第八十四回 · 可有閑房兒 Have You a Spare Room — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

可有閑房兒 Have You a Spare Room

那nà家jiā子zi還hái未wèi收shōu燈dēng籠lóng，即jí近jìn門mén叫jiào道dào：「店diàn家jiā，可kě有yǒu閑xián房fáng兒ér，我wǒ們men安ān歇xiē？」那nà裡lǐ邊biān有yǒu個gè婦fù人rén答dá應yìng道dào：「有yǒu有yǒu有yǒu，請qǐng官guān人rén們men上shàng樓lóu。」那nà家jiā子zi还hái未wèi收shōu灯dēng笼lóng，即jí近jìn门mén叫jiào道dào：「店diàn家jiā，可kě有yǒu闲xián房fáng儿ér，我wǒ们men安ān歇xiē？」那nà里lǐ边biān有yǒu个gè妇fù人rén答dá应yìng道dào：「有yǒu有yǒu有yǒu，请qǐng官guān人rén们men上shàng楼lóu。」

逐句解 Line by line

那nà家jiā子zi還hái未wèi收shōu燈dēng籠lóng，即jí近jìn門mén叫jiào道dào：「店diàn家jiā，可kě有yǒu閑xián房fáng兒ér，我wǒ們men安ān歇xiē？」那nà家jiā子zi还hái未wèi收shōu灯dēng笼lóng，即jí近jìn门mén叫jiào道dào：「店diàn家jiā，可kě有yǒu闲xián房fáng儿ér，我wǒ们men安ān歇xiē？」

That household had not yet taken in its lantern. He went up to the door and called: "Innkeeper! Have you a spare room for us to lodge in?"

閑房 is a room standing idle, the ordinary way of asking for a vacancy. 兒 on the end is the spoken tag that runs through every line anyone says in this chapter, and it reads ér throughout. 那家子 takes the light everyday zi.

那nà裡lǐ邊biān有yǒu個gè婦fù人rén答dá應yìng道dào：「有yǒu有yǒu有yǒu，請qǐng官guān人rén們men上shàng樓lóu。」那nà里lǐ边biān有yǒu个gè妇fù人rén答dá应yìng道dào：「有yǒu有yǒu有yǒu，请qǐng官guān人rén们men上shàng楼lóu。」

A woman inside answered: "Yes, yes, yes — come upstairs, gentlemen."

應 is yìng in 答應, to answer — the responding reading, not the one that makes it ought or should. Every one of this chapter's five uses of the character wants yìng, and every one of them bases wrong. The tripled yes is how eagerness sounds in spoken Chinese.

總評 Commentary

The lantern still out is the same signal Pilgrim read from the air as a moth: an inn still open for business. He is using the reconnaissance without having to think about it.

And the first voice from this house is a woman's, answering from inside before anyone is seen. Almost every person the pilgrims deal with for the rest of the chapter is a woman running a business — which is unusual enough in this novel to be worth noticing.