原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
耳大遮住了 My Ears Covered It
唐僧道：「他又在那裡叫哩。」行者問：「八戒，你聽見麼？」八戒道：「耳大遮住了，不曾聽見。」唐僧道：「他又在那里叫哩。」行者问：「八戒，你听见么？」八戒道：「耳大遮住了，不曾听见。」
逐句解 Line by line
唐僧道：「他又在那裡叫哩。」
唐僧道：「他又在那里叫哩。」
The Tang Monk said, "She is calling over there again."
This 那裡 is the plain pointing one, with 那 as nà — over there, not where. Of the chapter's twelve uses, eight are questions and four are this, and the difference is audible only if you know which is which.
行者問：「八戒，你聽見麼？」
行者问：「八戒，你听见么？」
Pilgrim asked, "Bajie, did you hear it?"
He starts with Bajie, who was standing closest to the tree and who owns the largest ears in the party.
八戒道：「耳大遮住了，不曾聽見。」
八戒道：「耳大遮住了，不曾听见。」
Bajie said, "My ears are so big they covered it up. I did not hear anything."
A perfect Bajie answer: an excuse that concedes the fact, blames his own anatomy and commits him to nothing. His ears really are enormous, which is what makes it unanswerable.
Pilgrim starts taking evidence, and he does it properly — one witness at a time, same question to each. It is the most rational thing anybody does in the chapter.
Bajie's answer is a joke and also a small betrayal. He does not say there was no voice; he says his ears were in the way. Having spent ten passages arguing that the girl was innocent, he now declines to be a witness for either side.