火來了 The Fire Is Coming
行者急回,已將兩股毫毛燒淨。徑跑至唐僧面前叫:「快回去,快回去。火來了,火來了。」行者急回,已将两股毫毛烧净。径跑至唐僧面前叫:「快回去,快回去。火来了,火来了。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim scrambled back at once — and the hair on both his legs was already burnt away.
兩股毫毛 'the fine hair of both thighs'. The old man had said that a man with a skull of bronze and a body of iron would be melted to liquid; the Great Sage loses his leg hair, which is both a vindication of his toughness and the first injury anything in this chapter has done him.
He ran straight to where the Tang Monk stood and shouted, 'Back, get back! The fire is coming, the fire is coming!'
火來了,火來了 doubled — the fourth doubling in two blocks, after 來了,正是,有扇 and 渴了. The chapter uses the device for eagerness, for pain and here for alarm.
The injury is precisely calibrated. The old man warned that a man with a skull of bronze and a body of iron would be melted to liquid; the Great Sage comes back with the hair burnt off both legs. It is simultaneously a vindication of how tough he is and the first physical harm anything in this chapter has managed to do him — and it is done by the treasure he is holding.
快回去,快回去。火來了,火來了 — back, get back, the fire is coming. Four doublings in two blocks now, after 來了, 正是, 有扇, 渴了. The chapter uses the cadence for eagerness, for pain, for confirmation and here for alarm, and it is the most consistent stylistic marker in the whole of Ch.59.
It is also the Great Sage running. He has been thrown eighty-four thousand li and come back the same morning; he has sat inside a demon's stomach making jokes. Here he sprints to his master shouting a warning, and the chapter ends its main action with the fan in his hand and the fire larger than when he arrived.