第八十回 · 密砌重堆 Heaped in Clustered Banks — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition 含詞賦 With rhapsody

密砌重堆 Heaped in Clustered Banks

你nǐ看kàn那nà背bèi陰yīn之zhī處chù千qiān般bān景jǐng，向xiàng陽yáng之zhī所suǒ萬wàn叢cóng花huā。你nǐ看kàn那nà背bèi阴yīn之zhī处chù千qiān般bān景jǐng，向xiàng阳yáng之zhī所suǒ万wàn丛cóng花huā。

又yòu有yǒu那nà千qiān年nián槐huái，萬wàn載zǎi檜guì，耐nài寒hán松sōng，山shān桃táo果guǒ，野yě芍sháo藥yào，旱hàn芙fú蓉róng，一yì攢cuán攢cuán密mì砌qì重chóng堆duī，亂luàn紛fēn紛fēn神shén仙xiān難nán畫huà。又yòu有yǒu那nà千qiān年nián槐huái，万wàn载zǎi桧guì，耐nài寒hán松sōng，山shān桃táo果guǒ，野yě芍sháo药yào，旱hàn芙fú蓉róng，一yì攒cuán攒cuán密mì砌qì重chóng堆duī，乱luàn纷fēn纷fēn神shén仙xiān难nán画huà。

逐句解 Line by line

Look there — on the shaded side, a thousand kinds of scene; / on the sunward side, ten thousand thickets of flowers.

The shaded and sunward faces of a slope are 陰 and 陽, the same pair that names the two great forces — here used in their plain, everyday, hillside sense.

And there are the thousand-year pagoda tree, the ten-thousand-year juniper, the cold-enduring pine, the mountain peach, the wild peony, the drought hibiscus, clustered thick and heaped in layered banks, so wildly scattered that no immortal could paint them.

Three readings worth marking in one line. 載 is zǎi, a year, not the zài of loading a cart. 攢 is cuán, to cluster together, not the zǎn of saving money up. And 重 is chóng, layered and repeated, not the zhòng of weight — the flowers are stacked, not heavy.

總評 Commentary

After all the binding and the darkness, the wood suddenly produces a catalogue of flowers. The rhapsody form allows this: it is a list of everything present, and the pleasure is in the accumulation rather than in any one item.

The closing boast is a standard one — no immortal could paint this — and it is the writer's way of admitting that the list has beaten him. It is also a small joke against the form itself, since a rhapsody is precisely an attempt to paint a place in words, and this one has just given up in the middle of a sentence.