妖精刺像 The Fiend Thrusts at the Image
不一時，望見那菩薩了。行者道：「妖精，我怕你了，你饒我罷。你如今趕至南海觀音菩薩處，怎麼還不回去？」那妖王不信，咬著牙，只管趕來。行者將身一幌，藏在那菩薩的神光影裡。這妖精見沒了行者。走近前，睜圓眼，對菩薩道：「你是孫行者請來的救兵麼？」菩薩不答應。妖王撚轉長槍，喝道：「咄！你是孫行者請來的救兵麼？」菩薩也不答應。妖精望菩薩劈心刺一槍來。不一时，望见那菩萨了。行者道：「妖精，我怕你了，你饶我罢。你如今赶至南海观音菩萨处，怎么还不回去？」那妖王不信，咬着牙，只管赶来。行者将身一幌，藏在那菩萨的神光影里。这妖精见没了行者。走近前，睁圆眼，对菩萨道：「你是孙行者请来的救兵么？」菩萨不答应。妖王撚转长枪，喝道：「咄！你是孙行者请来的救兵么？」菩萨也不答应。妖精望菩萨劈心刺一枪来。
逐句解 Line by line
Before long, that Bodhisattva came into view.
The seated figure comes into view — the lotus throne with a Bodhisattva on it, or so it appears. 那 points, so nà.
Pilgrim said: "Fiend, I'm afraid of you — spare me, do.
The terror is acting, and it is meant to be overheard. 罷 in 饒我罷 is the soft ba: spare me, do.
You've chased me all the way to the Bodhisattva Guanyin of the Southern Sea — why don't you go back yet?"
He even tells the demon where he is, which is the last thing a genuinely frightened man would do. 觀 in 觀音 is guān; 處 in 菩薩處 is chù; 還 in 還不 is hái, still not.
That demon king did not believe it, and, gritting his teeth, kept right on after him.
Teeth gritted, straight on. 那 points, so nà; 著 in 咬著牙 is zhe.
Pilgrim gave his body a shake and hid within the shadow of that Bodhisattva's divine light.
And Wukong vanishes into her light, leaving the demon alone with the figure. 將 in 將身一幌 is jiāng; 藏 is cáng; 那 points, so nà.
This fiend, seeing Pilgrim gone,
沒 is méi: Pilgrim gone.
came up close, opened his eyes wide, and said to the Bodhisattva: "Are you the rescue Sun the Pilgrim went and fetched?"
The question, put to a silent figure.
The Bodhisattva made no answer.
No answer — and the silence is the bait. 應 in 答應 is yìng, to answer, not yīng.
The demon king twirled his long spear and shouted: "Hah!
咄 is a bark of contempt, the noise you make to bring somebody up short. 長 in 長槍 is cháng.
Are you the rescue Sun the Pilgrim went and fetched?"
The same demand, louder.
The Bodhisattva again made no answer.
And the same silence, which is now unbearable. 應 is yìng.
The fiend thrust a spear straight at the Bodhisattva's heart.
So he thrusts — and springs the trap while believing he has won a fight. 劈心 is straight at the heart.
Wukong leads the charm-dazed demon to the lotus throne — the "Guanyin" that is really the borrowed blades in disguise — and, feigning terror, slips into her light and vanishes, leaving the demon face to face with a silent seated figure. Twice he demands to know whether she is the rescue Wukong fetched, and twice she says nothing; the silence is itself the bait, provoking the fatal thrust. When he finally drives his spear at the image's heart, the trap is triggered, though he takes his own strike for a triumph. The whole passage turns on misplaced confidence: he believes he is routing a feeble saviour when he is springing a snare set with Heaven's own blades.
The silence is the most economical trap in the book. Guanyin does nothing at all — she neither speaks nor moves nor defends herself — and the demon's own impatience supplies every part of his undoing. He interprets the stillness as weakness, and interpretation is where he has been strong all chapter. Having read Wukong correctly twice over, he reads a silent seated figure and gets it entirely wrong, because this time there is nothing to read.