原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
掙不得脫手 He Cannot Wrench Free
那獃子左掙右掙，掙不得脫手。被行者拿定多時，只見那半空裡閃出一個妖精。那呆子左挣右挣，挣不得脱手。被行者拿定多时，只见那半空里闪出一个妖精。
逐句解 Line by line
那獃子左掙右掙，掙不得脫手。
那呆子左挣右挣，挣不得脱手。
The idiot struggled left and struggled right, and could not wrench himself free.
掙不得脫手 — he cannot wrench free. This is one of only two places in the chapter where 不得 appears, and the only one where it means "cannot": the word in front decides it. Where a verb comes first, as here, it is inability; where an adverb comes first, as in the king's mouth earlier, it keeps the full dé.
被行者拿定多時，只見那半空裡閃出一個妖精。
被行者拿定多时，只见那半空里闪出一个妖精。
Held fast by Pilgrim for a good while — and then out of mid-air a monster flashed into view.
The struggling and the arrival are set down in one movement, so the monster appears while Eight Rules is still trying to get his arm back. 那 is nà.
The struggling and the arrival happen in one movement, so that the monster flashes out of mid-air while Eight Rules is still trying to get his arm back. Nothing in the sentence marks the join.
"He could not wrench free" is one of only two places in the chapter using this negative, and the one that means inability. The other, in the king's mouth a while back, means something else entirely. The two look identical on the page and are told apart only by the word standing in front of them.