燒這猴頭 Fetch Me The Treasures
妖王道:「今早叫戰者,乃是取經的和尚之徒,叫做孫悟空行者,假稱外公。我與他戰到此時,不分勝負。等我拿寶貝出去,放些煙火,燒這猴頭。」妖王道:「今早叫战者,乃是取经的和尚之徒,叫做孙悟空行者,假称外公。我与他战到此时,不分胜负。等我拿宝贝出去,放些烟火,烧这猴头。」
逐句解 Line by line
The fiend king said, "The one who called me out to fight this morning is a disciple of the scripture-seeking monk,
和尚 keeps a full tone on the second syllable in this edition — modern speech reduces it, but every sealed instance in this series is 尚 at full weight. 的 is the neutral de.
"called Sun Wukong Pilgrim, falsely styling himself Grandfather.
假稱 is to claim something falsely, and it is the first time anyone in the chapter has said out loud that 外公 was not a real name. It has taken the fiend more than a thousand characters to get there.
"I have fought him up to this moment without either of us gaining the upper hand.
He is telling the truth, and it is the second time in eleven characters that the text has used 不分勝負 — once from the narrator and once from him. 分 is fēn, to separate.
"Wait while I take the treasures out, let off some smoke and fire, and burn this monkey-head."
猴頭 is monkey-head, a standard abusive term for Wukong that even his own companions use. 這 makes it deictic — this monkey-head, the one outside.
He has finally worked it out. 假稱外公 — falsely styling himself Grandfather — is the first time anybody says aloud that the name was a joke, and it comes 1,353 characters after the joke was made. The fiend has spent the interval consulting a book of surnames.
The rest of the speech is an accurate briefing given to the wrong person. He tells the queen who the enemy is, that the fight is even, that he intends to fetch the bells and burn the man alive. Every word is true and every word is being delivered to the woman who robbed him.
不分勝負 appears twice in eleven characters — once as the narrator's summary of the fight and once in the fiend's own mouth. The repetition is not a slip. It is the text quietly confirming that his account of the battle is honest, which makes what he does not know all the more pointed.