原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
石碑通天
The Stele: River to the Sky
三藏大驚，口不能言，聲音哽咽道：「徒弟啊，似這等怎了？」沙僧道：「師父莫哭。你看那水邊立的，可不是個人麼？」行者道：「想是扳罾的漁人，等我問他去來。」拿了鐵棒，兩三步，跑到面前看處，呀！不是人，是一面石碑。碑上有三個篆文大字，下邊兩行有十個小字。三個大字乃「通天河」，十個小字乃「徑過八百里，亙古少行人」。行者叫：「師父，你來看看。」三藏看見，滴淚道：「徒弟呀，我當年別了長安，只說西天易走，那知道妖魔阻隔，山水迢遙。」三藏大惊，口不能言，声音哽咽道：「徒弟啊，似这等怎了？」沙僧道：「师父莫哭。你看那水边立的，可不是个人么？」行者道：「想是扳罾的渔人，等我问他去来。」拿了铁棒，两三步，跑到面前看处，呀！不是人，是一面石碑。碑上有三个篆文大字，下边两行有十个小字。三个大字乃「通天河」，十个小字乃「径过八百里，亘古少行人」。行者叫：「师父，你来看看。」三藏看见，滴泪道：「徒弟呀，我当年别了长安，只说西天易走，那知道妖魔阻隔，山水迢遥。」
逐句解 Line by line
三藏大驚，口不能言，聲音哽咽道：「徒弟啊，似這等怎了？」
三藏大惊，口不能言，声音哽咽道：「徒弟啊，似这等怎了？」
Tripitaka started in great alarm, unable to speak, and said in a voice choked with sobs: "Disciples — with a thing like this, what are we to do?"
三藏: 藏 = zàng. 哽咽 = "choked with weeping." 似這等 ("a matter like this"): 似 = sì.
沙僧道：「師父莫哭。
沙僧道：「师父莫哭。
Sha Monk said: "Master, do not weep.
莫哭 = "do not cry" — Sha Monk, as often, the steadying voice.
你看那水邊立的，可不是個人麼？」
你看那水边立的，可不是个人么？」
Look there — that figure standing at the water's edge, is that not a man?"
Deictic 那水邊立的: 那 = nà. 可不是 = "is that not."
行者道：「想是扳罾的漁人，等我問他去來。」
行者道：「想是扳罾的渔人，等我问他去来。」
Pilgrim said: "It must be a fisherman working his lift-net; let me go and ask him."
扳罾 (bān zēng) = to work a square lift-net; 漁人 = fisherman.
拿了鐵棒，兩三步，跑到面前看處，呀！
拿了铁棒，两三步，跑到面前看处，呀！
Taking up his iron cudgel, in two or three strides he ran up before it to look — and lo!
鐵棒 = the iron cudgel; 看處 = "on looking."
不是人，是一面石碑。
不是人，是一面石碑。
It was no man, but a slab of standing stone.
石碑 = a stone stele.
碑上有三個篆文大字，下邊兩行有十個小字。
碑上有三个篆文大字，下边两行有十个小字。
On the stele were three great characters in seal-script, and below, in two lines, ten smaller ones.
篆文 = seal-script, the archaic epigraphic hand.
三個大字乃「通天河」，十個小字乃「徑過八百里，亙古少行人」。
三个大字乃「通天河」，十个小字乃「径过八百里，亘古少行人」。
The three great characters read "The River That Reaches the Sky"; the ten smaller ones read: "Eight hundred li straight across; since antiquity, few travelers pass."
通天河 = "the River That Reaches the Sky." 徑過八百里 = "eight hundred li straight across"; 亙古少行人 = "through all antiquity, few who cross"; the unit 里 = lǐ.
行者叫：「師父，你來看看。」
行者叫：「师父，你来看看。」
Pilgrim called: "Master, come and have a look."
看看 = "take a look"; 看 = kàn.
三藏看見，滴淚道：「徒弟呀，我當年別了長安，只說西天易走，那知道妖魔阻隔，山水迢遙。」
三藏看见，滴泪道：「徒弟呀，我当年别了长安，只说西天易走，那知道妖魔阻隔，山水迢遥。」
Tripitaka saw it and, letting fall his tears, said: "Disciples, in the year I took leave of Chang'an, I supposed the road to the Western Heaven an easy one — how was I to know that demons would bar the way, and mountains and waters stretch on so far?"
長安 (Chang'an): 長 = cháng. 那知道 is rhetorical = nǎ ("how was I to know," = 哪知). 迢遙 = "far and remote."
總評 Commentary
The pilgrims reach the chapter's central obstacle in earnest: a stone stele names the flood before them the 通天河, the "River That Reaches the Sky," and sets its breadth at eight hundred li, adding that since ancient times few have crossed. It is the widest barrier the journey has yet thrown up, and the inscription functions as a kind of ominous signpost — the landscape itself declaring the crossing all but impossible.
Against this the narrative sets Tripitaka's despair, and with it one of his recurrent laments: recalling how he had left Chang'an supposing the westward road easy, he grieves at the demons and distances that have proved otherwise. The note is characteristic of the pilgrim-monk throughout the book — the frail, weeping human center around whom the disciples' powers revolve — and it renews, at the threshold of a new arc, the tension between the enormity of the task and the faith that presses it forward.