錦心繡口 A Heart Of Brocade
四老聞詩，人人稱賀，都道：「清雅脫塵，句內包含春意。好個『雨潤紅姿嬌且嫩』！『雨潤紅姿嬌且嫩』！」那女子笑而悄答道：「惶恐，惶恐。適聞聖僧之章，誠然錦心繡口。如不吝珠玉，賜教一闋如何？」唐僧不敢答應。四老闻诗，人人称贺，都道：「清雅脱尘，句内包含春意。好个『雨润红姿娇且嫩』！『雨润红姿娇且嫩』！」那女子笑而悄答道：「惶恐，惶恐。适闻圣僧之章，诚然锦心绣口。如不吝珠玉，赐教一阕如何？」唐僧不敢答应。
逐句解 Line by line
The four old men heard the poem and every one of them offered congratulations, all saying, "Pure and elegant and clean out of the dust, and there is spring feeling packed inside the lines. What a line — Rain moistens my red form, tender and soft! Rain moistens my red form, tender and soft!"
Three units merged. The first exclamation is a bare one carrying its own full stop and reacting to what came before, so it joins backwards; the second closes the quotation at seven characters, inside the ceiling of eight. The shape is that of 堪羨！堪羨！ in the earlier round — a line quoted back twice over.
The woman answered softly with a smile, "You overwhelm me, you overwhelm me.
悄答 is answering in a low voice, and it is the first sign of the way she will speak for the rest of the scene.
"Just now I heard the holy monk's pieces — truly a heart of brocade and a mouth of embroidery.
錦心繡口 — a heart of brocade and a mouth of embroidery — praises a writer's invention and his diction together. She is doing to Tripitaka what the Cloud-Brusher did for her a few passages back: singling him out of the company.
"If he will not begrudge his pearls and jade, how would it be if he granted me one more stanza?"
珠玉 for another person's writing is the same courtesy the Eighteenth Duke used on Tripitaka at the start of the evening, when what he wanted was a discourse on Chan. The formula has not changed and the request has.
The Tang Monk did not dare to answer.
Six characters of narration standing alone. 應 is yìng, to respond, not the yīng of obligation, and the automatic reading gives the latter. It is the second refusal to speak he has made in as many blocks.
The four elders quote her best line back at her twice, which is the same compliment they paid each other earlier, and they name what is in it: spring feeling. That is not an innocent phrase, and it is said out loud, by the hosts, in front of the guest.
She then asks Tripitaka for a poem of his own, using the identical formula the Eighteenth Duke used to open the evening — do not begrudge your pearls and jade. When it was said the first time, what was wanted was a lecture on doctrine. The form of the request is unchanged and its content is not, and everyone in the room can hear the difference.
He does not dare to answer. It is the second time in two blocks that the novel has recorded him refusing to speak — the phrases differ, but the construction and the character for daring are the same — and both times it comes immediately after something she has done. The most fluent man in the chapter has stopped speaking altogether.