嚛嚛嚛 Have You Come Alive
只叫：「爹爹！嚛嚛嚛……」那媽媽子膽大，把材頭撲了一把道：「老員外，你活了？」行者學著那員外的聲音道：「我不曾活。」兩個兒子一發慌了，不住的叩頭垂淚，只叫：「爹爹！嚛嚛嚛……」媽媽子硬著膽，又問道：「員外，你不曾活，如何說話？」只叫：「爹爹！𪠸𪠸𪠸……」那妈妈子胆大，把材头扑了一把道：「老员外，你活了？」行者学着那员外的声音道：「我不曾活。」两个儿子一发慌了，不住的叩头垂泪，只叫：「爹爹！𪠸𪠸𪠸……」妈妈子硬着胆，又问道：「员外，你不曾活，如何说话？」
逐句解 Line by line
They only cried, "Father! Oh — oh — oh —" But the old woman was bolder. She gave the coffin-head a slap and said, "Old squire! Have you come alive?"
嚛嚛嚛 — the sound of the sons sobbing. Three of the same character, then a long ellipsis, and it is the most affecting thing in the chapter. The word appears six times in the whole novel and all six are here, in two identical bursts. It is a sound and not a word, so there is nothing to look it up against. The reading given is the character's own dictionary one; the wailing is what the printer wrote and what has been kept. 那媽媽子膽大 — the old woman was bolder. Her sons are face down on the floor and she walks up and hits the coffin. It is the second time in this chapter she has been the one who acts.
Monkey mimicked the squire's voice. "I have not come alive."
學著那員外的聲音 — mimicked the squire's voice. Now he uses the voice, having established with a cough that something is there. 我不曾活 — I have not come alive. Four characters, and they are a masterstroke. He does not claim to be resurrected, which would invite argument, or to be a spirit, which would invite exorcism. He simply denies the one thing she asked and leaves everything else open. It also has the ring of literal truth, which is Monkey all over: he is indeed not the squire come alive.
The two sons went to pieces altogether, knocking their heads on the floor without stopping and weeping, and only crying, "Father! Oh — oh — oh —" The old woman steeled her nerve and asked again, "Squire — if you have not come alive, how is it you can speak?"
一發慌了 — went to pieces altogether. The sons are useless from here on, and the same three characters of wailing come out of them a second time. 硬著膽 — steeled her nerve, hardened her gall. She is terrified and she keeps asking questions, and the questions are good ones. Her second is the obvious objection to what she has just been told. The wife is the only person in this house thinking. She was also the one who invented the accusation. The book has been consistent about her from the first night.
The wailing is the best small thing in the chapter. Three repetitions of one character and a trailing row of dots, twice over, and the sons never manage a word between them. The novel uses that character nowhere else; it exists in this book solely to be the noise two men make over their father's coffin.
Against them, the widow. Her sons go down on the floor and stay there; she walks up to the coffin, hits it, and asks a direct question. When she gets an impossible answer she braces herself and asks a better one. She is frightened throughout and she does not stop.
Monkey's four-character reply is worth admiring. I have not come alive concedes her point, denies nothing she can check, and leaves her to work out what is speaking if it is not a living man. He has been in the room for two sentences and has already made her do the frightening part herself.