原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
救命索 A Rope To Save My Life
行者道：「你要怎的？你又沒本事鑽在肚裡，你又沒本事拴在他心上，要他何用？」八戒道：「我要扣在這腰間，做個救命索。行者道：「你要怎的？你又没本事钻在肚里，你又没本事拴在他心上，要他何用？」八戒道：「我要扣在这腰间，做个救命索。
逐句解 Line by line
行者道：「你要怎的？
行者道：「你要怎的？
Wukong said: "What do you want it for?
怎的 again — the spoken form, matching Bajie's own register back at him.
你又沒本事鑽在肚裡，你又沒本事拴在他心上，要他何用？」
你又没本事钻在肚里，你又没本事拴在他心上，要他何用？」
You have not the skill to bore into his belly, nor the skill to tie it to his heart. What use is it to you?"
鑽 reads zuān, to bore through — the verb the previous chapter's title uses of Wukong.
八戒道：「我要扣在這腰間，做個救命索。
八戒道：「我要扣在这腰间，做个救命索。
Bajie said: "I want it buckled round my waist here, for a lifeline.
救命索 — a life-saving rope. 間 reads jiān in 腰間, the space at the waist.
The word Bajie uses is the ordinary one for a safety line — the rope a man ties on before going down a well or onto a roof. He is treating a duel as a job of work with a fall risk, which is a completely sensible attitude and entirely wrong for the occasion.
Wukong's objection is worth reading closely, because it is not really an objection. He points out that Bajie cannot do any of the things the cord was made for, which is true and irrelevant, since Bajie has asked for it as a rope rather than as a weapon. Wukong is not refusing. He is establishing, out loud, that whatever happens next is Bajie's own idea.