揭諦請觀音 The Guardian Goes to Fetch Guanyin
行者見說，喚山神、土地，同來見了三藏，具言前事。三藏道：「若要去請菩薩，幾時才得回來？我貧僧饑寒怎忍？」說不了，只聽得暗空中有金頭揭諦叫道：「大聖，你不須動身，小神去請菩薩來也。」行者大喜，道聲：「有累，有累。快行，快行。」那揭諦急縱雲頭，徑上南海。行者吩咐山神、土地守護師父，日值功曹去尋齋供，他又去澗邊巡遶不題。行者见说，唤山神、土地，同来见了三藏，具言前事。三藏道：「若要去请菩萨，几时才得回来？我贫僧饥寒怎忍？」说不了，只听得暗空中有金头揭谛叫道：「大圣，你不须动身，小神去请菩萨来也。」行者大喜，道声：「有累，有累。快行，快行。」那揭谛急纵云头，径上南海。行者吩咐山神、土地守护师父，日值功曹去寻斋供，他又去涧边巡绕不题。
逐句解 Line by line
Hearing this, the Pilgrim called the Mountain God and the Local God to come with him before Sanzang, and set out the whole affair.
見說 is "hearing it said"; 具言前事 is to set out the preceding business in full. Note who is now walking beside him: the Pilgrim who a moment ago proposed to cudgel these two gods brings them along as witnesses.
Said Sanzang: "If you must go and invite the Bodhisattva, when will you get back?
才得回來 takes 得 as dé, "manage to get back". A Bodhisattva is to be summoned from across an ocean, and the monk's first question is about the timetable.
How is this poor monk to bear hunger and cold?"
貧僧, "this poor monk", is Sanzang's standard way of referring to himself — literally "impoverished monk", the humble self-name of a man under vows. The complaint is small, bodily and entirely human, and the novel does not let him off for it.
Before he had finished, there came from the unseen sky the voice of the Gold-Headed Guardian, calling:
只聽得 takes the unstressed de. 暗空 is the "unseen sky": the guardians are present and invisible, which is the whole force of the chapter's 暗佑, protection given from out of sight. They have been listening to every word of this.
"Great Sage, you need not stir. This humble god will go and invite the Bodhisattva here."
不須動身, "you need not stir". The Gold-Headed Guardian, the one who "never leaves your side day or night", now shows what that undertaking was actually worth. He volunteers before he is asked.
The Pilgrim was overjoyed and said aloud: "Much obliged, much obliged.
有累 yǒu lèi, "I have put you to trouble", is a courteous formula — and about as close to saying thank you as Wukong is brought in this entire chapter.
Go quickly, go quickly."
The doubling is his standing impatience. 行 is read xíng, to go.
The Guardian sprang swiftly upon his cloud-head and went straight to the Southern Sea.
縱雲頭 is to spring up onto a cloud. The 南海, the Southern Sea, is where Guanyin lives, on Mount Potalaka. 那 is the pointing nà.
The Pilgrim charged the Mountain God and the Local God to guard his master, and the Sentinel of the Day to go and find vegetarian fare; and he himself went back to patrol the brink of the gorge — of which no more.
齋供 zhāi gòng is meatless fare provided for monks, with 供 read gòng; 巡遶 is to patrol round about. Then 不題, "of this we say no more" — the storyteller's way of dropping one thread to pick up another, the medieval equivalent of a scene cut. What gets cut to is the flight south.
The passage turns on a single word from the chapter's title. Wukong has spent the whole episode trying to compel the dragon — cursing it, striking it, muddying its water — and has been beaten every time by a creature that simply will not stay put to be beaten. The remedy, when it arrives, needs no force at all. Somebody has to go and ask. That the Gold-Headed Guardian volunteers, sparing Wukong even the errand, is the first tangible return on the gods' promise of 暗佑, help given from out of sight.
Sanzang's contribution is, as usual, unheroic and rather touching. Told that a Bodhisattva is being fetched, he asks how long it will take and how a poor monk is to stand the hunger and the cold. The novel neither mocks him nor makes excuses for him. It simply has Wukong detail the Sentinel of the Day to go and find him something to eat — which is, when you think about it, the kindest thing anyone does for anyone in this chapter — and then closes the thread with 不題, leaving the Pilgrim pacing the water's edge while the story lifts away to the Southern Sea.