洞門詐入 · 老媽媽像 The Gate Deceived; the Old Woman's Portrait
三五步，跳到林子裡。正找尋處，只見有兩扇石門，半開半掩，不敢擅入。只得洋叫一聲：「開門！開門！」早驚動那把門的一個女怪，將那半扇兒開了，道：「你是那裡來的？」行者道：「我是平頂山蓮花洞裡差來請老奶奶的。」女怪道：「進去。」到了二層門下，閃著頭，往裡觀看，又見那正當中坐著一個老媽媽兒。你道他怎生模樣？但見：三五步，跳到林子里。正找寻处，只见有两扇石门，半开半掩，不敢擅入。只得洋叫一声：「开门！开门！」早惊动那把门的一个女怪，将那半扇儿开了，道：「你是那里来的？」行者道：「我是平顶山莲花洞里差来请老奶奶的。」女怪道：「进去。」到了二层门下，闪著头，往里观看，又见那正当中坐著一个老妈妈儿。你道他怎生模样？但见：
逐句解 Line by line
In three or five strides he sprang into the grove. Just as he was searching about, he saw a pair of stone doors, half open and half shut, and dared not enter unbidden. He could only call out aloud: “Open the door! Open the door!” This soon roused a female fiend keeping the gate, who opened one half-leaf and said: “Where are you from?”
半開半掩 (bàn kāi bàn yǎn), "half open, half shut." 將那半扇兒 (jiāng nà bàn shàn er), "that half-leaf" — disposal 將, deictic 那, diminutive 兒; but 那裡來 (nǎ lǐ lái), "from where?" — interrogative nǎ.
Pilgrim said: “I'm sent from Lotus-Flower Cave on Level-Top Mountain to invite Old Grandma.” The female fiend said: “Go in.”
差來請 (chāi lái qǐng), "sent to invite" — 差 read chāi, dispatched on an errand. 平頂山蓮花洞 (píng dǐng shān lián huā dòng), Level-Top Mountain and Lotus-Flower Cave, the demons' seat.
Reaching the second gate, he ducked his head and peered within, and saw seated right in the middle an old mother-dame. What was her likeness? Behold:
閃著頭 (shǎn zhe tóu), "ducking the head," and 坐著 (zuò zhe), "seated" — both durative zhe. 往裡觀看 (wǎng lǐ guān kàn), "peered inside" — 觀 read guān, to observe. 老媽媽兒 (lǎo mā ma er), "old mother-dame," diminutive er.
Behold:
但見 (dàn jiàn), "behold" — the storyteller's formula ushering in a set-piece portrait.
Snowy temple-locks, tangled and loose; the light of stars agleam.
雪鬢蓬鬆 (xuě bìn péng sōng), "snowy side-locks, disheveled." 星光晃亮 (xīng guāng huǎng liàng), "starlight glinting bright" — the eyes' undimmed vigor beneath white hair.
Skin ruddy and glowing, though wrinkles run many; teeth few and far, yet spirit stout and strong.
臉皮紅潤 (liǎn pí hóng rùn), "ruddy, glowing skin." 神氣壯 (shén qì zhuàng), "of stout vigor" — the portrait insists on a vitality at odds with the age, marking the matriarch as no feeble crone.
Her face like blossoms faded in the frost's own hue; her form like an aged pine in the after-rain sheen.
貌似花殘 (mào sì huā cán), "her face like faded blossoms" — 似 read sì, the comparative "to resemble." 形如松老 (xíng rú sōng lǎo), "her form like an old pine," the paired simile of frost-flower and rain-pine.
Her head bound in a white silk, floss-gathered kerchief; her ears hung with yellow gold, gem-inlaid rings.
白練攢絲帕 (bái liàn cuán sī pà), "a kerchief of white silk with gathered floss." 黃金嵌寶環 (huáng jīn qiàn bǎo huán), "yellow-gold, gem-inlaid earrings" — the finery that dresses a demon-mother as a matron of rank.
The gate-crashing is played as farce of etiquette: the Great Sage, having murdered his guides, now stands at a stranger's door observing propriety, daring not to enter unbidden and calling politely to be let in. His fluent cover story — sent from Lotus-Flower Cave to invite Old Grandma — passes without a second look, and the female gatekeeper waves him through to the household's heart.
The portrait that follows is the chapter's first set-piece verse, and it is pointedly double-edged. Every couplet grants the matriarch dignity — ruddy skin, bright eyes, stout spirit, silk and gold — the very idiom used elsewhere for venerable matrons, here lavished on the mother of man-eating fiends. The similes of frost-faded flower and rain-worn pine lend her an autumnal grandeur, so that the reader beholds, with Wukong, a figure at once imposing and monstrous, whom he must shortly kneel before.