道人報怪 The Servitor Reports a Monster
這大聖正在前邊發狠，搗叉子亂說，只見一個燒晚香的道人點了幾枝香，來佛前爐裡插。被行者咄的一聲，諕了一跌；爬起來看見臉，又是一跌；嚇得滾滾蹡蹡，跑入方丈裡，報道：「老爺，外面有個和尚來了。」那僧官道：「你這夥道人都少打。一行說教他往前廊下去蹲，又報甚麼？再說打二十。」道人說：「老爺，這個和尚比那個和尚不同：生得惡躁，沒脊骨。」僧官道：「怎的模樣？」道人道：「是個圓眼睛，查耳朵，滿面毛，雷公嘴。手執一根棍子，咬牙狠狠的，要尋人打哩。」僧官道：「等我出去看。」这大圣正在前边发狠，捣叉子乱说，只见一个烧晚香的道人点了几枝香，来佛前炉里插。被行者咄的一声，諕了一跌；爬起来看见脸，又是一跌；吓得滚滚蹡蹡，跑入方丈里，报道：「老爷，外面有个和尚来了。」那僧官道：「你这伙道人都少打。一行说教他往前廊下去蹲，又报甚么？再说打二十。」道人说：「老爷，这个和尚比那个和尚不同：生得恶躁，没脊骨。」僧官道：「怎的模样？」道人道：「是个圆眼睛，查耳朵，满面毛，雷公嘴。手执一根棍子，咬牙狠狠的，要寻人打哩。」僧官道：「等我出去看。」
逐句解 Line by line
Just as the Great Sage was venting his fury out front, storming and talking wild, a servitor who had come to burn the evening incense lit a few sticks and went to set them in the censer before the Buddha.
發狠 is to work oneself into a rage; 搗叉子 is slang for making a fuss, talking provocatively; 燒晚香 is to burn the evening incense. The poor man has walked in on this mid-performance.
At a bark from the Pilgrim he was so startled he tumbled over;
咄 is a sharp bark of a shout; 諕 is xià, a variant of 嚇, to frighten.
and when he scrambled up and saw the face, he fell over again;
Up, look, down again. It is a stock comic beat and it never fails.
then, staggering and reeling in terror, he ran into the abbot's quarters and reported: "Your Reverence, there's a monk come outside."
滾滾蹡蹡 is tumbling and staggering. 得 is de; 和尚 takes hé.
The abbot said: "You servitors all deserve a beating."
The abbot's reflex is unchanged: threaten the messenger. 少打 is "one step short of a beating," 少 read shǎo. He still assumes this is the same shabby pilgrim.
"I told you once already to send him to squat under the front verandah — why report again?"
一行說 is "already said in one utterance," the adverbial 一行 with 行 read xíng; 教 is jiào; 甚 is shén.
"Say it again and it's twenty strokes."
Twenty strokes for reporting a visitor. Enjoy his confidence; it has about two minutes left.
The servitor said: "Your Reverence, this monk is not like the other one: he's fierce and rough, and has no backbone."
The servant reaches for the phrase Tripitaka used of himself two passages ago — 沒脊骨, no backbone — and now it is a description of a face. 惡躁 is fierce and rough; 脊 is jǐ; 那 is nà, 得 is de.
The abbot said: "What does he look like?"
怎的 is a vernacular "how, in what manner," the same as 怎麼樣.
The servitor said: "He's got round eyes, splayed ears, a face all over hair, and a mouth like the Thunder Duke's."
The standard portrait of Sun Wukong, delivered by somebody who has just met him. 查耳朵 are jutting, splayed ears; a 雷公嘴 is a "Thunder Duke's beak," the pointed protruding mouth of the thunder-god, and it is how this novel describes Wukong's face every single time.
"He's holding a cudgel, gnashing his teeth ferociously, looking for someone to hit."
咬牙狠狠 is gnashing the teeth in fury; 子 is the light suffix in 棍子.
The abbot said: "Let me go out and look."
The last line he speaks from safety.
The reversal begins in farce. A servant burning the evening incense stumbles on Wukong mid-rant, is so frightened by his face that he falls over twice, and runs to report a monster. The abbot, still assuming this is the same shabby pilgrim, threatens the messenger with a beating for troubling him again — the same reflex of contempt, now pointed at his own man.
The stammered description that follows — round eyes, splayed ears, a face all hair, a mouth like the thunder-god's, a cudgel in hand and the teeth going — is the novel's standard portrait of Sun Wukong seen through frightened eyes, and it draws the abbot out to look for himself. His complacent "let me go out and look" is the last line he speaks from a position of safety.