原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
流沙河景
The Flowing-Sands River
師徒二人正走間，忽然見弱水三千，乃是流沙河界。菩薩道：「徒弟呀，此處卻是難行。取經人濁骨凡胎，如何得渡？」惠岸道：「師父，你看河有多遠？」那菩薩停立雲步看時，只見：师徒二人正走间，忽然见弱水三千，乃是流沙河界。菩萨道：「徒弟呀，此处却是难行。取经人浊骨凡胎，如何得渡？」惠岸道：「师父，你看河有多远？」那菩萨停立云步看时，只见：
東連沙磧，西抵諸番，南達烏戈，北通韃靼。东连沙碛，西抵诸番，南达乌戈，北通鞑靼。
徑過有八百里遙，上下有千萬里遠。径过有八百里遥，上下有千万里远。
水流一似地翻身，浪滾卻如山聳背。水流一似地翻身，浪滚却如山耸背。
洋洋浩浩，漠漠茫茫，十里遙聞萬丈洪。洋洋浩浩，漠漠茫茫，十里遥闻万丈洪。
仙槎難到此，蓮葉莫能浮。仙槎难到此，莲叶莫能浮。
衰草斜陽流曲浦，黃雲影日暗長堤。衰草斜阳流曲浦，黄云影日暗长堤。
那裡得客商來往？何曾有漁叟依棲？那里得客商来往？何曾有渔叟依栖？
平沙無雁落，遠岸有猿啼。平沙无雁落，远岸有猿啼。
只是紅蓼花蘩知景色，白蘋香細任依依。只是红蓼花蘩知景色，白苹香细任依依。
逐句解 Line by line
師徒二人正走間，忽然見弱水三千，乃是流沙河界。
师徒二人正走间，忽然见弱水三千，乃是流沙河界。
As master and disciple were walking along, of a sudden they came upon the Three Thousand Weak Waters — the bourne of the Flowing-Sands River.
弱水三千 — the “Three Thousand Weak Waters,” a mythic river so feeble it bears nothing afloat. 流沙河 is the home of the future disciple Sha Wujing.
菩薩道：「徒弟呀，此處卻是難行。取經人濁骨凡胎，如何得渡？」
菩萨道：「徒弟呀，此处却是难行。取经人浊骨凡胎，如何得渡？」
The Bodhisattva said: “Disciple, here the way is hard. The scripture-pilgrim, of muddy bone and mortal flesh, how shall he cross?”
難行 — hard to travel; 難 is nán. 濁骨凡胎 — “muddy bone and mortal womb,” the unredeemed human body.
惠岸道：「師父，你看河有多遠？」
惠岸道：「师父，你看河有多远？」
Huian said: “Master, how wide do you judge the river to be?”
那菩薩停立雲步看時，只見：
那菩萨停立云步看时，只见：
The Bodhisattva, staying her cloud-steps to look, saw only:
只見 introduces the descriptive rhapsody on the river.
東連沙磧，西抵諸番，南達烏戈，北通韃靼。
东连沙碛，西抵诸番，南达乌戈，北通鞑靼。
Eastward it joins the sandy wastes, westward it reaches the foreign tribes; southward it gains Wuge, northward it runs to the Tatars.
A geographic frame placing the river at the wild edges of the known world; 韃靼 — the Tatars.
徑過有八百里遙，上下有千萬里遠。
径过有八百里遥，上下有千万里远。
Straight across it stretches eight hundred li; up and down, a thousand thousand li.
水流一似地翻身，浪滾卻如山聳背。
水流一似地翻身，浪滚却如山耸背。
Its current rolls as though the earth were turning over; its billows surge like mountains arching their backs.
一似 — “just like”; 一 takes yí before fourth-tone 似 (read sì).
洋洋浩浩，漠漠茫茫，十里遙聞萬丈洪。
洋洋浩浩，漠漠茫茫，十里遥闻万丈洪。
Vast and boundless, dim and measureless — ten li off one hears the mighty flood.
仙槎難到此，蓮葉莫能浮。
仙槎难到此，莲叶莫能浮。
An immortal's raft could scarce reach here; a lotus-leaf could never float.
仙槎 — the fabled raft that sails to the stars; even it cannot pass these weak waters. 蓮葉 — lotus-leaf, 葉 in its ordinary reading yè.
衰草斜陽流曲浦，黃雲影日暗長堤。
衰草斜阳流曲浦，黄云影日暗长堤。
Withered grass and slanting sun along the winding shore; yellow clouds shadowing the day darken the long dyke.
長堤 — the long embankment; 長 is cháng.
那裡得客商來往？何曾有漁叟依棲？
那里得客商来往？何曾有渔叟依栖？
Where here would merchants come and go? When was there ever a fisherman to dwell?
Rhetorical questions; the graph 那 functions as interrogative 哪 (“where, how”), read nǎ.
平沙無雁落，遠岸有猿啼。
平沙无雁落，远岸有猿啼。
On the level sand no wild goose alights; on the far bank an ape cries out.
只是紅蓼花蘩知景色，白蘋香細任依依。
只是红蓼花蘩知景色，白苹香细任依依。
Only the red knotweed and dense blossom know the season's hue; the white duckweed, faintly fragrant, sways just as it will.
紅蓼, 白蘋 — riverside knotweed and duckweed, the desolate flora of an unfrequented shore.
總評 Commentary
Guanyin reaches the first great obstacle of the future pilgrimage: the Flowing-Sands River, the “Three Thousand Weak Waters” so enfeebled that nothing floats upon them. A full rhapsody (賦) sets the scene — a desolate, impassable expanse at the wild margins of the world.
The river-賦 is built on negation: no raft can cross it, no leaf can float, no merchant comes, no fisherman dwells. This emptiness is purposeful — it establishes the crossing as a true barrier, one the “muddy bone and mortal flesh” of the pilgrim cannot manage unaided, and so motivates the recruitment of the river's monster as a disciple.
Following Anthony C. Yu, the desolation also carries an allegorical charge: the weak water that will bear nothing is the unredeemed world itself, across which only the disciplined and converted can ferry a soul. Plaks notes how the novel's landscape rhapsodies repeatedly externalize the spiritual stakes of the passage they adorn.