讓賭鹿力 The King Stands Aside
國王大驚,將他那關文捧在手中道:「聖僧莫誤西行,與你關文去罷。」行者笑道:「關文小可,也請二國師剖剖剜剜,何如?」國王對鹿力說:「這事不與寡人相干,是你要與他做對頭的,請去,請去。」鹿力道:「寬心,料我決不輸與他。」国王大惊,将他那关文捧在手中道:「圣僧莫误西行,与你关文去罢。」行者笑道:「关文小可,也请二国师剖剖剜剜,何如?」国王对鹿力说:「这事不与寡人相干,是你要与他做对头的,请去,请去。」鹿力道:「宽心,料我决不输与他。」
逐句解 Line by line
The king, greatly alarmed, took his travel-rescript up in his hands and said: "Holy Monk, delay not your westward road — here is your rescript; go."
The king tries again to end it, and this time he brings the paperwork over himself. 聖僧, Holy Monk, is a promotion from 那和尚, that monk, which is what he was calling Tripitaka an hour ago. 莫誤西行: 行 = xíng, don't hold up your westward road. 將 = jiāng; 那 = nà; 中 = zhōng; 罷 = ba.
The Pilgrim laughed and said: "The rescript's a small matter — let the Second National Preceptor, too, do a little cutting and gouging; how about it?"
關文小可 — the travel papers are a trifle. Wukong has what he came for and does not want it. 剖剖剜剜 doubles both verbs into something almost playful: a little cutting, a little gouging. How about it?
The king said to Deer-Power: "This affair is no concern of Ours — it's you who would make yourself his adversary; go on, go on."
這事不與寡人相干 — this is no concern of Ours. 相干 (相 = xiāng) is still the ordinary word for having anything to do with something. The king has spent the chapter handing his authority away, and here he formally disowns the consequences: it's you who wanted to be his 對頭, his opposite number, so off you go.
Deer-Power said: "Rest easy — I reckon I'll surely not lose to him."
寬心 — set your mind at ease. 料我決不輸與他, I reckon I shall certainly not lose to him. He has watched his brother die and revert to a tiger, and he still believes this.
The king makes two moves to extricate himself in this passage, and neither works. First he carries the travel papers over in his own hands and calls Tripitaka 聖僧, Holy Monk — a considerable promotion from the 那和尚, that monk, of an hour ago. Then, when Wukong declines to leave without seeing the second Preceptor cut open, he disclaims the whole business: 這事不與寡人相干, this is no concern of Ours, it's you who wanted to be his adversary.
Giving that up finishes his fall from ruler to onlooker. Having handed his kingdom to the immortals, he can now only stand and watch their contest destroy them. And Deer-Power's 料我決不輸與他, I reckon I shall certainly not lose — spoken by a man who has just watched his brother die and turn into a tiger — is the particular kind of confidence this chapter keeps staging so that it can be knocked down. The reader knows exactly how the wager ends. The passage is the last quiet beat before the hawk.