墜落西方 Down To The Western Road
這大聖呵呵冷笑,那行者也哈哈歡喜。揪頭抹頸,復打出天門,墜落西方路上道:「我和你見師父去,我和你見師父去。」这大圣呵呵冷笑,那行者也哈哈欢喜。揪头抹颈,复打出天门,坠落西方路上道:「我和你见师父去,我和你见师父去。」
逐句解 Line by line
This Great Sage gave a cold sneering laugh; that Pilgrim too roared with delight.
One sneers coldly, the other roars with delight. It is the only moment in this whole stretch where the two are described differently at all — and the difference is one of mood, not of substance.
Seizing each other by the hair and clutching at each other's necks, they fought their way back out of the Heaven Gate and dropped down onto the westward road, saying: "You and I shall go and see our master. You and I shall go and see our master."
墜落 takes luò, to drop. The closing line is printed twice, but not for emphasis: two mouths are saying it, once each, and the doubling is the sentence's meaning.
Forty-five characters, the shortest passage so far, and it does two things. First it gives the only asymmetry the narration has offered since the fight began: one sneers coldly, the other laughs with delight. It is tempting to read that as a clue, and the temptation is worth resisting — a cold laugh at a failed tribunal suits the wronged party quite as well as it suits the impostor.
Second, the repeated line. 我和你見師父去,我和你見師父去 is printed twice, and the obvious reading is emphasis. But the chapter has trained us otherwise by now: the sentence appears twice because two beings say it, once each, at the same moment. The typography has become a way of showing the doubling without the narrator having to point at it again.