魚水之歡 The Joy of Fish and Water
卻說那太師與驛丞不等宣詔，直入朝門白玉階前，奏道：「主公佳夢最準，魚水之歡就矣。」女王聞奏，捲珠簾，下龍床，啟櫻唇，露銀齒，笑盈盈嬌聲問曰：「賢卿見御弟，怎麼說來？」太師道：「臣等到驛，拜見御弟畢，即備言求親之事。御弟還有推托之辭，幸虧他大徒弟慨然見允，願留他師父與我王為夫，面南稱帝。只教先倒換關文，打發他三人西去；取得經回，卻到此拜認爺娘，討盤費回大唐也。」女王笑道：「御弟再有何說？」太師奏道：「御弟不言，願配我主。只是他那二徒弟，先要吃席肯酒。」却说那太师与驿丞不等宣诏，直入朝门白玉阶前，奏道：「主公佳梦最准，鱼水之欢就矣。」女王闻奏，卷珠帘，下龙床，启樱唇，露银齿，笑盈盈娇声问曰：「贤卿见御弟，怎么说来？」太师道：「臣等到驿，拜见御弟毕，即备言求亲之事。御弟还有推托之辞，幸亏他大徒弟慨然见允，愿留他师父与我王为夫，面南称帝。只教先倒换关文，打发他三人西去；取得经回，却到此拜认爷娘，讨盘费回大唐也。」女王笑道：「御弟再有何说？」太师奏道：「御弟不言，愿配我主。只是他那二徒弟，先要吃席肯酒。」
逐句解 Line by line
We tell now how the Grand Preceptor and the warden, without waiting to be summoned, went straight in at the court gate to the foot of the white jade steps and reported: 「Your Majesty's fine dream was most true. The joy of fish and water is as good as accomplished.」
朝門 takes 朝 as cháo. 不等宣詔 — not waiting for the summons — is a breach of protocol committed out of eagerness, and the first crack in the court's punctilio. 魚水之歡 is the standing figure for marital union, fish and water being inseparable.
Hearing the report, the queen rolled up the pearl blind, came down from the dragon couch, parted her cherry lips and showed her silver teeth, and asked in a smiling, tender voice, 「My worthy ministers have seen the imperial brother — what did he say?」
Five three-graph verb phrases in a row — 捲珠簾, 下龍床, 啟櫻唇, 露銀齒, 笑盈盈 — give the queen a single continuous descending gesture, and the English keeps them as a chain. 賢卿 is the sovereign's affectionate address to a minister.
The Grand Preceptor said, 「When your servants reached the posthouse and had made our obeisance to the imperial brother, we set out the matter of the suit in full.
備言 is to state a thing completely, the verb of a formal report. The Grand Preceptor's account will prove accurate in every particular and wrong in everything that matters.
The imperial brother still had words of demurral, but happily his eldest disciple consented with a good grace, and is willing to leave his master behind to be Your Majesty's husband, to face south and be styled emperor.
還 is hái, 'still'; 為夫 takes 為 as wéi; 稱帝 takes 稱 as chēng. 慨然見允 — consented open-handedly — is exactly how Pilgrim meant his performance to be reported, and it has been reported so.
He asks only that the passport be countersigned first and the three of them sent off westward;
教 is jiào; 倒換 takes 倒 as dǎo. The one operative clause of the whole embassy's report is delivered as a minor condition.
and that when they have fetched the scriptures and returned, they may come here to acknowledge their father and mother, ask for travelling money, and go back to the Great Tang.」
取得 takes 得 as dé, attainment. 拜認爺娘 — to salute and acknowledge as parents — is the invented domestic detail Pilgrim supplied at the posthouse, now faithfully carried into the throne room. The lie has been transmitted intact.
The queen laughed and said, 「And had the imperial brother anything further to say?」
再有何說 asks for more, and the answer she gets is silence reported as assent.
The Grand Preceptor reported, 「The imperial brother said nothing, and is willing to be matched with Your Majesty.
御弟不言，願配我主 sets a statement of fact beside an inference and gives them the same grammatical weight. Tripitaka's 低頭不語 has become consent somewhere between the posthouse and the palace, and no one has lied to make it so.
Only that second disciple of his requires a banquet and a cup of the consenting wine first.」
肯酒 is the cup drunk to seal a betrothal. Eight Rules' demand is the last item in the report and is treated as a trifling condition, which is how it comes to be granted.
The report is accurate, and that is the joke. Nothing the Grand Preceptor tells her sovereign is false: Tripitaka did demur; his eldest disciple did consent handsomely; the party does want the passport countersigned; the second disciple did ask for wine. Every fact has survived the journey from posthouse to throne room. Only the meaning has been lost, and it was lost in the room where the words were spoken, not on the way.
The one sentence that ought to have given the court pause is 御弟不言，願配我主 — the imperial brother said nothing, and is willing. A statement of observed fact and an inference from it are set side by side with the same grammatical weight, and the join is invisible. Tripitaka's 低頭不語 in the previous chapter-section was a collapse; here it has become assent. Nobody has lied.
The queen's descent from the dragon couch is worth reading as choreography. Five three-graph phrases in sequence — the blind rolled up, the couch left, the lips parted, the teeth shown, the smile brimming — carry her down and forward in one unbroken movement before she has said a word. The novel has spent this chapter describing her country; this is the first time it describes her, and it does so entirely through motion.