原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
好殺一場
A Fine Fray
這一場好殺：这一场好杀：
七星劍，降妖棒，萬映金光如閃亮。七星剑，降妖棒，万映金光如闪亮。
這個圜眼兇如黑殺神，那個鐵臉真是捲簾將。这个圜眼凶如黑杀神，那个铁脸真是卷帘将。
那怪山前大顯能，一心要捉唐三藏。那怪山前大显能，一心要捉唐三藏。
這個努力保真僧，一心寧死不肯放。这个努力保真僧，一心宁死不肯放。
他兩個噴雲噯霧照天宮，播土揚塵遮斗象。他两个喷云嗳雾照天宫，播土扬尘遮斗象。
殺得那一輪紅日淡無光，大地乾坤昏蕩蕩。杀得那一轮红日淡无光，大地干坤昏荡荡。
來往相持八九回，不期戰敗沙和尚。来往相持八九回，不期战败沙和尚。
逐句解 Line by line
這一場好殺：
这一场好杀：
This was a fine fray:
好殺 (hǎo shā), “a fine fight, a splendid battle” — the storyteller's tag introducing a set-piece verse of combat.
七星劍，降妖棒，萬映金光如閃亮。
七星剑，降妖棒，万映金光如闪亮。
A Seven-Star sword, a demon-quelling staff — / ten thousand glints of golden light, flashing bright.
降妖棒 (xiáng yāo bàng), the “demon-subduing staff,” 降 read xiáng. The opening pairs the two weapons — the fiend's blade and Sha Monk's staff.
這個圜眼兇如黑殺神，那個鐵臉真是捲簾將。
这个圜眼凶如黑杀神，那个铁脸真是卷帘将。
This one, round-eyed, fierce as the Dark God of Slaughter; / that one, iron-faced, the very Curtain-Rolling General.
圜眼 (yuán yǎn), “round eyes,” 圜 read yuán, “round.” 捲簾將 (juǎn lián jiàng), the “Curtain-Rolling General,” Sha Monk's former title in Heaven; 將 here is jiàng, “general.” “This one” is the fiend, “that one” Sha Monk.
那怪山前大顯能，一心要捉唐三藏。
那怪山前大显能，一心要捉唐三藏。
The fiend before the mountain shows his full power, / bent with a single heart on seizing Tang Tripitaka.
大顯能 (dà xiǎn néng), “displays his full prowess.” The demon's whole aim is the Master.
這個努力保真僧，一心寧死不肯放。
这个努力保真僧，一心宁死不肯放。
This one strains to shield the true monk, / of a single heart to die sooner than give way.
寧死 (nìng sǐ), “would rather die,” 寧 read nìng. Sha Monk holds the line for Tripitaka. 真僧 (zhēn sēng), “the true monk.”
他兩個噴雲噯霧照天宮，播土揚塵遮斗象。
他两个喷云嗳雾照天宫，播土扬尘遮斗象。
The two of them spew cloud and belch mist to light the Palace of Heaven, / fling up dust and scatter earth to veil the Dipper and the stars.
噴雲噯霧 (pēn yún ǎi wù), “spewing cloud and belching mist,” 噯 read ǎi. 斗象 (dǒu xiàng), “the Dipper and the celestial signs,” 斗 the constellation, dǒu.
殺得那一輪紅日淡無光，大地乾坤昏蕩蕩。
杀得那一轮红日淡无光，大地干坤昏荡荡。
They fight till the single red disc of the sun fades to no light, / and the whole earth, all heaven-and-earth, hangs dim and reeling.
殺得 (shā de), “fight to the point that,” the 得 (de) of degree. 乾坤 (qián kūn), “heaven and earth,” the trigrams Qian and Kun; 乾 read qián.
來往相持八九回，不期戰敗沙和尚。
来往相持八九回，不期战败沙和尚。
Back and forth they grapple, eight rounds or nine — / till, past all expectation, Sha Monk is beaten.
相持 (xiāng chí), “to grapple, contend evenly,” 相 read xiāng. 不期 (bù qī), “unexpectedly, contrary to hope.” The verse ends on Sha Monk's defeat.
總評 Commentary
The chapter's set-piece battle-verse pits the two combatants in strict parallel — the round-eyed fiend “fierce as the Dark God of Slaughter” against the iron-faced Sha Monk, “the very Curtain-Rolling General,” his old title in Heaven. Each half-line answers its mate: the demon shows his prowess to seize the Master, Sha Monk strains to shield him, ready to die before yielding. The couplet form makes the duel a contest of matched wills as much as weapons.
The cosmic hyperbole is conventional to the genre and pointed in its effect: spewed cloud lights the Heavenly Palace, flung dust veils the Dipper, the sun itself pales and heaven-and-earth reels. Yet the verse turns on its last line — 不期戰敗沙和尚, “past all expectation, Sha Monk is beaten.” With Pilgrim buried under three mountains, the party's last defender falls, and the storyteller's “fine fray” ends not in triumph but in the capture the next passages record.