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繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
化蟲跟蹤
The Dragonfly Spy
那獃子虎急急的解了韁繩，拉出馬去。行者道：「沙僧，你且陪師父坐這裡，等老孫跟他去，看他往那裡放馬。」三藏道：「悟空，你看便去看他，但只不可只管嘲他了。」行者道：「我曉得。」這大聖走出廳房，搖身一變，變作個紅蜻蜓兒，飛出前門，趕上八戒。那呆子虎急急的解了缰绳，拉出马去。行者道：「沙僧，你且陪师父坐这里，等老孙跟他去，看他往那里放马。」三藏道：「悟空，你看便去看他，但只不可只管嘲他了。」行者道：「我晓得。」这大圣走出厅房，摇身一变，变作个红蜻蜓儿，飞出前门，赶上八戒。
逐句解 Line by line
那獃子虎急急的解了韁繩，拉出馬去。
那呆子虎急急的解了缰绳，拉出马去。
The blockhead, in a blundering rush, undid the tether and led the horse out.
那獃子 nà (獃子, 子 zi). 虎急急 “in a headlong, blustering hurry.” 解了韁繩 “untied the halter-rope.” Bajie's haste betrays his eagerness.
行者道：「沙僧，你且陪師父坐這裡，等老孫跟他去，看他往那裡放馬。」
行者道：「沙僧，你且陪师父坐这里，等老孙跟他去，看他往那里放马。」
Pilgrim said, “Wujing, you keep the Master company here a while; let old Monkey follow him and see where he goes to graze the horse.”
行者 xíng zhě. 陪師父坐 “to sit keeping the Master company.” 往那裡放馬 “where he goes to graze,” 那裡 nà. Wukong sets off to spy.
三藏道：「悟空，你看便去看他，但只不可只管嘲他了。」
三藏道：「悟空，你看便去看他，但只不可只管嘲他了。」
Tripitaka said, “Wukong, if you go to watch him, then watch — only don't keep mocking him so.”
三藏 zàng. 只管嘲他 “to keep on jeering at him.” Tripitaka's caution — watch, but don't torment — sets the limit Wukong will cheerfully overstep.
行者道：「我曉得。」
行者道：「我晓得。」
Pilgrim said, “I know.”
行者 xíng zhě. 曉得 “to know, understand,” 得 the resultative de.
這大聖走出廳房，搖身一變，變作個紅蜻蜓兒，飛出前門，趕上八戒。
这大圣走出厅房，摇身一变，变作个红蜻蜓儿，飞出前门，赶上八戒。
The Great Sage walked out of the hall, gave his body a shake and a change, turned into a red dragonfly, flew out the front gate, and caught up with Bajie.
搖身一變 “to shake the body and transform,” Wukong's signature metamorphosis. 紅蜻蜓兒 “a little red dragonfly” — a form small enough to spy unseen. 趕上 “to catch up with.”
總評 Commentary
The passage is a swift bridge from the disciples' hall to Bajie's private folly. Bajie's “blundering rush” to untie the horse gives him away before he is out the gate; his eagerness is transparent to everyone, and Wukong resolves at once to follow and see the comedy through.
Tripitaka's parting instruction is finely judged — go and watch, but do not keep mocking him — and it is exactly the sort of injunction Wukong honors in the letter and flouts in the spirit. The tension between the master's forbearance and the disciple's appetite for mischief is one of the running notes of their relationship.
Wukong's transformation into a red dragonfly is the mechanism of the episode's central irony: Bajie believes himself alone and unobserved with the widow, while in fact his every word and gesture is watched. The stage is set for the covert half of the four saints' test, in which Bajie, thinking no one sees, will convict himself out of his own mouth.