Matching the Rhymes of the Poems by Court Diarist (起居注) Bak and Vice Minister (侍郞) Yi Answering "Singing of the White" (次韻朴起注李侍郞和詠白詩。)次韻朴起注李侍郞和詠白詩。
堅皆依墨辨。尙或自玄經。宛若何郞面。依然綺皓形。春迴玉蘂觀。秋入荻花汀。荑手揎衫露。絲鬚逐鑷零。曝黃衣化雪。掃黑局鋪星。遠浦平拖素。濃雲巧展屛。生虛坐自閱。浮大飮難醒。瓊液看斟盌。霓裳問舞庭。好敎㡛氏鍊。端遣染工停。入相沙堤築。登封玉牒銘。驈偸唯兩髀。鵲竊只雙翎。日作三光主。霜司萬物刑。毫飄諳兔窟。毛洒認鵬溟。下布門誠壯。飛劉水自靈。涴溪紗稱紬。淘浪石宜硎。食藿駒堪縶。鳴皐鶴可聽。牛酥麋沸鼎。人面酒盈甁。司馬稱呼鄙。何須更孟靑。
Whiteness is told apart only by setting it against ink, and at times it comes forth of itself from the Classic of Great Mystery (太玄經). Plainly it is like the face of He Yan (何晏), and steadily like the look of a white-haired elder such as Qili Ji (綺里季). In spring it turns back to the Daoist cloister where jade-stamen blossoms bloom; in autumn it enters the shoal where silvergrass flowers bloom. Hands like young shoots show when the sleeves are rolled back; whiskers like threads fall away after the tweezers. A yellow robe too, bleached in the sun, turns into snow; and on a board swept clear of black stones, stars are spread. A far shore is as though white silk had been drawn out flat; thick clouds are as though a folding screen had been deftly opened. White light arises in an empty room, and sitting there one sees it of itself; float a great cup and you drink and find it hard to sober up. Seeing wine like jade poured into a bowl, one asks whether the Rainbow Skirt Dance (霓裳舞) is being danced in the courtyard. It has the bleacher bleach it well, and has the dyer stop at once. Becoming a chief minister, one raises an embankment of white sand; ascending for the feng and shan rites (封禪), one engraves it on jade tablets (玉牒). The white-thighed horse has stolen whiteness for its two legs alone, and the magpie has stolen it only for its two wing-shoulders. The sun becomes lord of the three lights, and frost takes charge of the punishment of all things. When brush hairs fly, one knows the rabbit's burrow; when down scatters, one knows the sea of the peng bird. At Xiapi (下邳), Lü Bu (呂布) was truly valiant at the White Gate Tower (白門樓), and for the Liu (劉氏) who rose up at Baishui (白水) the water itself was numinous. The silk of Huansha Creek (浣紗溪) is called fine pongee, and stones washed by the waves do well as whetstones. A white colt that eats bean leaves is worth tethering; a crane calling on the hill is worth listening to. The su (酥) made from cow's milk boils over in the pot, and for one with a white countenance the wine fills the bottle. To be called White Minister (白司馬) is a mean thing, so why bring up Meng Qing (孟靑) as well?
Interlinear notes 4
文秀，
Munsu (文秀),
需
Su (需)
一作興
In one edition it stands as 興.
堅皆依墨辨 — This may also be read "the hard and the white (堅白) both lean on the Mohist disputations (墨辯)." — Translator