魄散魂飛 Her Soul Scattered in Flight
那女子見了,諕得魄散魂飛,沒好步,亂𤜱金蓮,戰兢兢回頭便走。這大聖吆吆喝喝,隨後相跟。原來穿過松陰,就是摩雲洞口。女子跑進去,撲的把門關了。那女子见了,諕得魄散魂飞,没好步,乱𤜱金莲,战兢兢回头便走。这大圣吆吆喝喝,随后相跟。原来穿过松阴,就是摩云洞口。女子跑进去,扑的把门关了。
逐句解 Line by line
At the sight of it the woman was so terrified that her spirits scattered and her soul took flight. She could find no proper footing, but went stamping wildly on her golden lotuses as, trembling, she turned and ran.
Two rare readings and a euphemism, in one sentence of pure farce. 諕 is xià, to frighten, though a dictionary will also offer háo. The character after 亂 is 𤜱, read bā: the 康熙 dictionary files it under the dog radical with four strokes and gives one reading only, 《集韻》邦加切,音巴,本又作豝 — that is, it is a variant of the character for a sow. Alongside the sow it carries an old verbal sense of trampling or treading heavily, answering to 踩 and 踐, and that is the sense the line needs. 金蓮, golden lotuses, is the standard euphemism for a woman's bound feet. Put the three together and you have her stamping frantically and finding no footing as she runs.
The Great Sage came shouting and hallooing along behind her.
吆吆喝喝 doubles two syllables of din, and both instances of 喝 are hè, shouting, against the hē of drinking. 相 is xiāng here, the "each other" reading, where three passages ago the same character was xiàng, of the Sage's looks.
It proved that through the shade of the pines lay the very mouth of the Cloud-Touching Cave.
原來 marks the discovery as belated, and the irony is entirely at his expense: the cave he had been asking directions to was a few paces away the whole time, and she has led him straight to it by running home.
The woman ran inside and slammed the door to with a bang.
撲的 is the vernacular sound-formula again — the bang stands in for the act. 的 is the toneless de.
The chase is four sentences long and turns the situation completely round. The Great Sage has spent the entire encounter trying to find out where the Cloud-Touching Cave is, and gets there by frightening its mistress into running home. 原來 registers the irony from his side: it was behind the pines all along.
The comedy is cruel and the novel does not soften it. A woman introduced four passages ago through a poem of Wang Zhaojun and Xue Tao, jade and brocade and moth-eyebrows, is last seen stumbling on bound feet with a monkey bellowing behind her and swinging an iron bar. The portrait and the flight are set close enough together that we are plainly meant to read one against the other.