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繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
僧官見醜
The Abbot Beholds the Face
他即開門，只見行者撞進來了。真個生得醜陋：七高八低孤拐臉，兩隻黃眼睛，一個磕額頭，獠牙往外生。就像屬螃蟹的，肉在裡面，骨在外面。那老和尚慌得把方丈門關了。行者趕上，撲的打破門扇，道：「趕早將乾淨房子打掃一千間，老孫睡覺。」僧官躲在房裡，對道人說：「怪他生得醜麼，原來是說大話折作的這般嘴臉。我這裡連方丈、佛殿、鐘鼓樓、兩廊，共總也不上三百間，他卻要一千間睡覺，卻打那裡來？」道人說：「師父，我也是嚇破膽的人了，憑你怎麼答應他罷。」那僧官戰索索的高叫道：「那借宿的長老，我這小荒山不方便，不敢奉留，往別處去宿罷。」他即开门，只见行者撞进来了。真个生得丑陋：七高八低孤拐脸，两只黄眼睛，一个磕额头，獠牙往外生。就像属螃蟹的，肉在里面，骨在外面。那老和尚慌得把方丈门关了。行者赶上，扑的打破门扇，道：「赶早将干净房子打扫一千间，老孙睡觉。」僧官躲在房里，对道人说：「怪他生得丑么，原来是说大话折作的这般嘴脸。我这里连方丈、佛殿、钟鼓楼、两廊，共总也不上三百间，他却要一千间睡觉，却打那里来？」道人说：「师父，我也是吓破胆的人了，凭你怎么答应他罢。」那僧官战索索的高叫道：「那借宿的长老，我这小荒山不方便，不敢奉留，往别处去宿罢。」
逐句解 Line by line
他即開門，只見行者撞進來了。
他即开门，只见行者撞进来了。
He opened the door — and there was the Pilgrim, barging straight in.
The abbot's swagger meets Wukong face to face.
真個生得醜陋：七高八低孤拐臉，兩隻黃眼睛，一個磕額頭，獠牙往外生。
真个生得丑陋：七高八低孤拐脸，两只黄眼睛，一个磕额头，獠牙往外生。
Truly he was hideous to behold: a rugged, jutting ankle-bone of a face, two yellow eyes, a knobbed forehead, and fangs growing outward.
七高八低 "all bumps and hollows, rugged"; 孤拐臉 "an ankle-bone face," angular and protruding; 獠牙 outward-jutting fangs; 得 read de.
就像屬螃蟹的，肉在裡面，骨在外面。
就像属螃蟹的，肉在里面，骨在外面。
He was rather like a crab: the flesh on the inside, the bones on the out.
屬螃蟹的 "belonging to the crab kind" — a comic figure for Wukong's exoskeletal ugliness.
那老和尚慌得把方丈門關了。
那老和尚慌得把方丈门关了。
The old monk was so alarmed he shut the door of his quarters.
那 read nà, 和尚 read hé shàng; 得 read de. His nerve fails at the sight.
行者趕上，撲的打破門扇，道：「趕早將乾淨房子打掃一千間，老孫睡覺。」
行者赶上，扑的打破门扇，道：「赶早将干净房子打扫一千间，老孙睡觉。」
The Pilgrim caught up, smashed the door-leaves open with a bang, and said: “Look sharp and sweep out a thousand clean rooms — Old Sun means to sleep.”
將 read jiāng (coverb); 乾淨 "clean" — 乾 read gān (not the trigram qián); 睡覺 "to sleep" — 覺 read jiào.
僧官躲在房裡，對道人說：「怪他生得醜麼，原來是說大話折作的這般嘴臉。
僧官躲在房里，对道人说：「怪他生得丑么，原来是说大话折作的这般嘴脸。
The abbot, cowering in his room, said to the servitor: “No wonder he looks so hideous — it turns out that ugly face is what comes of talking big.”
折作 "reduced to, turned into," 折 read zhé; 得 read de. The abbot's superstition: bragging deforms the face.
我這裡連方丈、佛殿、鐘鼓樓、兩廊，共總也不上三百間，他卻要一千間睡覺，卻打那裡來？」
我这里连方丈、佛殿、钟鼓楼、两廊，共总也不上三百间，他却要一千间睡觉，却打那里来？」
“All told — abbot's quarters, Buddha-hall, bell-and-drum tower, and both galleries — we haven't three hundred rooms, and he wants a thousand to sleep in. Where's it to come from?”
鐘鼓樓 the bell-and-drum tower; 佛 read fó; 覺 read jiào; 那 read nà. The demand is deliberately impossible.
道人說：「師父，我也是嚇破膽的人了，憑你怎麼答應他罷。」
道人说：「师父，我也是吓破胆的人了，凭你怎么答应他罢。」
The servitor said: “Master, I'm a man scared out of his wits already — answer him however you like.”
嚇破膽 "frightened till the gall bursts," terrified out of one's wits; 答應 (dā yìng) "to answer, respond" — 應 read yìng; 罷 the softening particle ba.
那僧官戰索索的高叫道：「那借宿的長老，我這小荒山不方便，不敢奉留，往別處去宿罷。」
那僧官战索索的高叫道：「那借宿的长老，我这小荒山不方便，不敢奉留，往别处去宿罢。」
The abbot, trembling all over, called out in a loud voice: “That lodging-elder — this poor little hill of ours is not convenient; I dare not keep you. Go elsewhere to lodge.”
那 read nà (twice); 長 read zhǎng; 罷 the particle ba. Fear reduces the once-haughty abbot to abject courtesy.
總評 Commentary
The abbot flings open his door to confront the intruder and instead comes face to face with Wukong — described here in the novel's full grotesque register: a rugged, angular face, yellow eyes, a knobbed brow, outward fangs, and the memorable figure of a crab, flesh within and bone without. His courage collapses; he slams the door, and Wukong smashes it open with a demand for a thousand clean rooms.
The abbot's whispered aside to the servitor is finely comic and finely characterizing. Rather than recognize a formidable being, he clings to a folk superstition — that bragging is what deforms a man's face — and frets over the arithmetic of his three hundred rooms against the impossible thousand. Where before he was imperiously rude, terror now makes him abjectly polite, addressing the very pilgrim he scorned as "lodging-elder" and begging him, trembling, to take his custom elsewhere. The moral hierarchy of the opening has been exactly inverted.