難難難 Trouble Trouble Trouble
慌得那拿盤的小怪戰兢兢跑去報道:「難難難,難難難。」老妖道:「怎麼有許多難?」小妖道:「豬八戒與沙和尚倒哄過了,孫行者卻是個販古董的──識貨,識貨。慌得那拿盘的小怪战兢兢跑去报道:「难难难,难难难。」老妖道:「怎么有许多难?」小妖道:「猪八戒与沙和尚倒哄过了,孙行者却是个贩古董的──识货,识货。
逐句解 Line by line
The little fiend with the tray was so panicked that he ran off trembling to report: "Trouble, trouble, trouble! Trouble, trouble, trouble!"
In 慌得, panicked to the point of doing something, 得 is de, hanging the running off the fear. 戰兢兢 is shaking-and-trembling with the second character doubled, one of the novel's stock descriptions for a subordinate carrying bad news. The tripled cry is the same device as Wukong's three shouted heavens earlier — a word repeated until it stops being a word.
The old fiend said, "Why so very much trouble?"
The king's response to a messenger in hysterics is a straight question with a faint note of irritation. Nine characters, and it deflates the panic completely.
The little fiend said, "Zhu Bajie and Sha Monk were fooled well enough, but Sun the Pilgrim is a dealer in antiques — he knows the goods, he knows the goods!
販古董的, an antique dealer, is a superb piece of abuse-as-compliment: the one trade whose whole skill is telling a genuine article from a clever copy. 識貨, to know the goods, is still the everyday phrase for somebody who cannot be sold a fake — and here it is a monster paying it to the man who has just ruined his plan.
The antique dealer line is the best joke in the chapter. The fiends have run a forgery operation and been caught by a specialist, and the messenger reaches for exactly the right trade to describe it.
The repetition patterns are worth watching across this chapter. Wukong shouts heaven three times in grief, the messenger shouts trouble three times in panic, and the fiends will shortly be repeating themselves about cooking methods. The novel uses a tripled word the way a comic strip uses a sound effect.