十三年情 Thirteen Years a Wife
公主道：「我怎的捨不得他？其稽留於此者，不得已耳。」行者道：「你與他做了十三年夫妻，豈無情意？我若見了他，不與他兒戲，一棍便是一棍，一拳便是一拳，須要打倒他，才得你回朝見駕。」公主道：「我怎的舍不得他？其稽留于此者，不得已耳。」行者道：「你与他做了十三年夫妻，岂无情意？我若见了他，不与他儿戏，一棍便是一棍，一拳便是一拳，须要打倒他，才得你回朝见驾。」
逐句解 Line by line
The princess said, "How should I be loath to give him up?
怎的, zěn de, "how, in what way." The denial comes fast, which is itself an answer of a kind.
That I have tarried here so long has been of sheer necessity, nothing more."
She switches into formal, literary Chinese to say it, which is what people do when they want a statement to sound settled. 稽留, jī liú, to be detained, to tarry; 不得已, bù dé yǐ, of necessity, having no other choice; 耳, ěr, a classical closing flourish meaning "and that is all there is to it."
Pilgrim said, "You have been thirteen years his wife — can there be no feeling between you?
And Wukong, who has no tact whatever, says the thing aloud. 豈無情意, qǐ wú qíng yì, "how can there be no feeling?" Thirteen years and two children are not nothing, and everyone in the scene knows it.
When I meet him, I will not trifle with him: a blow of the staff shall be a blow of the staff, a stroke of the fist a stroke of the fist; I must strike him down, that you may return to court and be received of the king."
The reply is an oath in the shape of a drumbeat: a blow of the staff shall be a blow of the staff, a stroke of the fist a stroke of the fist. 兒戲, ér xì, "child's play," a trifling matter; 打倒, dǎ dǎo, to strike down, with 倒 read dǎo; 才得, cái dé, only then can.
The princess's denial is both defensive and revealing. She disclaims all attachment and insists her long stay was pure compulsion, and yet Wukong's blunt reminder that thirteen years of marriage can hardly be without feeling exposes the complication the whole episode has been walking around. The novel does not resolve the ambiguity so much as name it: her captivity is real, and so, it hints, are the ties that thirteen years and two children have made.
Wukong cuts through the tangle with the plain resolve of an executioner: no trifling, no half-measures, a blow for a blow until the fiend is down. The clipped repetitions have the ring of a vow, and they close the long parley by turning the chapter decisively from persuasion back toward battle, the princess withdrawn and the demon soon to be baited home.