有些兒先兆 My Master Had Some Warning
又見那左右手下有三四十個小妖擺列,他在那裡逼法的噴風噯霧。行者暗笑道:「我師父也有些兒先兆,他說不是天風,果然此風是個妖精在這裡弄喧兒哩。又见那左右手下有三四十个小妖摆列,他在那里逼法的喷风嗳雾。行者暗笑道:「我师父也有些儿先兆,他说不是天风,果然此风是个妖精在这里弄喧儿哩。
逐句解 Line by line
He saw too that thirty or forty little imps were drawn up to left and right of him, while he sat there working away at blowing wind and belching fog.
噯 is ǎi again, and the pair of verbs is the same pair the portrait used, now in prose and in the other order. 逼法的 is a rare adverbial — pushing at it, forcing the working — so the fiend is not merely exhaling weather but labouring at it.
Pilgrim laughed to himself. "My master did have some foreknowledge after all. He said it was no wind of heaven, and sure enough this wind is a fiend up here making a racket.
He concedes it privately and never says a word of it aloud. 先兆 is a foretoken, a sense of something before it arrives — he is granting his master a faculty, not a lucky guess. 弄喧兒 is vernacular for kicking up a fuss or putting on a show.
The admission is the hinge of the chapter and it happens inside Pilgrim's head. He knows his master was right. He knows he talked him out of it. He is about to go down and lie about it anyway.
Thirty or forty imps drawn up in ranks is not the description of a lone monster. The novel has shown Pilgrim an organised force, and he will report clear weather.