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. 捨不得 (shě bu de), to be reluctant to part with; 得 read de.
That I have tarried here so long has been of sheer necessity, nothing more.”
稽留 (jī liú), to be detained, to tarry. 不得已 (bù dé yǐ), of necessity, having no other choice; 得 read dé. 耳 (ěr), a final particle, “and that is all.”
Pilgrim said, “You have been thirteen years his wife — can there be no feeling between you?
做了十三年夫妻 (zuò le shísān nián fūqī), to have been husband and wife thirteen years. 豈無情意 (qǐ wú qíngyì), “how can there be no affection?”
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.”
兒戲 (érxì), child’s play, a trifling matter; 兒 read ér. 打倒 (dǎ dǎo), to strike down, to fell; 倒 read dǎo. 才得 (cái dé), only then can; 得 read dé.
The princess’s denial is both defensive and revealing: she disclaims all attachment, insisting her long stay was mere compulsion, yet Wukong’s blunt reminder that thirteen years of marriage can hardly be without feeling exposes the complication the whole episode has skirted. The novel does not resolve the ambiguity so much as name it — her captivity is real, but so, it hints, are the ties that thirteen years and two children have forged.
Wukong cuts through the tangle with the plain resolve of the executioner: no trifling, no half-measures, a blow for a blow until the fiend is felled. The staccato antithesis — “a blow of the staff a blow of the staff, a stroke of the fist a stroke of the fist” — has the ring of an oath, and it closes the long parley of the twelfth block by turning the chapter decisively from persuasion back toward battle, the princess withdrawn and the demon soon to be baited home.