虼蚤叮臂 The Flea Bites the Arm
約摸有一更時分，行者才到他後邊房裡，只聽那老魔傳令，教：「各門上小的醒睡，恐孫悟空又變甚麼，私入家偷盜。」又有些該班坐夜的，滌滌托托，梆鈴齊響。這大聖越好行事。鑽入房門，見有一架石床，左右列幾個抹粉搽胭的山精樹鬼，展鋪蓋伏侍老魔，脫腳的脫腳，解衣的解衣。只見那魔王寬了衣服，左肐膊上白森森的套著那個圈子，原來像一個連珠鐲頭模樣。你看他更不取下，轉往上抹了兩抹，緊緊的勒在肐膊上，方才睡下。行者見了，將身又變，變作一個黃皮虼蚤，跳上石床，鑽入被裡，爬在那怪的肐膊上，著實一口。叮的那怪翻身罵道：「這些少打的奴才！被也不抖，床也不拂，不知甚麼東西，咬了我這一下。」他卻把圈子又捋上兩捋，依然睡下。行者爬上那圈子，又咬一口。那怪睡不得，又翻過身來道：「刺鬧殺我也！」约摸有一更时分，行者才到他后边房里，只听那老魔传令，教：「各门上小的醒睡，恐孙悟空又变甚么，私入家偷盗。」又有些该班坐夜的，涤涤托托，梆铃齐响。这大圣越好行事。钻入房门，见有一架石床，左右列几个抹粉搽胭的山精树鬼，展铺盖伏侍老魔，脱脚的脱脚，解衣的解衣。只见那魔王宽了衣服，左肐膊上白森森的套着那个圈子，原来像一个连珠镯头模样。你看他更不取下，转往上抹了两抹，紧紧的勒在肐膊上，方才睡下。行者见了，将身又变，变作一个黄皮虼蚤，跳上石床，钻入被里，爬在那怪的肐膊上，着实一口。叮的那怪翻身骂道：「这些少打的奴才！被也不抖，床也不拂，不知甚么东西，咬了我这一下。」他却把圈子又捋上两捋，依然睡下。行者爬上那圈子，又咬一口。那怪睡不得，又翻过身来道：「刺闹杀我也！」
逐句解 Line by line
About the time of the first watch, Pilgrim got through to the chamber at the back, and heard the old fiend giving out his orders: "You little ones at every gate, sleep light — Sun Wukong may change into something or other again and steal into the house to thieve."
一更時分: 更 = gēng, the night-watch (the first of five), not the gèng of "still, again"; 分 = fēn. Because the fixspec lifts 更 from a fourth-tone default to a first, the sandhi of 一 moves from the mechanical yí to yì — registered as a §2(a) override. Deictic 那老魔: 那 = nà; 教 = jiào ("to order"); 甚麼: 甚 = shén. 醒睡 = "to sleep wakefully." 行者: 行 = xíng — pypinyin reads 分行 as a word here and returns háng; the chapter licenses no nominal háng anywhere.
There were others too, on the night shift and sitting up, rattling and knocking, with clapper and bell sounding together.
該班坐夜 = "on duty for the watch, sitting the night out." 滌滌托托 is mimetic of the watchman's rattle; 梆 is the wooden clapper struck to mark the watches.
All the better for the Great Sage's business.
越好行事 = "the more convenient for going about the work." One flat sentence of narratorial complicity — the guards' racket covers his movement.
He slipped in at the chamber door and saw there a stone bed, with several powder-daubed and rouge-smeared mountain sprites and tree goblins ranged left and right, spreading out the bedding and waiting on the old fiend — one pulling off his boots, another loosening his clothes.
石床: 石 = shí. 展鋪蓋: 鋪 = pū here, the verb-derived "bedding" (contrast the noun 窩鋪, pù, in the passage before). 解衣: both occurrences of 解 = jiě, specified positionally.
He saw the demon king loosen his clothes, and on his left upper arm, bone-white, there was slipped that ring — for all the world like a bracelet of joined beads.
Both 那 are deictic (那魔王, 那個圈子) and are specified positionally. 寬了: 了 = le; 套著: durative 著 = zhe; 圈子: 子 = zi. 白森森 = "bone-white, chill white"; 連珠鐲頭 = a bracelet of linked beads.
And look — he never took it off at all, but rolled it further up instead, two turns of it, drew it tight against his arm, and only then lay down.
你看: 看 = kàn, the storyteller's address to the audience. 更不取下: 更 = gèng here ("not at all"), the opposite reading from the night-watch 一更 above. 抹了: 了 = le.
Pilgrim saw it, changed his body once more, and became a yellow-skinned flea; he sprang onto the stone bed, burrowed in under the covers, crawled up onto the monster's arm, and bit him in good earnest.
見了: 了 = le. 將身又變: 將 = jiāng. 石床: 石 = shí; deictic 那怪: 那 = nà. 著實: 著 = zhuó — "in good earnest," the same lexicalized adverb the demon used two passages ago.
Stung, the monster rolled over and cursed: "These slaves want beating! The quilt never shaken, the bed never dusted — some thing or other has bitten me here."
的 is the particle de in both places; pypinyin bakes dī for the one in 少打的奴才, and all sixty-three 的 in this chapter are the particle, so the reading is now guarded as an invariant. 少打: 少 = shǎo ("too few beatings"). Deictic 那怪: 那 = nà; 甚麼: 甚 = shén; 咬了: 了 = le.
Then he pushed the ring up his arm two turns more and lay down again as before.
捋上兩捋: 捋 = luō in both places ("to push a band along a limb"); pypinyin gives lǚ, which is the sense of stroking a beard. 圈子: 子 = zi.
Pilgrim crawled up onto the ring itself and bit him once again.
Deictic 那圈子: 那 = nà, 子 = zi. The detail is precise and deliberate: the second bite is delivered from the ring, which is how Pilgrim learns it cannot be shifted.
The monster could get no sleep, and turned over yet again: "It is itching me to death!"
Deictic 那怪: 那 = nà. 睡不得: potential complement, 得 = de. 刺鬧 is vernacular for a crawling itch; 殺 here is the intensifier "to death."
This passage states the problem of the whole arc in one sentence of household detail: 更不取下 — he never takes it off. Everything Wukong has tried so far has assumed the ring is a weapon to be countered; the night's reconnaissance establishes something worse, that it is jewellery, worn against the skin and pushed tighter before sleep. Set beside the description — bone-white, like a bracelet of joined beads on the left upper arm — the reader is being shown the thing plainly, and told at the same time that no burglary will reach it.
The comedy of the two bites is doing the same work from the other side. Wukong bites, and the demon's response is to blame the servants for an unshaken quilt; he bites again from the ring itself, and the demon merely rolls over and complains of an itch. Neither of them learns anything, which is the point — the fiend will only work it out afterwards, in Chapter 52's own words, when he recalls being bitten twice on the arm and understands what the bites were for. Meanwhile the narrator has let the burglar test the fastening twice and find it fast, and the night that Nezha wanted spent in sleep has been spent instead in establishing that the plan cannot work.