第八十回 · 五日五夜 Five Days and Five Nights — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

五日五夜 Five Days and Five Nights

今jīn已yǐ五wǔ日rì五wǔ夜yè，看kàn看kàn命mìng盡jìn，不bù久jiǔ身shēn亡wáng。不bù知zhī是shì那nǎ世shì裡lǐ祖zǔ宗zōng積jī德dé，今jīn日rì遇yù著zháo老lǎo師shī父fù到dào此cǐ。今jīn已yǐ五wǔ日rì五wǔ夜yè，看kàn看kàn命mìng尽jìn，不bù久jiǔ身shēn亡wáng。不bù知zhī是shì那nǎ世shì里lǐ祖zǔ宗zōng积jī德dé，今jīn日rì遇yù着zháo老lǎo师shī父fù到dào此cǐ。

逐句解 Line by line

今jīn已yǐ五wǔ日rì五wǔ夜yè，看kàn看kàn命mìng盡jìn，不bù久jiǔ身shēn亡wáng。今jīn已yǐ五wǔ日rì五wǔ夜yè，看kàn看kàn命mìng尽jìn，不bù久jiǔ身shēn亡wáng。

It is now five days and five nights, and my life is visibly at its end, and before long I shall be dead.

The doubled 看看 is not "look" but "at any moment now" — a slide from watching to imminence that Chinese makes easily and English does not.

不bù知zhī是shì那nǎ世shì裡lǐ祖zǔ宗zōng積jī德dé，今jīn日rì遇yù著zháo老lǎo師shī父fù到dào此cǐ。不bù知zhī是shì那nǎ世shì里lǐ祖zǔ宗zōng积jī德dé，今jīn日rì遇yù着zháo老lǎo师shī父fù到dào此cǐ。

I do not know which generation of ancestors laid up such merit, that today I should meet with you, venerable master, come to this place.

Here 那 is nǎ, the question word: which generation. And 遇著 takes 著 as zháo, the reading for a meeting that succeeded — she did not merely encounter him, she got him.

總評 Commentary

Five days and five nights tied to a tree with no food, and she is still beautiful enough for the fish to sink. Nobody in the wood does the arithmetic.

The second sentence is the finest thing in her whole speech. She credits their meeting to merit accumulated by her ancestors — which is to say she frames her rescue as something already decided by karma, so that the monk in front of her is not choosing to help but fulfilling an arrangement. It is very difficult to refuse a role that has already been assigned to you by heaven.