原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
認不得 I Do Not Know Your Face
行者道：「怎的沒我？你認認看。」小妖道：「面生，認不得，認不得。」行者道：「怎的没我？你认认看。」小妖道：「面生，认不得，认不得。」
逐句解 Line by line
行者道：「怎的沒我？你認認看。」
行者道：「怎的没我？你认认看。」
Pilgrim said, "How is there no me? Take a good look at me."
認認看 doubles the verb and adds the look-and-see verb after it — have a go at recognising me. Four characters, and they close the quotation, which is why they fold back onto the sentence in front.
小妖道：「面生，認不得，認不得。」
小妖道：「面生，认不得，认不得。」
The little demon said, "Your face is strange to me. I do not know you, I do not know you."
面生 is a strange face, one you have not seen; its opposite, a familiar face, is a face that is cooked. 認不得 twice, each with 得 as de — the potential negative, cannot manage to recognise, rather than any statement about willingness.
The exchange is over in two sentences and Pilgrim has lost it. He asked to be looked at, was looked at, and failed.
The little demon's word for it is oddly gentle. Not you are an impostor but your face is unfamiliar to me — a raw face, in the Chinese, as against a cooked one. He is reporting a fact about himself rather than an accusation.
Which is exactly the opening Pilgrim needs, and he takes it in the next breath.