in at the temple gate.
A monk arriving at a strange temple makes himself presentable. 錫杖 is the ringed tin staff, the khakkhara, whose jingling was meant to warn small creatures off the path ahead. 斗篷 is a cape; 合掌 is the pressed-palm greeting. 那 is nà and 長 is zhǎng.
只見兩邊紅漆欄杆裡面，高坐著一對金剛，裝塑的威儀惡醜：
只见两边红漆栏杆里面，高坐着一对金刚，装塑的威仪恶丑：
He saw, within the red-lacquered railings to either side, a pair of vajra-guardians seated on high, sculpted with a fierce and forbidding majesty:
金剛 are the vajra-bearing guardian kings who stand at the gate of any large Buddhist temple, one to each side, glowering. 高坐著 is "seated on high," 著 the running zhe; 威儀 is awesome bearing.
一個鐵面鋼鬚似活容，一個燥眉圜眼若玲瓏。
一个铁面钢须似活容，一个燥眉圜眼若玲珑。
One, iron-faced and steel-whiskered, with a look as if alive; one, with bristling brows and round eyes as though wrought clear.
All hard surfaces. 似活容 is a face that looks alive, 似 read sì; 圜眼 are round eyes, 圜 read yuán; 玲瓏 is finely wrought, almost translucent.
左邊的拳頭骨突如生鐵，右邊的手掌崚嶒賽赤銅。
左边的拳头骨突如生铁，右边的手掌崚嶒赛赤铜。
The one on the left, his knuckled fist as knobbed as raw iron; the one on the right, his open palm so ridged and rugged it would outmatch red bronze.
骨突 is knobbed and protruding; 崚嶒 is jagged and rugged; 賽 is to rival or outdo.
金甲連環光燦爛，明盔繡帶映飄風。
金甲连环光灿烂，明盔绣带映飘风。
Golden armour of linked rings blazes with light; bright helmets and embroidered sashes flutter and gleam in the wind.
連環 is "linked rings," the chain-mail of the guardians' armour; 盔 is a helmet; 映飄風 is gleaming as they stream in the wind.
西方真個多供佛，石鼎中間香火紅。
西方真个多供佛，石鼎中间香火红。
In the West, truly, they make many offerings to the Buddha; within the stone censer the incense-fire glows red.
The verse ends on the evidence of money well spent. 真個 is "truly, indeed," 個 read gè; 石鼎 is a stone incense-tripod; in 中間, 中 is zhōng and 間 is jiān; 佛 is fó.
總評 Commentary
Tripitaka lays aside staff and cape and goes in, and the narrative stops for a second descriptive verse — a portrait of the two vajra-guardians whose statues flank the gate of every large Buddhist temple. The description is all menace and metal: iron faces, steel whiskers, knuckled fists like raw iron, ridged palms, blazing chain-mail. These are the fierce protectors who keep evil out of the sanctuary.
Their appearance is partly scene-setting — the temple is grand, its statuary imposing, its incense-fire glowing in a stone censer, all of it paid for. But the ferocity of the gate-guardians also sets up a quiet joke about what is waiting inside. For all the temple's fierce protectors and rich offerings, its abbot will meet a weary fellow monk with neither protection nor welcome.