擒獲雙孩 The Two Children Seized
只見有兩個小孩子,在那裡使彎頭棍,打毛毬,搶窩耍子哩。一個有十來歲,一個有八九歲了。正戲處,被行者趕上前,也不管他是張家李家的,一把抓著頂搭子,提將過來。那孩子吃了諕,口裡夾罵帶哭的亂嚷。驚動那波月洞的小妖,急報與公主道:「奶奶,不知甚人把二位公子搶去也。」原來那兩個孩子是公主與那怪生的。只见有两个小孩子,在那里使弯头棍,打毛毬,抢窝耍子哩。一个有十来岁,一个有八九岁了。正戏处,被行者赶上前,也不管他是张家李家的,一把抓著顶搭子,提将过来。那孩子吃了諕,口里夹骂带哭的乱嚷。惊动那波月洞的小妖,急报与公主道:「奶奶,不知甚人把二位公子抢去也。」原来那两个孩子是公主与那怪生的。
逐句解 Line by line
There he saw two little children, wielding crook-headed sticks, driving a fur ball and scrambling at the holes, at their play.
彎頭棍 (wān tóu gùn), crook-headed sticks. 打毛毬 (dǎ máo qiú), to drive a hair-stuffed ball — a game like polo or ball-and-hole. 那裡 here locative, “there,” 那 read nà.
One was some ten years old, the other eight or nine.
十來歲 (shí lái suì), about ten years of age.
In the thick of their game, Pilgrim rushed upon them, and caring nothing whose sons they might be, with one grasp seized a topknot and hauled the child over.
張家李家 (Zhāng jiā Lǐ jiā), “the Zhangs’ or the Lis’,” idiom for “whosever.” 抓著 (zhuā zháo), seized hold of; 著 read zháo. 頂搭子 (dǐng dāzi), the tuft of hair left on a child’s crown. 提將過來, hauled over; 將 read jiāng.
The child, taking fright, set up a wild clamour, cursing and weeping together.
吃諕 (chī xià), to be startled, to take fright; 諕 a variant of 嚇, read xià. 夾罵帶哭 (jiā mà dài kū), cursing mixed with crying. 那 read nà.
The commotion startled the lesser imps of the Wave-Moon Cave, who ran in haste to report to the princess: “Mistress, some unknown person has carried off the two young masters.”
波月洞 (Bōyuè Dòng), the Wave-Moon Cave, the fiend’s lair. 奶奶 (nǎinai), mistress, my lady. 甚人 (shén rén), what person, who; 甚 read shén. 二位公子 (èr wèi gōngzǐ), the two young masters; 子 read zǐ. 那 read nà.
Now these two children were, it appeared, those the princess had borne to the fiend.
原來 (yuánlái), as it turned out; a narrator’s formula of disclosure. 那 in both places read nà.
The seizure is characteristic of Wukong’s methods — direct, unsentimental, and instrumentally cruel: the children are taken not for themselves but as leverage against the demon, and the narrator’s aside that Pilgrim “cared nothing whose sons they might be” frankly registers the coldness of the tactic. The child’s terrified clamour, cursing and weeping at once, gives the scene its uneasy edge.
The disclosure that the two are the princess’s own offspring by the fiend complicates the moral field the chapter has been building. The captive princess of Baoxiang is no mere victim awaiting rescue but a mother of the demon’s children, and the hostages Wukong holds are her sons; the revelation prepares the fraught negotiation of the next passage, where her love for the children becomes the lever that frees Sha Seng.