原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
妖魔出河
The River-Demon Appears
菩薩正然點看，只見那河中潑剌一聲響喨，水波裡跳出一個妖魔來，十分醜惡。他生得：菩萨正然点看，只见那河中泼剌一声响喨，水波里跳出一个妖魔来，十分丑恶。他生得：
青不青，黑不黑，晦氣色臉；青不青，黑不黑，晦气色脸；
長不長，短不短，赤腳筋軀。长不长，短不短，赤脚筋躯。
眼光閃爍，好似灶底雙燈；眼光闪烁，好似灶底双灯；
口角丫叉，就如屠家火缽。口角丫叉，就如屠家火钵。
獠牙撐劍刃，紅髮亂蓬鬆。獠牙撑剑刃，红发乱蓬松。
一聲叱咤如雷吼，兩腳奔波似滾風。一声叱咤如雷吼，两脚奔波似滚风。
逐句解 Line by line
菩薩正然點看，只見那河中潑剌一聲響喨，水波裡跳出一個妖魔來，十分醜惡。他生得：
菩萨正然点看，只见那河中泼剌一声响喨，水波里跳出一个妖魔来，十分丑恶。他生得：
As the Bodhisattva was intently observing, there came from the river a splashing crash, and out of the waves leapt a demon, hideous in the extreme. He was formed thus:
In 一聲 the 一 takes yì before the level tone of 聲, and in 一個 it takes yí before the falling tone of 個. 他生得, he was made like this, is the cue for the portrait.
青不青，黑不黑，晦氣色臉；
青不青，黑不黑，晦气色脸；
Green yet not green, black yet not black, a face of ill-boding hue;
青不青黑不黑 offers you two colours and then takes both back, which is how this novel introduces a face it wants you to find unclassifiable. 晦氣色 is the colour of bad luck.
長不長，短不短，赤腳筋軀。
长不长，短不短，赤脚筋躯。
long yet not long, short yet not short, a bare-foot, sinewy frame.
長 is cháng here, long.
眼光閃爍，好似灶底雙燈；
眼光闪烁，好似灶底双灯；
His eyes flash and gleam like a pair of lamps beneath a stove;
好似 is just like; 似 is read sì.
口角丫叉，就如屠家火缽。
口角丫叉，就如屠家火钵。
the corners of his mouth fork wide like a butcher's fire-bowl.
丫叉 is forked, and the mouth gets compared to a butcher's fire-bowl. The image comes from the meat trade, not from the scriptures — which is the register this whole portrait works in.
獠牙撐劍刃，紅髮亂蓬鬆。
獠牙撑剑刃，红发乱蓬松。
His tusks thrust out like sword-blades; his red hair, a wild and matted tangle.
In 撐劍刃 the tusks are propping the blades up. Loose red hair over a blue-black face finishes a portrait assembled entirely out of things that do not go together.
一聲叱咤如雷吼，兩腳奔波似滾風。
一声叱咤如雷吼，两脚奔波似滚风。
One bellow of his roars like thunder; his two feet pound on like a rolling gale.
In 一聲 the 一 takes yì before the level tone of 聲; 似 is sì.
總評 Commentary
The river's guardian comes out of the water — the future Sha Wujing, still nameless and still nothing but appetite. A portrait 賦 pins his shape down before the fight starts.
The trick of it is refusal. 青不青，黑不黑, 長不長，短不短 — every attribute is offered and withdrawn, so his shape never settles, which makes him far more unnerving than any list of features. The comparisons are violent and domestic at the same time: lamps under a stove, a butcher's brazier. That is the register this novel keeps for its monsters, the demonic served up in kitchen furniture.
As Anthony C. Yu notes, this is the second of the chapter's two monster-recruits, and showing him as pure ferocity is the necessary first step. The wildness has to be displayed at full strength before it can be broken in and put to work.