原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
長老不安
The Uneasy Wait
且不言八戒在此睡覺。卻說長老在那林間耳熱眼跳，身心不安。急回叫沙僧道：「悟能去化齋，怎麼這早晚還不回？」沙僧道：「師父，你還不曉得哩。他見這西方上人家齋僧的多，他肚子又大，他管你？直等他吃飽了才來哩。」三藏道：「正是呀，倘或他在那裡貪著吃齋，我們那裡會他？天色晚了，此間不是個住處，須要尋個下處方好哩。」沙僧道：「不打緊，師父，你且坐在這裡，等我去尋他來。」三藏道：「正是，正是。有齋沒齋罷了，只是尋下處要緊。」沙僧綽了寶杖，徑出松林來找八戒。且不言八戒在此睡觉。却说长老在那林间耳热眼跳，身心不安。急回叫沙僧道：「悟能去化斋，怎么这早晚还不回？」沙僧道：「师父，你还不晓得哩。他见这西方上人家斋僧的多，他肚子又大，他管你？直等他吃饱了才来哩。」三藏道：「正是呀，倘或他在那里贪着吃斋，我们那里会他？天色晚了，此间不是个住处，须要寻个下处方好哩。」沙僧道：「不打紧，师父，你且坐在这里，等我去寻他来。」三藏道：「正是，正是。有斋没斋罢了，只是寻下处要紧。」沙僧绰了宝杖，径出松林来找八戒。
逐句解 Line by line
且不言八戒在此睡覺。卻說長老在那林間耳熱眼跳，身心不安。
且不言八戒在此睡觉。却说长老在那林间耳热眼跳，身心不安。
But let us say no more of Bajie sleeping here. The elder, meanwhile, sat in the woods with burning ears and twitching eyes, uneasy in body and mind.
耳熱眼跳 — burning ears, a twitching eye — are folk omens of trouble coming, the way a prickling thumb or an itching palm works in English. His body knows before he does. 睡覺 takes 覺 as jiào, sleep, not jué, to perceive: the same pair of characters that means to sleep with one reading and to feel with the other. 長老 takes zhǎng; 那 is nà.
急回叫沙僧道：「悟能去化齋，怎麼這早晚還不回？」
急回叫沙僧道：「悟能去化斋，怎么这早晚还不回？」
Quickly he turned and called to Sha Monk, “Wuneng went to beg food — why is it so late and he still not back?”
悟能 is Bajie's dharma-name, awakened to ability, the one Guanyin gave him. Tripitaka reaches for it when he is worried. 還 is hái, still.
沙僧道：「師父，你還不曉得哩。他見這西方上人家齋僧的多，他肚子又大，他管你？直等他吃飽了才來哩。」
沙僧道：「师父，你还不晓得哩。他见这西方上人家斋僧的多，他肚子又大，他管你？直等他吃饱了才来哩。」
Said Sha Monk, “Master, you still don't understand. He's seen how many households out here in the West feed monks, and with a belly that big, does he give a thought to you? He won't come back till he's eaten his fill.”
Sha Monk's diagnosis is that Bajie is off eating — affectionately exact about the man and completely wrong about the facts, which is the gap the chapter's suspense now lives in. 肚子 ends in an unstressed zi; 曉得 takes the unstressed de; 還 is hái.
三藏道：「正是呀，倘或他在那裡貪著吃齋，我們那裡會他？天色晚了，此間不是個住處，須要尋個下處方好哩。」
三藏道：「正是呀，倘或他在那里贪着吃斋，我们那里会他？天色晚了，此间不是个住处，须要寻个下处方好哩。」
Said Tripitaka, “Just so. But if he is off somewhere gorging on alms-food, how are we to meet up with him? The day grows late, this is no place to stay, and we had best find lodging.”
Both 那裡 here take nǎ — off somewhere, and how on earth — the indefinite and the rhetorical, not the pointing nà. 三藏 takes zàng; 貪著 ends in the unstressed zhe.
沙僧道：「不打緊，師父，你且坐在這裡，等我去尋他來。」三藏道：「正是，正是。有齋沒齋罷了，只是尋下處要緊。」沙僧綽了寶杖，徑出松林來找八戒。
沙僧道：「不打紧，师父，你且坐在这里，等我去寻他来。」三藏道：「正是，正是。有斋没斋罢了，只是寻下处要紧。」沙僧绰了宝杖，径出松林来找八戒。
Said Sha Monk, “No matter, Master — you sit here a while, and I'll go find him.” “Quite right, quite right,” said Tripitaka. “Food or no food, let it go; finding lodging is what matters.” Sha Monk gripped his precious staff and went straight out of the pines to look for Bajie.
And so the second disciple walks out of the clearing. Every decision in this passage is sensible — wait for food, then go find the man who has the food, then look for somewhere to sleep — and each one removes a guard. Tripitaka is now alone in the wood he warned his disciples about an hour ago. 三藏 takes zàng.
總評 Commentary
The passage tightens the trap another turn. Tripitaka's burning ears and twitching eyes are the traditional bodily omens of danger and his instinct is sound, but the remedy he picks — send Sha Monk after Bajie — strips away his last protector. Each reasonable, ordinary decision takes another guardian off the board, until the master is sitting by himself in a forest he has already said holds demons.
Sha Monk's read on Bajie is the comic ballast under the mounting dread. His theory that Bajie is simply off eating is affectionate, precise about the man, and wrong about the facts. The distance between what the disciples comfortably assume and what the reader already knows is where the chapter's suspense now sits.