第七十回 · 不打緊 Nothing Much Of A Job — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

不打緊 Nothing Much Of A Job

那nà八bā戒jiè在zài金jīn鑾luán殿diàn前qián正zhèng護hù持chí著zhe王wáng、師shī，忽hū回huí頭tóu看kàn見jiàn行xíng者zhě半bàn空kōng中zhōng將jiāng個gè妖yāo精jīng挑tiǎo來lái，他tā卻què怨yuàn道dào：「噯ǎi！不bù打dǎ緊jǐn的de買mǎi賣mài。早zǎo知zhī老lǎo豬zhū去qù拿ná來lái，卻què不bú算suàn我wǒ一yì功gōng？」那nà八bā戒jiè在zài金jīn銮luán殿diàn前qián正zhèng护hù持chí着zhe王wáng、师shī，忽hū回huí头tóu看kàn见jiàn行xíng者zhě半bàn空kōng中zhōng将jiāng个gè妖yāo精jīng挑tiǎo来lái，他tā却què怨yuàn道dào：「嗳ǎi！不bù打dǎ紧jǐn的de买mǎi卖mài。早zǎo知zhī老lǎo猪zhū去qù拿ná来lái，却què不bú算suàn我wǒ一yì功gōng？」

逐句解 Line by line

那nà八bā戒jiè在zài金jīn鑾luán殿diàn前qián正zhèng護hù持chí著zhe王wáng、師shī，忽hū回huí頭tóu看kàn見jiàn行xíng者zhě半bàn空kōng中zhōng將jiāng個gè妖yāo精jīng挑tiǎo來lái，他tā卻què怨yuàn道dào：「噯ǎi！那nà八bā戒jiè在zài金jīn銮luán殿diàn前qián正zhèng护hù持chí着zhe王wáng、师shī，忽hū回huí头tóu看kàn见jiàn行xíng者zhě半bàn空kōng中zhōng将jiāng个gè妖yāo精jīng挑tiǎo来lái，他tā却què怨yuàn道dào：「嗳ǎi！

Bajie was standing guard over the king and their master in front of the Hall of the Golden Bells when he happened to turn his head and see Pilgrim up in the middle air with a fiend carried along on the end of his rod. He grumbled: "Bah!

挑 is tiǎo again, the lifting reading, in the same sense it took when Wukong hoisted the body fifty-eight characters ago. 噯 is ǎi, a grunt of irritation — the dictionary's first reading for the character is the level āi, which is a sigh rather than a complaint. 怨 makes it a grievance before a word of it has been spoken.

不bù打dǎ緊jǐn的de買mǎi賣mài。不bù打dǎ紧jǐn的de买mǎi卖mài。

"No great piece of business, that.

打緊 is to matter, to be a serious business, so 不打緊 is nothing much to it. 買賣 is a trade or a piece of business — Bajie is pricing the job, and he prices it low before he has any idea what it was.

早zǎo知zhī老lǎo豬zhū去qù拿ná來lái，卻què不bú算suàn我wǒ一yì功gōng？」早zǎo知zhī老lǎo猪zhū去qù拿ná来lái，却què不bú算suàn我wǒ一yì功gōng？」

"Had I known, Old Hog would have gone and fetched him, and would that not have counted me a merit?"

老豬, Old Hog, is what Bajie calls himself, exactly as Wukong says 老孫, Old Sun — and the parallel is the joke: the same self-important formula, claimed for a job he did not do. 功 is merit in the military sense, the kind that gets written into a record and counted at the end of a campaign.

總評 Commentary

Bajie was given his guard duty twenty-six passages ago and has not been mentioned since. He reappears complaining, and what he complains about is that somebody else got the work. The grievance arrives before any information does: he can see a body on a rod and nothing else, and that is enough for him to have an opinion about how easy it was.

The pricing is precise and entirely invented. No great piece of business; I could have done it; it would have counted me a merit. Every clause rests on a job he has not seen, against a creature he has not met, killed by a method he does not know. This chapter has been collecting people who reason confidently from too little, and Bajie arrives already fluent in it.