原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
先吃頭腳
Head First or Feet First
行者道：「造化，造化。但不知他怎的樣吃哩？」樵子道：「你要他怎的吃？」行者道：「若是先吃頭，還好耍子；若是先吃腳，就難為了。」樵子道：「先吃頭怎麼說？先吃腳怎麼說？」行者道：「你還不曾經著哩。若是先吃頭，一口將他咬下，我已死了，憑他怎麼煎炒熬煮，我也不知疼痛。若是先吃腳，他啃了孤拐，嚼了腿亭，吃到腰截骨，我還急忙不死，卻不是零零碎碎受苦？此所以難為也。」行者道：「造化，造化。但不知他怎的样吃哩？」樵子道：「你要他怎的吃？」行者道：「若是先吃头，还好耍子；若是先吃脚，就难为了。」樵子道：「先吃头怎么说？先吃脚怎么说？」行者道：「你还不曾经著哩。若是先吃头，一口将他咬下，我已死了，凭他怎么煎炒熬煮，我也不知疼痛。若是先吃脚，他啃了孤拐，嚼了腿亭，吃到腰截骨，我还急忙不死，却不是零零碎碎受苦？此所以难为也。」
逐句解 Line by line
行者道：「造化，造化。但不知他怎的樣吃哩？」
行者道：「造化，造化。但不知他怎的样吃哩？」
Said Pilgrim: “What luck, what luck! But I wonder — in what manner do they eat?”
造化 (zàohua), "luck, fortune" (spoken in mock delight).
樵子道：「你要他怎的吃？」
樵子道：「你要他怎的吃？」
Said the woodcutter: “And how would you have them eat you?”
怎的吃 (zěnde chī), "in what way eaten."
行者道：「若是先吃頭，還好耍子；若是先吃腳，就難為了。」
行者道：「若是先吃头，还好耍子；若是先吃脚，就难为了。」
Said Pilgrim: “If they eat the head first, that is still good sport; but if they eat the feet first, then it is a wretched business.”
耍子 (shuǎ zi), "sport, fun." 還 hái; 難為 (nán wéi), "a wretched, troublesome business" — 為 read wéi.
樵子道：「先吃頭怎麼說？先吃腳怎麼說？」
樵子道：「先吃头怎么说？先吃脚怎么说？」
Said the woodcutter: “What do you mean, head first? What do you mean, feet first?”
怎麼說 (zěnme shuō), "how do you mean."
行者道：「你還不曾經著哩。若是先吃頭，一口將他咬下，我已死了，憑他怎麼煎炒熬煮，我也不知疼痛。若是先吃腳，他啃了孤拐，嚼了腿亭，吃到腰截骨，我還急忙不死，卻不是零零碎碎受苦？此所以難為也。」
行者道：「你还不曾经著哩。若是先吃头，一口将他咬下，我已死了，凭他怎么煎炒熬煮，我也不知疼痛。若是先吃脚，他啃了孤拐，嚼了腿亭，吃到腰截骨，我还急忙不死，却不是零零碎碎受苦？此所以难为也。」
Said Pilgrim: “You have never yet been through it. If they eat the head first, one bite and I am gnawed clean off — I am already dead, and let them fry, sauté, stew, or boil me as they please, I shall feel no pain. But if they eat the feet first, gnawing off the ankle-bones, chewing the shanks, working up to the hip-joint, I am not so quickly dead — is that not to suffer bit by little bit? That is why it is a wretched business.”
經著 (jīng zháo), "to have been through, to have undergone" — 著 resultative zháo. 孤拐 (gūguǎi), "ankle-bone." 將 jiāng; 還 hái (twice); 為 wéi.
總評 Commentary
The exchange over how Pilgrim would prefer to be eaten is one of the chapter’s set-pieces of gallows humor. Pilgrim treats his own consumption as a connoisseur’s question — head first is “good sport,” since death is instant and he will feel nothing of the frying and boiling; feet first is “wretched,” a piecemeal agony endured while still alive. The grotesque anatomizing (ankle, shank, hip-joint) is played entirely for comedy.
The bravado is character-defining: Pilgrim, effectively deathless and shape-shifting, can make sport of dismemberment in a way the mortal Tang Monk never could. The humor depends on the reader’s knowledge that the monkey is in no real danger of being eaten at all — the terror the scene toys with is the master’s, projected onto the disciple’s flippant tongue.