第六十七回 · 路途甚遠 The Road Ahead Is Long — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

路途甚遠 The Road Ahead Is Long

老lǎo者zhě道dào：「和hé尚shàng，你nǐ要yào西xī行xíng，卻què是shì去qù不bù得de啊a。此cǐ處chù乃nǎi小xiǎo西xī天tiān，若ruò到dào大dà西xī天tiān，路lù途tú甚shèn遠yuǎn。且qiě休xiū道dào前qián去qù艱jiān難nán，只zhǐ這zhè個gè地dì方fāng已yǐ此cǐ難nán過guò。」三sān藏zàng問wèn：「怎zěn麼me難nán過guò？」老lǎo者zhě道dào：「和hé尚shàng，你nǐ要yào西xī行xíng，却què是shì去qù不bù得de啊a。此cǐ处chù乃nǎi小xiǎo西xī天tiān，若ruò到dào大dà西xī天tiān，路lù途tú甚shèn远yuǎn。且qiě休xiū道dào前qián去qù艰jiān难nán，只zhǐ这zhè个gè地dì方fāng已yǐ此cǐ难nán过guò。」三sān藏zàng问wèn：「怎zěn么me难nán过guò？」

逐句解 Line by line

老lǎo者zhě道dào：「和hé尚shàng，你nǐ要yào西xī行xíng，卻què是shì去qù不bù得de啊a。老lǎo者zhě道dào：「和hé尚shàng，你nǐ要yào西xī行xíng，却què是shì去qù不bù得de啊a。

The old man said, "Monk, you mean to go west — but west you cannot go.

Here is the pattern that governs 得 right through this chapter, and it turns on word order. In 去不得 the verb comes first, which makes it the "can't manage to" construction, and 得 is the light de. Put 不得 before the verb and it becomes the full dé, "may not" — and the chapter has that pattern too, a few scenes on. Same two characters, opposite jobs.

此cǐ處chù乃nǎi小xiǎo西xī天tiān，若ruò到dào大dà西xī天tiān，路lù途tú甚shèn遠yuǎn。此cǐ处chù乃nǎi小xiǎo西xī天tiān，若ruò到dào大dà西xī天tiān，路lù途tú甚shèn远yuǎn。

"This place is the Lesser Western Heaven. If you are bound for the Great Western Heaven, the road is very long indeed.

甚 is shèn here, "extremely" — the other reading of the character the old man used a moment ago when he asked who was shouting.

且qiě休xiū道dào前qián去qù艱jiān難nán，只zhǐ這zhè個gè地dì方fāng已yǐ此cǐ難nán過guò。」且qiě休xiū道dào前qián去qù艰jiān难nán，只zhǐ这zhè个gè地dì方fāng已yǐ此cǐ难nán过guò。」

"Never mind the hardships further on: this place right here is already hard enough to get past."

Both appearances of 難 are the adverb nán, "hard." Nothing in this chapter uses the nàn that means a calamity, which is worth saying because the character is common in that sense elsewhere.

三sān藏zàng問wèn：「怎zěn麼me難nán過guò？」三sān藏zàng问wèn：「怎zěn么me难nán过guò？」

Tripitaka asked, "How is it hard to get past?"

Four characters standing as a whole segment. It names its speaker and closes its own quotation marks, which stops it being swallowed into the old man's speech above it.

總評 Commentary

The refusal comes in three stages and each one narrows. You cannot go west; the road to the true west is long; and in any case you cannot get past this particular spot. The last is the one that matters, and he reaches it by working inward from the general to the thing outside his own gate.

There is a quiet joke in the geography. The party has just escaped from the Lesser Western Heaven and is now being told by a man who lives beside it that the real one is still a long way off. The counterfeit destination and the true one are being separated for the reader as much as for Tripitaka.

Tripitaka's question is the hinge of the episode. Four characters, and the old man will need the rest of the scene to answer it.