第七十一回 · 朦朧無措 Too Muddled To Tell — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

朦朧無措 Too Muddled To Tell

那nà怪guài接jiē在zài手shǒu中zhōng，一yì發fā朦méng朧lóng無wú措cuò，那nǎ裡lǐ認rèn得dé甚shén麼me真zhēn假jiǎ，雙shuāng手shǒu托tuō著zhe那nà鈴líng兒ér，遞dì與yǔ娘niáng娘niang道dào：「今jīn番fān你nǐ卻què收shōu好hǎo了le，卻què要yào仔zǐ細xì仔zǐ細xì，不bú要yào像xiàng前qián一yì番fān。」那nà怪guài接jiē在zài手shǒu中zhōng，一yì发fā朦méng胧lóng无wú措cuò，那nǎ里lǐ认rèn得dé甚shén么me真zhēn假jiǎ，双shuāng手shǒu托tuō着zhe那nà铃líng儿ér，递dì与yǔ娘niáng娘niang道dào：「今jīn番fān你nǐ却què收shōu好hǎo了le，却què要yào仔zǐ细xì仔zǐ细xì，不bú要yào像xiàng前qián一yì番fān。」

逐句解 Line by line

那nà怪guài接jiē在zài手shǒu中zhōng，一yì發fā朦méng朧lóng無wú措cuò，那nà怪guài接jiē在zài手shǒu中zhōng，一yì发fā朦méng胧lóng无wú措cuò，

The fiend took them in hand, more muddled and at a loss than ever,

一發 is all the more, even further — and the 一 takes yì by ordinary tone change here rather than staying full, because it is neither an ordinal nor at the end of a word. 朦朧 is the blur of someone half asleep or half drunk. He is both.

那nǎ裡lǐ認rèn得dé甚shén麼me真zhēn假jiǎ，雙shuāng手shǒu托tuō著zhe那nà鈴líng兒ér，那nǎ里lǐ认rèn得dé甚shén么me真zhēn假jiǎ，双shuāng手shǒu托tuō着zhe那nà铃líng儿ér，

and how was he to tell true from false? He held the bells up in both hands,

那 is nǎ here, not the deictic — 那裡 opens a rhetorical question, how on earth would he. Every other 那 in this stretch is the pointing nà. 著 is zhe, durative, holding.

遞dì與yǔ娘niáng娘niang道dào：「今jīn番fān你nǐ卻què收shōu好hǎo了le，递dì与yǔ娘niáng娘niang道dào：「今jīn番fān你nǐ却què收shōu好hǎo了le，

passed them to the Queen and said, "This time put them away properly.

He gives the counterfeits to the queen for safekeeping, which is the one place they were always going to end up. 今番 is this time round; 了 is the neutral le.

卻què要yào仔zǐ細xì仔zǐ細xì，不bú要yào像xiàng前qián一yì番fān。」却què要yào仔zǐ细xì仔zǐ细xì，不bú要yào像xiàng前qián一yì番fān。」

"Be careful, be very careful. Not like the last time."

仔 is zǐ — 仔細 doubled for emphasis, the spoken equivalent of saying it twice with a hand on someone's arm. 不 drops to bú before the falling tone of 要.

總評 Commentary

認得真假 appears twice in this scene, 118 characters apart, and the second time is the one that counts. The first was the narrator saying the fiend could not tell true from false when the bells were still real; now they are fake and he still cannot. He has been handed a forgery, and he inspects it by holding it up in both hands.

Then he lectures the queen about carelessness. 卻要仔細仔細，不要像前一番 — be careful, be very careful, not like last time — said to the woman who has spent the entire evening arranging the theft, about bells that are already gone. The text plays it completely straight and does not point at it once.

一發 is a small reading question with a settled answer. The 一 here is not ordinal and not at a word's end, so it takes the ordinary tone change to yì, unlike the 一則 117 characters back, where it was counting.