不可外談 Not To Be Told Abroad
國王道：「古人云：『家醜不可外談。』奈神僧是朕恩主，惟不笑，方可告之。」行者道：「怎敢笑話？請說無妨。」国王道：「古人云：『家丑不可外谈。』奈神僧是朕恩主，惟不笑，方可告之。」行者道：「怎敢笑话？请说无妨。」
逐句解 Line by line
The king said, "The ancients said: family shame is not to be talked of outside.
The sixth quotation from the classics in this chapter, and the only one whose speaker abandons it in the very next breath. Family shame is not to be talked of outside — and he is about to talk of it.
"But the divine monk is Our benefactor. Only do not laugh, and We may tell it."
What he asks for is not secrecy. Only do not laugh. He is a king who gave away his queen and expects to be mocked for it. 恩主 — the lord of one's gratitude — is a very strong term for a king to use of anybody.
Pilgrim said, "How should I dare to laugh? Speak and fear nothing."
Pilgrim gives the undertaking readily, and — unusually for this chapter — he keeps it.
The king reaches for a quotation from the classics, as several characters have done in this chapter, and like all of theirs it does not hold. Family shame is not to be talked of outside — and he is about to talk of it.
What he asks for is not secrecy. Only do not laugh, and I can tell it. This is a king who gave his queen away and expects to be mocked for it, and the undertaking he wants is against ridicule. Pilgrim gives it, and — unusually for this chapter — keeps it.