第八十七回 · 米麵皆無 The Mountains Are Gone — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

米麵皆無 The Mountains Are Gone

玉yù帝dì見jiàn了le道dào：「那nà廝sī們men既jì有yǒu善shàn念niàn，看kàn三sān事shì如rú何hé？」正zhèng說shuō處chù，忽hū有yǒu披pī香xiāng殿diàn看kān管guǎn的de將jiāng官guān報bào道dào：「所suǒ立lì米mǐ、麵miàn山shān俱jù倒dǎo了le，霎shà時shí間jiān米mǐ、麵miàn皆jiē無wú，鎖suǒ梃tǐng亦yì斷duàn。」玉yù帝dì见jiàn了le道dào：「那nà厮sī们men既jì有yǒu善shàn念niàn，看kàn三sān事shì如rú何hé？」正zhèng说shuō处chù，忽hū有yǒu披pī香xiāng殿diàn看kān管guǎn的de将jiāng官guān报bào道dào：「所suǒ立lì米mǐ、面miàn山shān俱jù倒dǎo了le，霎shà时shí间jiān米mǐ、面miàn皆jiē无wú，锁suǒ梃tǐng亦yì断duàn。」

逐句解 Line by line

玉yù帝dì見jiàn了le道dào：「那nà廝sī們men既jì有yǒu善shàn念niàn，看kàn三sān事shì如rú何hé？」玉yù帝dì见jiàn了le道dào：「那nà厮sī们men既jì有yǒu善shàn念niàn，看kàn三sān事shì如rú何hé？」

The Jade Emperor read them and said, "Since those fellows have had a good thought — go and see how the three things stand."

那廝們, those fellows, pluralised. The Jade Emperor has extended his contemptuous word from the prefect to the whole prefecture, and it is the last time he uses it.

正zhèng說shuō處chù，忽hū有yǒu披pī香xiāng殿diàn看kān管guǎn的de將jiāng官guān報bào道dào：「所suǒ立lì米mǐ、麵miàn山shān俱jù倒dǎo了le，霎shà時shí間jiān米mǐ、麵miàn皆jiē無wú，鎖suǒ梃tǐng亦yì斷duàn。」正zhèng说shuō处chù，忽hū有yǒu披pī香xiāng殿diàn看kān管guǎn的de将jiāng官guān报bào道dào：「所suǒ立lì米mǐ、面miàn山shān俱jù倒dǎo了le，霎shà时shí间jiān米mǐ、面miàn皆jiē无wú，锁suǒ梃tǐng亦yì断duàn。」

He was still speaking when the officer in charge of the Hall of Diffused Fragrance came in with a report: "The mountains of rice and flour that were set up have both fallen. In an instant the rice and the flour were gone entirely, and the shackle has snapped as well."

倒 is dǎo, to topple — the last of the chapter's twelve, and the one every other has been building towards. 看管 takes kān, the looking-after reading. 霎時間 is in the space of an instant.

總評 Commentary

The report comes in while the Jade Emperor is still mid-sentence, which is the novel's way of telling you it had already happened.

The mountains did not diminish. They fell, and the rice and flour were gone entirely, in an instant — exactly as the Preceptors said they would. The chick and the lapdog turn out to have been irrelevant all along, which is what everyone in the Hall of Diffused Fragrance except Pilgrim seemed to know.

And the officer who reports it is the man whose job was to watch two heaps of food and a lamp. He has presumably been doing it for three years.