兩個燈籠 Two Lanterns Up The Stair
說未了,只見八戒與兩三個小和尚自塔下提著兩個燈籠,走上來道:「師父,掃了塔不去睡覺,在這裡講甚麼哩?」行者道:「師弟,你來正好。塔上的寶貝,乃是萬聖老龍偷了去。今著這兩個小妖巡塔,探聽我等來的消息,卻才被我拿住也。」说未了,只见八戒与两三个小和尚自塔下提着两个灯笼,走上来道:「师父,扫了塔不去睡觉,在这里讲甚么哩?」行者道:「师弟,你来正好。塔上的宝贝,乃是万圣老龙偷了去。今着这两个小妖巡塔,探听我等来的消息,却才被我拿住也。」
逐句解 Line by line
Before he had finished speaking, Eight Rules and two or three of the young monks came up from the foot of the pagoda carrying two lanterns. "Master, you have swept the pagoda and are not going to bed — what are you all talking about up here?"
說未了 takes 了 as the verb liǎo, to finish — before he had done speaking. And 睡覺 takes jiào, to sleep, which is the other half of the character entirely from the jué of waking or perceiving. The two sit a few characters apart from each other in the next passage but one, in opposite readings.
Pilgrim said, "Brother, you have come just at the right moment.
師弟 is the junior of two disciples of one master — a relation of ordination, not of birth. Nine characters, and the tone is the one Pilgrim uses when he is about to hand somebody a job.
"The treasure from the pagoda was stolen by the Myriad Sage Old Dragon.
Fourteen characters to state the thing the kingdom has been unable to establish in three years. The novel does not pause on it for a moment.
"He has now set these two small fiends to patrol the pagoda and get word of our coming, and I have just this moment caught them."
今著 takes 著 as zhuó, the setting-somebody-to-do-something reading — has put them on the job — against the zhe of 提著燈籠 two segments back and of 留著活的 shortly ahead. Three occurrences of one character, and only this one is a dispatch.
Eight Rules arrives with lanterns and a complaint, which is his usual entrance. The complaint is also reasonable. It is past the third watch, the sweeping is finished, and the people who were meant to be doing it are standing about on the tenth storey talking.
What he walks into is the answer to the chapter's question, handed to him flat in two sentences. Pilgrim does not build up to it and does not enjoy it. The dragon took the treasure; these two were watching for us; I have them.