不打緊 Nothing To Worry About
行者見他不言,即抽身回坡。長老道:「悟空,你來了?所問如何?」行者笑道:「不打緊,不打緊。西天有便有個把妖精兒,只是這裡人膽小,把他放在心上。沒事,沒事,有我哩。」行者见他不言,即抽身回坡。长老道:「悟空,你来了?所问如何?」行者笑道:「不打紧,不打紧。西天有便有个把妖精儿,只是这里人胆小,把他放在心上。没事,没事,有我哩。」
逐句解 Line by line
Seeing that he would not speak, Pilgrim turned on his heel and went back down the slope.
抽身 is to pull oneself away, the verb for leaving a situation rather than a place. He has got nothing and he knows it.
The elder said, "Wukong, you are back? What came of your asking?"
所問如何 is four characters of formal Chinese in the middle of ordinary speech — Tripitaka asking after the outcome of an enquiry the way he would phrase it in writing. He is anxious and it makes him stiff.
Pilgrim laughed. "Nothing to worry about, nothing to worry about.
不打緊 is it does not matter, no great thing, and doubling it is the same move as the doubled 莫怕 a moment ago. Pilgrim is about to give his master a report with no information in it.
There may well be the odd little demon in the west, only the people here are timid and take them to heart. It is nothing, nothing. You have me."
妖精兒 shrinks the demons with a suffix — the odd little demon, demonlings. 把他放在心上 is to take a thing to heart, still the ordinary phrase. And the report closes on 有我哩, the same three characters he used when he picked his master up out of the grass.
Pilgrim comes back with nothing and says so in a way designed to sound like something. There may be the odd demon; the locals are nervous; it is nothing. Every clause is true and the whole is a dodge.
The closing three characters are the point. He has not answered the question, so he reaches for the one thing that has worked on his master before — you have me — and hopes it will do the job again.
It will not, and the chapter knows it. Tripitaka asked four specific questions before sending him and is about to ask them again, in order, which is the least gullible thing he does in the whole episode.