原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
念念我聽 Read It To Me First
但只是你寄書怎的？且把書意念念我聽，念了再寫不遲。」但只是你寄书怎的？且把书意念念我听，念了再写不迟。」
逐句解 Line by line
但只是你寄書怎的？
但只是你寄书怎的？
But what are you sending a letter for?
Here it is, at last — the question he asked four lines ago and did not get answered.
且把書意念念我聽，念了再寫不遲。」
且把书意念念我听，念了再写不迟。」
Read me the sense of it first; there will be time enough to write it after."
念念, the verb doubled, makes it casual: just run it past me. Pilgrim is stalling, and he is stalling in order to talk his master out of it before a single character is committed to paper.
A small, shrewd piece of manipulation. Pilgrim does not refuse to carry the letter — refusing would start an argument he would lose. He agrees enthusiastically, then asks to hear it first, on the reasonable-sounding grounds that writing can wait.
It is the technique of someone who has learned how his master works. Tripitaka cannot be contradicted, but he can be delayed.
And it hands the novel what it wants: the letter gets recited aloud, in verse, so that we hear the full depth of Tripitaka's despair in his own voice before anyone responds to it.