擒來洞口 Brought Captive to the Cave Mouth
那怪把唐僧擒來洞口,按住狂風,對把門的道:「你去報大王說,前路虎先鋒拿了一個和尚,在門外聽令。」那洞主傳令,教拿進來。那虎先鋒腰插著兩口赤銅刀,雙手捧著唐僧,上前跪下道:「大王,小將不才,蒙鈞令差往山上巡邏,忽遇一個和尚,他是東土大唐駕下御弟三藏法師,上西方拜佛求經,被我擒來奉上,聊具一饌。」那怪把唐僧擒来洞口,按住狂风,对把门的道:「你去报大王说,前路虎先锋拿了一个和尚,在门外听令。」那洞主传令,教拿进来。那虎先锋腰插著两口赤铜刀,双手捧著唐僧,上前跪下道:「大王,小将不才,蒙钧令差往山上巡逻,忽遇一个和尚,他是东土大唐驾下御弟三藏法师,上西方拜佛求经,被我擒来奉上,聊具一馔。」
逐句解 Line by line
The monster brought the Tang Monk captive to the cave mouth, stilled his raging wind, and said to the door-keeper,
按住狂風, to press down and still the wind he has been riding — the demon dismounts. 把門的, the one who holds the door, a gatekeeper.
"Go and report to the Great King that the Tiger Vanguard of the Forward Road has taken a monk, and waits outside the gate for orders." The lord of the cave sent word that he was to be brought in.
在門外聽令, "awaits orders outside the gate," and 洞主傳令, "the lord of the cave passed down the order." The vocabulary is military-bureaucratic throughout, and the cave is run like a garrison.
The Tiger Vanguard, his two red-copper sabres thrust in his belt, held the Tang Monk up in both hands, came forward and knelt.
腰插著 and 雙手捧著 both take zhe. To hold a thing up in both hands, 捧, is the posture of presenting tribute; the Tang Monk is being carried the way a memorial is carried.
"Great King, your unworthy officer, dispatched by your august command to patrol the mountain, fell in of a sudden with a monk.
小將, "your minor officer," takes 將 as jiàng, the noun — not the jiāng of the disposal marker, which occurs elsewhere in this batch. 鈞令 is the honorific for a superior's command; 差往 takes 差 as chāi, to dispatch.
He is Sanzang, Master of the Law, Imperial Younger Brother under the throne of the Great Tang in the Land of the East, gone west to worship the Buddha and seek scriptures. I have taken him and present him, a poor dish for your table."
聊具一饌 — "a poor dish, such as it is." The Vanguard has assembled the whole of his prisoner's imperial credentials, in correct order, and produced them as a menu.
A hundred and twenty-four graphs of protocol. The Vanguard stills his wind at the door, sends in word by the gatekeeper, waits for orders, is admitted, kneels, and delivers his report in the third person with the correct self-deprecating pronoun. The prisoner is held up in both hands, in the posture in which one presents tribute at court.
Everything comic in the passage comes from the collision of two registers. The report is a model of its kind — commission, patrol, unexpected encounter, identification of the captive, presentation to the superior — and its last four graphs are 聊具一饌, "a poor dish for your table." Sanzang's titles, which have opened every door from Chang'an to this ridge, are here recited as provenance for a piece of meat.