第八十五回 · 挑水刷鍋 Fetch Water and Scour the Pot — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

挑水刷鍋 Fetch Water and Scour the Pot

今jīn日rì你nǐ果guǒ妙miào計jì成chéng功gōng，豈qǐ可kě失shī信xìn於yú你nǐ？你nǐ可kě把bǎ唐táng僧sēng拿ná來lái，著zhuó小xiǎo的de們men挑tiāo水shuǐ刷shuā鍋guō，搬bān柴chái燒shāo火huǒ，把bǎ他tā蒸zhēng一yì蒸zhēng。今jīn日rì你nǐ果guǒ妙miào计jì成chéng功gōng，岂qǐ可kě失shī信xìn于yú你nǐ？你nǐ可kě把bǎ唐táng僧sēng拿ná来lái，着zhuó小xiǎo的de们men挑tiāo水shuǐ刷shuā锅guō，搬bān柴chái烧shāo火huǒ，把bǎ他tā蒸zhēng一yì蒸zhēng。

逐句解 Line by line

今jīn日rì你nǐ果guǒ妙miào計jì成chéng功gōng，豈qǐ可kě失shī信xìn於yú你nǐ？今jīn日rì你nǐ果guǒ妙miào计jì成chéng功gōng，岂qǐ可kě失shī信xìn于yú你nǐ？

Today your fine plan has succeeded. How could I break faith with you?

失信 is to break faith, to fail somebody who trusted you — a serious charge in this register, brought up by the person who would be committing it. He is arguing himself into keeping a promise nobody is holding him to.

你nǐ可kě把bǎ唐táng僧sēng拿ná來lái，著zhuó小xiǎo的de們men挑tiāo水shuǐ刷shuā鍋guō，搬bān柴chái燒shāo火huǒ，把bǎ他tā蒸zhēng一yì蒸zhēng。你nǐ可kě把bǎ唐táng僧sēng拿ná来lái，着zhuó小xiǎo的de们men挑tiāo水shuǐ刷shuā锅guō，搬bān柴chái烧shāo火huǒ，把bǎ他tā蒸zhēng一yì蒸zhēng。

You may fetch the Tang Monk out, and set the little ones to drawing water and scouring the pot, carrying firewood and lighting it, and give him a steaming.

著 is zhuó, to set somebody to a task. Four kitchen jobs in four verbs — water, pot, wood, fire — and then 蒸一蒸, give him a bit of a steaming, with the verb doubled round its own measure to make it sound like no trouble at all.

總評 Commentary

The menace here is entirely in the domestic detail. Nobody threatens anybody. Somebody delegates the washing-up.

It is the same register the first imp used about saving leftovers against wet weather, and the same word the invented village was using for its rice. Steaming runs through this chapter from the kingdom's banquet to the cave's pot.