年紀尚幼 I Am Too Young To Know
就隨口答應道:「娘子,我出家人年紀尚幼,卻不知甚麼交歡之事。」女子道:「你跟我去,我教你。」行者暗笑道:「也罷,我跟他去,看他怎生擺佈。」就随口答应道:「娘子,我出家人年纪尚幼,却不知甚么交欢之事。」女子道:「你跟我去,我教你。」行者暗笑道:「也罢,我跟他去,看他怎生摆布。」
逐句解 Line by line
So he answered readily, "Madam, I am one who has left the household, and still young in years, and I know nothing of these matters of joining."
應 is yìng, to answer. 娘子, madam, takes the everyday unstressed second syllable despite naming a person — the vernacular register decides it, not the animacy. 甚 is shén, the question word.
The woman said, "Come with me, and I will teach you."
教 is jiào here, the everyday sense of instructing someone in something.
Pilgrim laughed inwardly and said, "Very well. I will go with her and see what she means to do with me."
罷 is bà in the set phrase for very well then, the resigned agreement — not the softening word. 擺佈 is to arrange or dispose of someone, and it carries a threat: what she will do to him.
Pilgrim plays the innocent, and his line is a fine piece of double meaning. He tells the exact truth about a monk's ignorance while being, in fact, several centuries old and entirely aware of what she wants.
The trap is now fully set, and he has decided to let it run — he wants to see the method through to the end rather than strike in the hall. That is a piece of professional patience, and it is also the decision that loses him his master.
The word he uses for what she means to do with him is not a lover's word. It means to arrange, to dispose of, to handle a thing however one likes. He knows what is walking him out to the garden.