第五十九回 · 又是冤家 Enemies Once Again — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

又是冤家 Enemies Once Again

行xíng者zhě聞wén言yán，大dà驚jīng失shī色sè，心xīn中zhōng暗àn想xiǎng道dào：「又yòu是shì冤yuān家jiā了le。當dāng年nián伏fú了le紅hóng孩hái兒ér，說shuō是shì這zhè廝sī養yǎng的de。前qián在zài那nà解jiě陽yáng山shān破pò兒ér洞dòng遇yù他tā叔shū子zi，尚shàng且qiě不bù肯kěn與yǔ水shuǐ，要yào作zuò報bào仇chóu之zhī意yì；今jīn又yòu遇yù他tā父fù母mǔ，怎zěn生shēng借jiè得de這zhè扇shàn子zi耶yé？」行xíng者zhě闻wén言yán，大dà惊jīng失shī色sè，心xīn中zhōng暗àn想xiǎng道dào：「又yòu是shì冤yuān家jiā了le。当dāng年nián伏fú了le红hóng孩hái儿ér，说shuō是shì这zhè厮sī养yǎng的de。前qián在zài那nà解jiě阳yáng山shān破pò儿ér洞dòng遇yù他tā叔shū子zi，尚shàng且qiě不bù肯kěn与yǔ水shuǐ，要yào作zuò报bào仇chóu之zhī意yì；今jīn又yòu遇yù他tā父fù母mǔ，怎zěn生shēng借jiè得de这zhè扇shàn子zi耶yé？」

逐句解 Line by line

行xíng者zhě聞wén言yán，大dà驚jīng失shī色sè，心xīn中zhōng暗àn想xiǎng道dào：「又yòu是shì冤yuān家jiā了le。行xíng者zhě闻wén言yán，大dà惊jīng失shī色sè，心xīn中zhōng暗àn想xiǎng道dào：「又yòu是shì冤yuān家jiā了le。

When Pilgrim heard this he went pale with alarm, and thought privately, 'So it is an old enemy again.'

冤家 is an enemy, and in vernacular usage often one bound to you by a debt of grievance that will not be settled. 心中暗想 marks interior speech, which the source punctuates exactly as it does dialogue.

當dāng年nián伏fú了le紅hóng孩hái兒ér，說shuō是shì這zhè廝sī養yǎng的de。当dāng年nián伏fú了le红hóng孩hái儿ér，说shuō是shì这zhè厮sī养yǎng的de。

'The year I subdued the Red Boy, they said he was this creature's child.'

紅孩兒, the Red Boy, was the demon of chapters forty to forty-two, subdued by Pilgrim and taken into service by Guanyin as the Boy of Goodly Wealth. 當 is the positional dāng of 當年, 'in that year'. 這廝 'this creature' is contemptuous.

前qián在zài那nà解jiě陽yáng山shān破pò兒ér洞dòng遇yù他tā叔shū子zi，尚shàng且qiě不bù肯kěn與yǔ水shuǐ，要yào作zuò報bào仇chóu之zhī意yì；前qián在zài那nà解jiě阳yáng山shān破pò儿ér洞dòng遇yù他tā叔shū子zi，尚shàng且qiě不bù肯kěn与yǔ水shuǐ，要yào作zuò报bào仇chóu之zhī意yì；

'Before this, at the Cave of the Broken Child on the Mountain of Dissolved Male, I met his uncle, who would not so much as give me water and meant to take revenge for the boy;'

解陽山破兒洞 belongs to chapter fifty-three, where the Immortal As-You-Will guarded the spring that undoes a pregnancy and refused it to Pilgrim on exactly this grievance. 解 is jiě; 兒 in 破兒洞 is the noun-morpheme ér, a child.

今jīn又yòu遇yù他tā父fù母mǔ，怎zěn生shēng借jiè得de這zhè扇shàn子zi耶yé？」今jīn又yòu遇yù他tā父fù母mǔ，怎zěn生shēng借jiè得de这zhè扇shàn子zi耶yé？」

'and now I run into his father and mother. However am I to borrow this fan?'

借得 is a potential complement, so 得 is the toneless de — 'how could it be borrowed'. This half and the one before it are one sentence in the source, split at an internal semicolon and deliberately left apart here: the construction turns from statement to rhetorical question, and the grievance escalates from an uncle to the parents themselves.

總評 Commentary

The woodcutter's last clause has landed. Pilgrim goes pale, and the novel gives him a paragraph of interior speech in which he works out the family tree: the Rākṣasī is the Red Boy's mother, the Bull Demon King his father, and the Immortal As-You-Will of chapter fifty-three his uncle. What looked like a problem of geography has become a problem of kinship.

The precedent he reaches for is exact and discouraging. At the Cave of the Broken Child the uncle would not give him so much as a bowl of water from the spring, on the grounds of what had been done to the boy — and an uncle is a remoter connection than a mother. Pilgrim is reasoning from a case he lost.

It is worth noticing what the Red Boy's fate actually was. He was not killed; he was subdued and taken into Guanyin's service as an attendant, which by the novel's lights is a promotion. Nobody in this family sees it that way, and the chapter never suggests they are wrong to feel the loss. The grievance driving the next three chapters is a mother's, and it is treated as real.