原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
棗兒柿餅 Dates Persimmons And Grapes
魁圓繭栗，鮮荔桃子。魁圆茧栗，鲜荔桃子。
棗兒柿餅味甘甜，松子葡萄香膩酒。枣儿柿饼味甘甜，松子葡萄香腻酒。
幾般蜜食，數品蒸酥。几般蜜食，数品蒸酥。
逐句解 Line by line
魁圓繭栗，鮮荔桃子。
魁圆茧栗，鲜荔桃子。
Round chestnuts in their cases, fresh lychees and peaches.
繭栗, cocoon-chestnuts, are chestnuts still in the prickly husk — the word is borrowed from the shape of a silk cocoon, and it is old enough to appear in the classics describing the horns of a young ox.
棗兒柿餅味甘甜，松子葡萄香膩酒。
枣儿柿饼味甘甜，松子葡萄香腻酒。
Dates and dried persimmons, sweet to the taste; pine nuts and grapes, fragrant with rich wine.
棗兒 takes ér, as every 兒 in this chapter does. Hold on to the dates: three of them are about to matter a great deal to the king.
幾般蜜食，數品蒸酥。
几般蜜食，数品蒸酥。
Several sorts of honeyed sweets, a number of kinds of steamed pastry.
蒸酥, steamed crisp — a flour confection. The poem is now simply counting: several sorts, a number of kinds. It has run out of individual things to name and has started naming categories.
Three lines of fruit and pastry, and the technique has shifted. The first six lines named specific fabulous objects; these name ordinary food in quantity. The poem is moving from display to abundance.
The dates are the one item on this table that will have consequences. They are listed here among the honeyed sweets, entirely unremarked, and in two passages the Longevity Star will pull three of them out of his sleeve.