原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
包袱放光
It Was The Bundle Glowing
他順著不封瓦口椽子之下,鑽將進去,越門過戶,到了中間看時,只見那第三重樓窗之下,閃灼灼一道毫光,也不是燈燭之光、螢火之光,又不是飛霞之光、掣電之光。他半飛半跳,近於窗前看時,卻是包袱放光。那妖精把唐僧的袈裟脫了,不曾摺,就亂亂的揌在包袱之內。他顺着不封瓦口椽子之下,钻将进去,越门过户,到了中间看时,只见那第三重楼窗之下,闪灼灼一道毫光,也不是灯烛之光、萤火之光,又不是飞霞之光、掣电之光。他半飞半跳,近于窗前看时,却是包袱放光。那妖精把唐僧的袈裟脱了,不曾折,就乱乱的揌在包袱之内。
逐句解 Line by line
他順著不封瓦口椽子之下,鑽將進去,越門過戶,到了中間看時,只見那第三重樓窗之下,閃灼灼一道毫光,也不是燈燭之光、螢火之光,又不是飛霞之光、掣電之光。
他顺着不封瓦口椽子之下,钻将进去,越门过户,到了中间看时,只见那第三重楼窗之下,闪灼灼一道毫光,也不是灯烛之光、萤火之光,又不是飞霞之光、掣电之光。
He followed the line of an unsealed tile-gap under the rafters, bored his way in, crossed door after door, and when he had got to the middle and looked, there below the window of the third storey was one glittering thread of light — and it was not lamplight or candlelight or the light of fireflies, nor the light of flying cloud or of lightning.
Four kinds of light named and all four denied, which is how this novel describes something it wants the reader to guess at. 重 is chóng, a storey or a layer, not the zhòng of weight.
他半飛半跳,近於窗前看時,卻是包袱放光。
他半飞半跳,近于窗前看时,却是包袱放光。
Half flying and half hopping, he got up close to the window and looked, and it was the bundle giving off the light.
半飛半跳, half flying and half hopping, is a bat's actual gait, and the only moment in the passage where the transformation is visible from outside. The answer to those four grand denials is one of the plainest objects in the book.
那妖精把唐僧的袈裟脫了,不曾摺,就亂亂的揌在包袱之內。
那妖精把唐僧的袈裟脱了,不曾折,就乱乱的揌在包袱之内。
The demon had stripped the Tang Monk's cassock off, had not folded it, and had simply stuffed it anyhow into the bundle.
不曾摺 — did not fold it — is the detail the entire discovery turns on. The light gets out because a demon crammed a robe into a bundle without folding it. 曾 is céng, the adverb.
總評 Commentary
A hundred graphs of stealth resolved by a housekeeping failure. Pilgrim gets through the roof, past the doors and up to the third storey; what actually finds the bundle for him is that a demon could not be bothered to fold a robe.
The four denied lights are worth reading aloud — lamp, firefly, cloud, lightning, each with 之光 after it. The prose builds an expectation of something celestial and then answers it with 卻是包袱放光: six graphs, the luggage.