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Reader's edition
兩試裝天
Two Trials of Bottling Heaven
真個把葫蘆往上一拋，撲的就落將下來。慌得個伶俐蟲道：「怎麼不裝？不裝？莫是孫行者假變神仙，將假葫蘆換了我們的真的去耶？」精細鬼道：「不要胡說，孫行者是那三座山壓住了，怎生得出？拿過來，等我念他那幾句咒兒裝了看。」這怪也把葫蘆兒望空丟起，口中念道：「若有半聲不肯，就上靈霄殿上，動起刀兵。」念不了，撲的又落將下來。兩妖道：「不裝，不裝，一定是個假的。」真个把葫芦往上一抛，扑的就落将下来。慌得个伶俐虫道：「怎么不装？不装？莫是孙行者假变神仙，将假葫芦换了我们的真的去耶？」精细鬼道：「不要胡说，孙行者是那三座山压住了，怎生得出？拿过来，等我念他那几句咒儿装了看。」这怪也把葫芦儿望空丢起，口中念道：「若有半声不肯，就上灵霄殿上，动起刀兵。」念不了，扑的又落将下来。两妖道：「不装，不装，一定是个假的。」
逐句解 Line by line
真個把葫蘆往上一拋，撲的就落將下來。
真个把葫芦往上一抛，扑的就落将下来。
And indeed he tossed the gourd upward — and with a plop it came tumbling straight back down.
撲的 (pū de), onomatopoeia of the dead drop — the gourd that once hung in the void to swallow the sky now falls like any dry shell. 落將下來 (luò jiāng xià lái): 將 (jiāng) as the vernacular motion-particle within the directional complement.
慌得個伶俐蟲道：「怎麼不裝？不裝？莫是孫行者假變神仙，將假葫蘆換了我們的真的去耶？」
慌得个伶俐虫道：「怎么不装？不装？莫是孙行者假变神仙，将假葫芦换了我们的真的去耶？」
Clever-Bug cried in panic: “Why won't it bottle? Won't bottle? Can it be that Sun the Pilgrim, feigning an immortal's shape, traded a false gourd away for our true one?”
慌得 (huāng de), "panicked so that" — the complement-marking 得 (de). The imp's stammer — 怎麼不裝？不裝？ — doubles the verb of failure before suspicion at last finds its true target.
精細鬼道：「不要胡說，孫行者是那三座山壓住了，怎生得出？拿過來，等我念他那幾句咒兒裝了看。」
精细鬼道：「不要胡说，孙行者是那三座山压住了，怎生得出？拿过来，等我念他那几句咒儿装了看。」
Fine-and-Keen said: “Don't talk rubbish. Sun the Pilgrim is pinned under those three mountains — how could he get out? Hand it over; let me recite those few words of his spell over it and try the bottling.”
那三座山 (nà sān zuò shān) — the three peaks (Sumeru, Emei, Tai) the demons hurled upon Pilgrim in chapter thirty-three; 那 deictic nà. 怎生得出 (zěn shēng dé chū), "how could he manage to get out" — 得 read dé, attainment. 咒兒 (zhòu er) with the retroflex suffix.
這怪也把葫蘆兒望空丟起，口中念道：「若有半聲不肯，就上靈霄殿上，動起刀兵。」念不了，撲的又落將下來。兩妖道：「不裝，不裝，一定是個假的。」
这怪也把葫芦儿望空丢起，口中念道：「若有半声不肯，就上灵霄殿上，动起刀兵。」念不了，扑的又落将下来。两妖道：「不装，不装，一定是个假的。」
This fiend too flung the little gourd at the empty sky, chanting: “If there be half a sound of refusal, I go straight up to the Hall of Divine Mists and set arms in motion!” Before the chant was done, plop — down it tumbled again. The two imps said: “It won't bottle, it won't bottle — it must be a fake.”
靈霄殿 (líng xiāo diàn), the Hall of Divine Mists, the Jade Emperor's audience-hall — the imp parrots the bluster of the sky-bottling con. 念不了 (niàn bù liǎo), "before he could finish reciting" — 了 read liǎo, completion. 一定 (yí dìng), "certainly.”
總評 Commentary
The comedy of this passage is the comedy of ritual without power. Each imp performs the full liturgy of the sky-bottling swindle — the upward toss, the borrowed incantation, even the threat against the celestial court — and the gourd answers with the flat physics of a falling shell. The onomatopoeic 撲的, twice repeated, is the sound of a con collapsing.
There is a fine gradation in the two imps' errors. Clever-Bug reaches the truth at once — a false gourd for the true one — only to be talked out of it; Fine-and-Keen's rebuttal rests on what he takes for the surest fact in the world, that Sun the Pilgrim lies crushed beneath three mountains. The reader knows both that the suspicion was exact and that the reassurance was already obsolete, and the imps' final verdict — “it must be a fake” — indicts the object while missing the exchange.