The Pilgrim's eye was sharp. Seeing under the eaves a rope hung out for clothes, he walked over, snapped it with one pull, and tied the horse's legs with it.

眼乖, "a sharp eye" (乖 in its older sense of "quick, clever"). In 走將去 the 將 is the directional particle; in 將馬腳繫住 it is the coverb — both read jiāng. Having no rein, he takes what is nearest, and asks nobody.

The old man laughed and said: "Where did you steal that horse?"

The first 那 is demonstrative (nà), the second interrogative (nǎ): 那裡偷來的, "whence stolen." The joke is amiable. It is not taken so.

The Pilgrim said angrily: "You old fellow, you talk without knowing high from low.

老頭子, "old codger," with 子 the neutral suffix (zi); 不知高低, "not to know what is fitting." The temper that would quarrel with a Bodhisattva is not proof against a countryman's teasing.

We are holy monks going to worship the Buddha. Should we be stealing horses?"

又會偷馬, "as if we should be stealing horses." Wukong, who has stolen peaches, wine, the elixir of immortality and a weapon from the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, stands upon his dignity. 佛 is always fó.

The old man laughed: "If it is not stolen, why has it no saddle, no bridle and no rein — so that you must come and break my clothes-line?"

索子, "cord"; 晒衣, "to dry clothes in the sun." The old man's logic is unanswerable and entirely without malice, which makes it worse.

Sanzang made apology for him, saying: "This wild creature has nothing worse than a hasty temper.

陪禮, "to make apology on another's behalf"; 頑皮, "unruly, mischievous"; 性燥 (for 性躁), "of a hasty temper." The monk assumes the one office he fills well.

— If you wanted to tether the horse, you should have asked the old gentleman properly for a length of rope. How came you to snap his clothes-line?

The edition marks the turn of address with a pair of long dashes, as Sanzang wheels from his host to his disciple and back again. 好生, "properly, with care." The reproof is a parent's.

— Old sir, do not take it amiss, do not take it amiss. This horse of ours, I tell you truly and conceal nothing, was not stolen.

休怪, "do not blame us," doubled; 實不瞞你說, "in truth I will hide nothing from you." Sanzang's candour is his charm, and his loquacity is about to earn him a saddle.

Coming from the east yesterday, we reached Eagle-Grief Steep Gorge. We had a white horse to ride, with saddle and bridle complete.

俱全, "complete in every part." He begins, as all storytellers do, at the beginning.

But it fell out that in that gorge there was a vile dragon, grown to a sprite in the place, and it swallowed my horse, saddle, bridle and all, at a gulp.

不期, "unlooked for"; 成精, "grown to a sprite"; 一口吞之, "swallowed it at one mouthful" — the narrator's own phrase at the ambush, now in the victim's mouth. 那澗 is demonstrative, nà.

Happily my disciple has some arts, and moved the Bodhisattva Guanyin to come to the gorge and seize that dragon;

感得 takes the resultative 得 (de), "moved [her] so that she came." The monk's account gives his disciple the credit for the Bodhisattva's coming, which is close to the reverse of what happened — Wukong had been forbidden to fetch her, and a Guardian went instead.

and she bade it change into the very white horse I used to ride, hair and markings all alike, to bear me west to worship the Buddha.

教 is causative (jiào); 毛片俱同, "hair and markings all alike." Sanzang has grasped the facts at last, and grasped them accurately; he simply was not there to see them.

We crossed the gorge today, not one day since, and have come to your holy shrine, old sir — and I have not yet been able to procure a saddle and bridle."

還不曾 takes 還 as hái, "not yet"; 置得 takes the resultative 得 (de), on the pattern of 接得. 老先 is a clipped 老先生. The want of a saddle, first raised as an objection, is now confessed as a lack — and lands, unplanned, in exactly the right ear.

The old man said: "Master, do not take it amiss. This old fellow spoke in jest; who could know your worthy disciple would take it in earnest?

作笑耍子, "to speak in sport" (耍子, with the neutral suffix zi); 認真, "to take in earnest." The apology is unnecessary and freely offered, which is its own quiet rebuke to the disciple.

When I was young I had a few country coppers, and was fond enough of riding a fine horse.

村錢, "village money," a small country competence. The old man begins to tell his own history, and nobody has asked for it.

But through years of misfortune heaped on misfortune, mourning and fire, I came at last to this pass; so I took service as keeper of this shrine, and tend its incense.

累歲 takes 累 as lěi, "year upon year"; 迍邅 (zhūn zhān), "beset, going hard"; 遭喪 takes 喪 as sāng, "bereavement." 充為廟祝 — 為 read wéi, "to serve as" — a 廟祝 being the keeper of a shrine. 沒了下梢, "came to no good end."

Happily the households of the hamlet behind support me with their alms, and so I pass my days.

募化, "to beg alms"; 度日, "to pass the days." A 施主 (Skt. dānapati) is a lay donor. The man who is about to give away his one treasure lives entirely on other men's charity.

Now at my place there is still a saddle and bridle, a thing I have loved all my life; poor as I am, even so I could never bring myself to sell it.

我那裡 is demonstrative (nà), "at my place"; 倒還有 takes 還 as hái, "there yet is"; 捨得 takes 得 as de, "to bring oneself to part with." That he kept it through fire and mourning and beggary is what makes the gift a gift.

Just now, hearing the master's words — that a Bodhisattva should stoop to rescue a divine dragon, and bid it become a horse to carry you —

尚且, "even, so much as"; 救護, "to rescue and shelter." His reasoning is a fortiori, and unanswerable: if a Bodhisattva will stoop so far, what excuse has a poor man for withholding?

how then can this old fellow have so little as no help at all to give?

不能少有周濟 is a modest litotes — "cannot have even a little relief [to offer]" — where 周濟 is material assistance. He states his charity as though it were the avoidance of a disgrace.

Tomorrow I shall fetch out that saddle and bridle and gladly present them to the master, to be strapped upon its back for your journey. I beg you to accept them with a smile."

將 is the coverb (jiāng); 扣背, "to buckle upon the back." 乞為笑納 — 為 read wéi — is the polite epistolary formula for pressing a gift on a reluctant recipient.

Hearing this, Sanzang thanked him beyond all measure. And soon the boy was seen bringing out the evening meal.

稱謝不盡, "to thank without exhausting one's thanks" (盡 always jìn). 晚齋 is the evening meatless meal.

The meal done, they set up the lamps, laid out the bedding, and each lay down to rest.

掌上燈, "to raise the lamps"; 安了鋪, "to lay out the sleeping-mats"; 各各寢歇, "each lay down to rest." A chapter that opened on a frozen road and a devoured horse subsides into this domestic cadence.