猶念舊情 Still He Worries
唐僧道：「我再不念了。」行者道：「這個難說。若到那毒魔苦難處不得脫身，八戒、沙僧救不得你，那時節想起我來，忍不住又念誦起來。就是十萬里路，我的頭也是疼的，假如再來見你，不如不作此意。」唐僧道：「我再不念了。」行者道：「这个难说。若到那毒魔苦难处不得脱身，八戒、沙僧救不得你，那时节想起我来，忍不住又念诵起来。就是十万里路，我的头也是疼的，假如再来见你，不如不作此意。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Tang Monk said, "I'll not recite it again."
我再不念了 (wǒ zài bú niàn le) "I'll recite [it] no more." The elder's promise — offered in a lull of his anger — is meant to reassure, but Wukong knows how little the master's resolve can be trusted under fear.
Said Pilgrim, "That's hard to say.
這個難說 (zhè ge nán shuō) "this is hard to say," 難 (nán) "difficult." Wukong doubts the promise — not from spite but from knowledge of the master's pliability, which the whole chapter has displayed.
"If you come to some place of vicious demons and dire ordeals and cannot free yourself, and Eight Rules and Sha Monk cannot save you, then, thinking of me at that time, you'll not be able to help reciting it again."
那毒魔苦難處 (nà dú mó kǔ nàn chù) "a place of vicious demons and bitter ordeals," 那 (nà), 難 (nàn) "ordeal, tribulation" (as in 之難, not 難說 "difficult"). 不得脫身 (bù dé tuō shēn) / 救不得你 (jiù bù de nǐ) "cannot escape" / "cannot save you," 得 (de). 那時節 (nà shí jié) "at that time," 那 (nà). Wukong foresees the master in peril, helpless, reciting the spell in desperation — a scene the novel will indeed enact.
"Even ten thousand li away, my head will still ache; and rather than come back to see you then, better I never conceived the notion."
十萬里路 (shí wàn lǐ lù) "a hundred thousand li of road." 不如不作此意 (bù rú bú zuò cǐ yì) "better not to entertain such a thought [of returning]." Wukong's foresight is bitter and exact: the spell's reach is unlimited, and its pain would follow him across any distance — so a return, even if wished, would be worse than staying gone.
Even at the moment of parting, Wukong's concern is for the master's safety, not his own grievance. He doubts Tripitaka's easy promise never to recite the spell again — 這個難說, "that's hard to say" — because he knows, as the whole chapter has shown, how readily the elder's resolve dissolves under fear. His doubt is clear-eyed, not vindictive.
His foresight is strikingly accurate to the novel's later course. He predicts exactly the situation that will recur — the master in the grip of some demon, his other disciples helpless, reduced to reciting the spell in desperation — and notes the fillet's cruel reach: even 十萬里路, a hundred thousand li away, its pain would find him. The bondage is not merely present but portable, following him into any exile.
The passage completes Wukong's grief with a note of resignation deeper than anger: 不如不作此意, better never to have thought of returning. The spell has made even reconciliation a torment. What remains is only the formal act of parting — the dismissal letter and the farewell bow — which the chapter's final movement will carry out.