原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
猴頭莫多話 Monkey Head Say No More
你要救他，我也不敢苦勸：我勸一會，你又惱了。任你去救。」唐僧道：「猴頭莫多話，你坐著，等我和八戒救他去。」你要救他，我也不敢苦劝：我劝一会，你又恼了。任你去救。」唐僧道：「猴头莫多话，你坐着，等我和八戒救他去。」
逐句解 Line by line
你要救他，我也不敢苦勸：我勸一會，你又惱了。
你要救他，我也不敢苦劝：我劝一会，你又恼了。
If you want to save her, I do not dare argue you out of it. I argue for a while and you take offence.
苦勸 is to plead hard against something, to keep on at somebody for their own good. He is describing accurately what he has just spent twenty passages doing.
任你去救。」
任你去救。」
Save her as you please."
Four characters of withdrawal. He has not changed his mind about anything.
唐僧道：「猴頭莫多話，你坐著，等我和八戒救他去。」
唐僧道：「猴头莫多话，你坐着，等我和八戒救他去。」
The Tang Monk said, "Monkey head, no more talk. You sit there — Bajie and I will go and save her."
The 著 in 坐著 is the sustained zhe: sit, and stay sitting. 猴頭, monkey head, is what Tripitaka calls him when he has stopped being a disciple and become an obstacle.
The argument ends not in agreement but in exclusion. Pilgrim is told to sit down while the rescue proceeds without him, which is the same shape as every disaster this pair has had.
The pairing is worth noting. Tripitaka takes Bajie, who has already argued the demon's side and who was pulling at the ropes when he was thrown to the ground. Of the three disciples he has chosen the one whose judgement on this exact question is the worst.
And Pilgrim, told to sit, sits. That is new, and it is the measure of how far the book has brought him from chapter 27, when being overruled about a demon in disguise ended with him being sent away in disgrace. This time he stays, and waits, and lets his master find out.