The Pilgrim quickly leapt up on a cloud, made straight for a household to the due north, begged a bowl of vegetarian fare, and brought it back to offer the master.

化了一缽素齋 ('begged an alms-bowl of monastic food') — the monkey's errand of the previous scene, dispatched with his usual speed.

The master, seeing how quickly he had come and gone, called out: 'Wukong, this household where you begged the food —'

來得甚快 ('came so very fast'; 得 de, 甚 shèn, 'exceedingly'). The master's naive inference from the monkey's speed sets up the whole comic argument that follows.

'wouldn't it be better to go and ask them for a way across the river than to keep grappling with this monster?'

不強似 ('would it not be stronger, better, than'; 似 shì). Sanzang, seeing the monkey cross vast distances in a moment, supposes an ordinary household might simply be asked the way over.

The Pilgrim said with a laugh: 'That house is a fearful distance off — five or seven thousand li away —

遠得狠 ('terribly far'; 得 de) and 相去有五七千里 ('separated by some five to seven thousand li'; 相 xiāng, mutually). The monkey punctures the master's premise: the household he reached is nowhere near.

'how would they know anything of the water? What use would it be to ask them?'

他那裡得知水性 ('however would they come to know the water'; 那 nǎ, interrogative, and 得 dé, to come to know). Distance and irrelevance together dismiss the master's suggestion.

Bajie said: 'Elder brother's spinning yarns again — five or seven thousand li, and how did you come and go so fast?'

扯謊 ('to tell lies') and 去來得快 ('came and went so fast'; 得 de) — Bajie voices the reader's own incredulity, giving the monkey his cue to explain the somersault cloud.

The Pilgrim said: 'What would you know of it? Old Sun's somersault cloud carries a hundred and eight thousand li at a single bound.'

觔斗雲 ('somersault cloud'; 斗 dǒu, as in 筋斗, a somersault) and 十萬八千里 ('a hundred and eight thousand li') — the monkey's signature conveyance, and the very distance to the Western Heaven.

'A mere five or seven thousand li — I need only nod my head a couple of times and bend my waist once, and there and back it is. What difficulty in that?'

點上兩點…躬上一躬 ('a couple of nods, a single bow') reduce a vast journey to a shrug — the boast that will let Bajie ask why he doesn't simply carry the master.

Bajie said: 'Brother! If it's as easy as all that, then take the master on your back, give a nod or two,

你把師父背著 ('carry the master on your back'; 著 zhe, durative). Bajie draws the obvious inference — the comic crux the whole exchange exists to raise and answer.

'bend your waist, and just leap across — why go to all this bitter trouble of fighting the monster?'

跳過去罷了 ('just leap over and be done') and 何必苦苦…廝戰 ('why fight so painfully?') press the question the doctrine of the next passage will answer.

The Pilgrim said: 'Can't you ride a cloud yourself? Why don't you carry the master over?'

The monkey turns the question back — 你把師父馱過去不是 ('why not carry the master across yourself?') — teeing up Bajie's account of why the master's mortal body cannot be flown.

Bajie said: 'The master's mortal frame of flesh and bone is heavy as Mount Tai; this cloud-riding of mine —'

凡胎肉骨 ('a common womb-born body of flesh and bone') and 重似泰山 ('heavy as Mount Tai'; 重 zhòng, 似 shì) — Bajie states the physical fact, which the monkey will raise into a doctrine.

'how could it bear the weight? It must be your somersault cloud that could do it.'

怎稱得起 ('how could it bear the load'; 稱 chēng, 得 de) and 須是你的觔斗方可 ('only your somersault would serve'; 斗 dǒu). Bajie throws the task back onto the monkey — the hinge to the Pilgrim's serious reply.