The good Bajie wiped his face, roused his spirits, gripped his rake in both hands, went to the riverside, parted a path through the water, and once more descended to the demon's lair.

好八戒 ('the good Bajie') is the storyteller's formula of approval before a feat; 拿鈀 (鈀 pá) and 分開水路 ('opening a way through the water') repeat his plunge of the day before.

The monster had only just woken when he heard the splash of someone thrusting through the water; he turned his head sharply, opened his eyes wide to look, and saw Bajie coming, rake in hand.

推得水響 ('the splash of pushing through the water'; 得 de; 那 nà) and 執鈀來至 (鈀 pá) — the same summons that opened the last submarine encounter.

He sprang out, barred the way head-on, and shouted: 'Not so fast, not so fast — mind the staff!'

當頭阻住 ('blocked him head-on') and the doubled 慢來 ('come slow, come slow') — the demon's combat challenge, answering Bajie's own of before.

Bajie brought up his rake to parry and said: 'What sort of funeral-cudgel is that, that you'd bid your grandsire mind it?'

哭喪杖 ('a mourner's staff,' the stick a chief mourner leans on) is Bajie's mockery of the demon's 寶杖; 甚 shén, 甚麼. The insult provokes the staff's own sung praise that follows.

The monster said: 'You wretch, how little you know. This staff of mine —'

甚不曉得 ('how very ignorant'; here 甚 shèn, 'how, exceedingly,' not the 什麼-sense above). 我這 ('this — of mine') opens, inside the quotation, the twelve-couplet praise of the staff; the closing 」 falls only at its end.

This precious staff is one of great renown; its very stock is a branch of the moon's sala tree.

梭羅 (for 娑羅, the sala tree) is here located in the moon, a variant of the moon-cassia legend. The staff is given a celestial origin from the first line.

Wu Gang hewed a limb of it down; Lu Ban wrought it with unequalled craft.

吳剛 (Wu Gang, condemned forever to hew the moon's tree) and 魯班 (Lu Ban, patron-god of carpenters) supply the staff a mythic felling and making.

Within runs a core of gold true to the heart; without, ten thousand strands of pearl-thread gird it.

金趁心 ('a gold core running true to the centre') and 珠絲玠 ('pearl-thread and jade') detail the weapon's fabulous construction.

Its name is the Precious Staff, apt to subdue demons; forever it warded the Hall of Divine Mists and could quell fiends.

善降妖 ('good at subduing demons'; 降 xiáng) — the staff was, like its bearer, an instrument of Heaven's order, guarding the 靈霄 (Hall of Divine Mists).

Because I was appointed Grand General, the Jade Emperor bestowed it for me to bear at my side.

官拜大將軍 ('appointed Grand General'; 將 jiàng, the rank) — the staff is a token of the office the demon once held, granted by the Jade Emperor himself.

Now long, now short, it answers to my will; thick or thin, it follows my very mood.

或長或短 ('now long, now short'; 長 cháng) — like the monkey's own cudgel, the staff changes size at command, a mark of a numinous weapon.

It has guarded the throne at the Peach Banquet; it has attended court and dwelt in the upper realm.

護駕宴蟠桃 ('guarded the throne at the Peach Banquet') and 隨朝居上界 ('attended court in the upper realm'; 朝 cháo) recall the demon's lost celestial duties.

On palace duty it was saluted by all the sages; raising the curtain, it saw the immortals bow.

捲簾曾見諸仙拜 ('raising the curtain, it saw the immortals do homage') ties the staff directly to the office of 捲簾大將, the Curtain-Raising General.

Nurtured to a numinous nature, a divine weapon; no common implement of the mortal world.

養成靈性 ('nurtured into a spiritual nature') marks the staff as a 神兵 ('divine weapon'), not a 凡器械 ('mortal tool') — the boast's central claim.

Since I was banished down through the Gate of Heaven, it has ranged at will, roaming beyond the seas.

遭貶下天門 ('banished down through Heaven's Gate') — the staff shares its master's fall, from guarding the throne to roving masterless 海外 ('beyond the seas').

It is no rash boast to praise it so: no spear or blade under Heaven could match it in contest.

不當大膽自稱誇 ('it is no over-bold self-praise'; 稱 chēng) and 難比賽 ('hard to match'; 難 nán) — the vaunt turns to open challenge.

Look at that rusty rake of yours — fit only to hoe fields and tamp down cabbage-beds!

那個鏽釘鈀 ('that rusty nailed rake'; 那 nà, 鈀 pá) and 鋤田與築菜 ('to hoe fields and tamp cabbage') — the praise ends, as such boasts do, in contempt for the foe's weapon; the closing 」 seals the song.