原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
磨杠子哩 Grinding Down His Pole
行者道：「撞見的，正在那裡磨杠子哩。」眾妖害怕道：「他怎麼個模樣？磨甚麼杠子？」行者道：「撞见的，正在那里磨杠子哩。」众妖害怕道：「他怎么个模样？磨甚么杠子？」
逐句解 Line by line
行者道：「撞見的，正在那裡磨杠子哩。」
行者道：「撞见的，正在那里磨杠子哩。」
Pilgrim said, "I ran into him. He is over there grinding down a pole."
磨杠子 is grinding or whetting a bar — and 杠 takes gàng, the thick-pole band, which is one of the very few characters in this chapter the ordinary machinery reads correctly from context. The answer is delivered flat, as a routine sighting.
眾妖害怕道：「他怎麼個模樣？磨甚麼杠子？」
众妖害怕道：「他怎么个模样？磨甚么杠子？」
The demons were frightened. "What does he look like? What sort of pole is he grinding?"
模樣 takes 模 as mú, the last of the chapter's three, and the frame that carries it is consulted by nothing during the work. Two questions in sixteen characters, and both of them are requests for a description of Sun the Pilgrim, addressed to Sun the Pilgrim.
Pilgrim's answer is a masterpiece of understatement. Yes, I saw him; he is over there sharpening something. Delivered as though reporting a colleague seen doing paperwork.
The detail he invents is chosen with care. Not that the monkey is coming, not that he is angry — that he is preparing a weapon, which is worse, because it means he has not started yet.
And the demons do exactly what he needs. They ask for more.