第七十三回 · 骨髓俱爛 Three Days And The Marrow Rots — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

骨髓俱爛 Three Days And The Marrow Rots

婦fù人rén道dào：「我wǒ就jiù說shuō出chū來lái，你nǐ去qù請qǐng他tā，降xiáng了le道dào士shì，只zhǐ可kě報bào仇chóu而ér已yǐ，恐kǒng不bù能néng救jiù你nǐ師shī父fù。」行xíng者zhě道dào：「怎zěn不bù能néng救jiù？」婦fù人rén道dào：「那nà廝sī毒dú藥yào最zuì狠hěn：藥yào倒dǎo人rén，三sān日rì之zhī間jiān，骨gǔ髓suǐ俱jù爛làn。你nǐ此cǐ往wǎng回huí恐kǒng遲chí了le，故gù不bù能néng救jiù。」妇fù人rén道dào：「我wǒ就jiù说shuō出chū来lái，你nǐ去qù请qǐng他tā，降xiáng了le道dào士shì，只zhǐ可kě报bào仇chóu而ér已yǐ，恐kǒng不bù能néng救jiù你nǐ师shī父fù。」行xíng者zhě道dào：「怎zěn不bù能néng救jiù？」妇fù人rén道dào：「那nà厮sī毒dú药yào最zuì狠hěn：药yào倒dǎo人rén，三sān日rì之zhī间jiān，骨gǔ髓suǐ俱jù烂làn。你nǐ此cǐ往wǎng回huí恐kǒng迟chí了le，故gù不bù能néng救jiù。」

逐句解 Line by line

婦fù人rén道dào：「我wǒ就jiù說shuō出chū來lái，你nǐ去qù請qǐng他tā，降xiáng了le道dào士shì，只zhǐ可kě報bào仇chóu而ér已yǐ，恐kǒng不bù能néng救jiù你nǐ師shī父fù。」妇fù人rén道dào：「我wǒ就jiù说shuō出chū来lái，你nǐ去qù请qǐng他tā，降xiáng了le道dào士shì，只zhǐ可kě报bào仇chóu而ér已yǐ，恐kǒng不bù能néng救jiù你nǐ师shī父fù。」

"I will tell you," said the woman, "and you may go and ask her, and she will subdue the Daoist. But that will only avenge the dead. I am afraid it will not save your master."

降 is xiáng, to subdue. 只可…而已 is a doubled limiting construction — it can only do so much and no more — and it lands the sentence hard. She is telling him the plan will work and will not be enough.

行xíng者zhě道dào：「怎zěn不bù能néng救jiù？」行xíng者zhě道dào：「怎zěn不bù能néng救jiù？」

"Why will it not save him?" said Pilgrim.

Seven characters. He does not argue with the assessment; he asks for the mechanism.

婦fù人rén道dào：「那nà廝sī毒dú藥yào最zuì狠hěn：藥yào倒dǎo人rén，三sān日rì之zhī間jiān，骨gǔ髓suǐ俱jù爛làn。妇fù人rén道dào：「那nà厮sī毒dú药yào最zuì狠hěn：药yào倒dǎo人rén，三sān日rì之zhī间jiān，骨gǔ髓suǐ俱jù烂làn。

"That fellow's poison is the cruellest there is," said the woman. "It brings a man down, and within three days the very marrow of his bones has rotted."

⚠ And there is the clock. 三日之間, within three days, is the first deadline the chapter has named, and it arrives four-fifths of the way in. 骨髓俱爛 — marrow all rotted — is as specific as the recipe verse was. 藥倒 once more, with 倒 as dǎo: this is the fourth of the chapter's five.

你nǐ此cǐ往wǎng回huí恐kǒng遲chí了le，故gù不bù能néng救jiù。」你nǐ此cǐ往wǎng回huí恐kǒng迟chí了le，故gù不bù能néng救jiù。」

"By the time you have been there and back I fear it will be too late, and so it will not save him."

此往回 is this going-and-returning, the round trip. She has done the arithmetic: a thousand li out, a thousand back, against a three-day rot. Her conclusion is arithmetic, not pessimism.

總評 Commentary

The stakes get a number at last. Everything before this has been urgent in the abstract; now there is a decay curve. Three days from the dose to rotted marrow, and a two-thousand-li round trip standing between Pilgrim and the only person who can help.

What is good about the scene is that she volunteers the bad news. She could have given him the address and let him go. Instead she tells him the plan avenges rather than rescues, and then explains why. That is either great honesty or somebody managing an expectation, and the chapter will shortly tell you which.

And 骨髓俱爛 is worth sitting with, because it answers the recipe. Six couplets in the poison verse and not one word about what the stuff does to a body; the boast was all about the cost of manufacture. Here, from a stranger on a road, is the effect: three days, and the marrow.