原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
含詞賦 With rhapsody
赤腳大仙 The Barefoot Great Immortal
一天瑞靄光搖曳，一天瑞霭光摇曳，
五色祥雲飛不絕。五色祥云飞不绝。
白鶴聲鳴振九皋，白鹤声鸣振九皋，
紫芝色秀分千葉。紫芝色秀分千叶。
中間現出一尊仙，中间现出一尊仙，
相貌天然丰采別。相貌天然丰采别。
神舞虹霓幌漢霄，神舞虹霓幌汉霄，
腰懸寶籙無生滅。腰悬宝箓无生灭。
名稱赤腳大羅仙，名称赤脚大罗仙，
特赴蟠桃添壽節。特赴蟠桃添寿节。
逐句解 Line by line
一天瑞靄光搖曳，
一天瑞霭光摇曳，
A sky of auspicious haze, its light a-shimmer,
五色祥雲飛不絕。
五色祥云飞不绝。
five-coloured clouds of blessing, flying without end.
白鶴聲鳴振九皋，
白鹤声鸣振九皋，
A white crane's cry rings out, rousing the deep marsh;
紫芝色秀分千葉。
紫芝色秀分千叶。
purple lingzhi, exquisite, unfolds its thousand leaves.
紫芝: the purple lingzhi, the magic fungus of immortality.
中間現出一尊仙，
中间现出一尊仙，
In their midst appears an immortal of high station,
相貌天然丰采別。
相貌天然丰采别。
his features wholly natural, his bearing set apart.
神舞虹霓幌漢霄，
神舞虹霓幌汉霄，
His spirit dances on rainbows, flashing through the starry sky;
腰懸寶籙無生滅。
腰悬宝箓无生灭。
at his waist hangs a sacred register, beyond birth and death.
名稱赤腳大羅仙，
名称赤脚大罗仙，
His name is the Barefoot Great Luo Immortal,
大羅仙: an immortal of the 大羅天, highest of the Daoist heavens; 赤腳大仙 is the Barefoot Immortal.
特赴蟠桃添壽節。
特赴蟠桃添寿节。
come expressly to the Peach Feast that lengthens life.
The encomium that introduces the Barefoot Immortal is built wholly of emblems of genuine attainment — the white crane (白鶴), the purple lingzhi (紫芝), the sacred register "beyond birth and death" (寶籙無生滅). He is the true article, a being who has earned the deathlessness the 心猿 means to steal, and the poem’s placement is pointed: just as Monkey sets out to crash the feast by guile, the narrative parades a true immortal possessed of every attribute he lacks.
無生滅 ("without birth or death") is the alchemical goal itself — the state past the turning of 生滅 that the long ripening of the peaches was meant to confer. The Barefoot Immortal wears it as a talisman at his waist; the mind-monkey will try to seize the same thing from a wine-cup and an elixir-gourd. The contrast the chapter is drawing is exactly this: between the immortality that is worn, and the immortality that is snatched.