The blockhead led the horse along, and where there was grass would not let it graze, but with clicks and hisses drove it on, rounding to the back gate.

不教吃草, would not let it eat grass, with the causative 教 (jiào) — the one detail that gives the whole errand away. 拉著 and 趕著 both take the running 著 (zhe); 嗒嗒嗤嗤 is the clicking and hissing a driver makes at an animal. He walks the horse straight past the grass and round to the back door.

There he saw the woman, with her three girls, standing idly outside the back gate, amusing themselves looking at the chrysanthemums.

Another one-segment pair of readings for the same character: 女子, young women, takes 子 as the full noun zǐ, while 耍子, to amuse oneself, takes the light suffix zi. 閑立著, standing about at leisure, has the running 著 (zhe). Four women looking at chrysanthemums at the back gate, in the dark, after a slammed door — the staging is not accidental.

When the mother and daughters saw Bajie coming, the three girls slipped inside.

娘女們, mother and daughters. 閃將進去, darted inside, uses 將 as a verb-tail (jiāng). The daughters withdraw modestly, which leaves precisely the arrangement the scene needs.

The woman, standing at the gate, said, "Little elder — where are you off to?"

佇立 is to stand waiting. 小長老, little elder, takes 長 as zhǎng — and the diminutive is doing a great deal of coaxing work.

The blockhead dropped the halter-rope, stepped up with a bow of greeting, and said, "Ma'am — I've come to graze the horse."

唱個喏 is to make a bow with a murmured greeting, the ordinary courtesy of the period. 放馬, to graze the horse — he keeps the pretext up to her face for exactly one line.

The woman said, "Your master is far too clever by half."

忒弄精細, far too finicky, too clever by half. She opens by running down his master, which is a shrewd read of her audience.

"To be taken as a son-in-law in my house — would that not be better than being a vagrant monk, tramping the road westward?"

招了女婿, taken in as a son-in-law. 掛搭僧 is a monk on the road who registers for a night at whatever monastery will have him — 掛搭 being that temporary lodging itself; the English tramping-monk is not far off. 蹡路 is to trudge along; 強似, better than, with 似 as sì.

Bajie said with a laugh, "They are under the Tang king's command, and dare not disobey the sovereign's order; they won't do this thing."

奉了唐王的旨意, under the Tang emperor's decree; 有違君命, to contravene a sovereign's order. Watch the pronoun. It is 他們, they — he has quietly stepped out of his own party.

"Just now, out in the front hall, they were all pinning it on me; and being one to defer to those above and mind those below, I only feared, ma'am, that you might mislike my long snout and big ears."

栽我, pinning it on me, with 都 as dōu. 奈上祝下 is an obscure colloquialism, roughly deferential to those above and soothing to those below — obliging in all directions. 嘴長耳大, long snout and big ears, is Bajie describing his own face, and here 長 is cháng, long — not the zhǎng, head-of-household, that turns up in her reply.

The woman said, "I've no objection myself; it is only that the house has no master, so taking one in would do well enough — but I fear my girls may find you ill-favored."

無個家長, no head of household, reads 長 as zhǎng — set it against the cháng of Bajie's 嘴長 two lines up, the same character doing the opposite job. 嫌醜, to mind somebody's ugliness. She raises the objection so that he will argue himself past it.

Bajie said, "Ma'am, tell your worthy daughters not to be so choosy about a man."

上覆 is to pass a message respectfully upward; 令愛, your esteemed daughter, is the polite form for another man's child. 揀漢 is to pick and choose among men. He is using elaborate courtesy to tell three women not to be fussy.

"Take that Tang Monk of ours — handsome enough in looks, but in truth good for nothing."

人才雖俊, handsome enough in person. 不中用, no good, useless, reads 中 as zhòng — 中用 means to serve the purpose. Bajie is running down his own beautiful master to a woman he is courting, which is both disloyal and, as sales technique, quite sound.

"Ugly I may be, but I have a few lines of doggerel to say."

我醜自醜, ugly as I am — he concedes the point in order to change the subject. 口號 is an impromptu doggerel verse, the kind you rattle off rather than compose, with 兒 as the diminutive suffix.

The woman said, "And how does it go?"

你怎的說麼, and how does it go? She asks for the poem. He was always going to give it.

Bajie said: "I —"

The quotation mark opens here, on a single word, and does not close until the last of the seven couplets. Everything that follows is Bajie talking.

Ugly of person though I be, / at diligent toil I have some skill.

人物醜, homely of person; 勤緊, hardworking and diligent; 有些功, has some competence. The pitch opens on industry precisely because looks are not available.

If it be a thousand qǐng of land, / no need to set an ox to plough.

千頃地, a thousand qǐng of field. 不用使牛耕, no need to put an ox to the plough — because he proposes to be the ox.

It needs but a single stroke of my rake, / and the sown seed sprouts in its season.

一頓鈀, one stroke of the rake, with 鈀 as pá: the nine-toothed muck-rake that is both Bajie's weapon and, as he is at pains to point out here, a farm implement. 佈種, to sow, takes 種 as the verb zhòng; 及時生, sprouting in season.

In drought I can pray down rain; / in stillness I can summon wind.

能求雨 and 會喚風, able to call down rain and summon wind. This is not idle boasting — he was Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, in charge of the celestial river, before he was thrown out of heaven and into a sow. The trouble is that he is offering it as a selling point to a farmer.

Should the house be thought too low, / I'll raise it up two storeys or three.

嫌矮, think it too low; 起上二三層, build it up two or three storeys, with 上 as the tail of adding on.

If the floor's unswept, I'll give it a sweep; / if the drain's blocked, I'll give it a clearing.

And the descent begins. 掃一掃 and 通一通 — sweep it a sweep, clear it a clearing — double the verb round a 一, which is how Chinese still makes an action sound quick and casual. 陰溝 is a covered drain. Two lines ago he was summoning weather; now he is unblocking the drains.

The long and short of household matters, every kind of thing — / from kicking heaven to fiddling with wells, I can do it all.

家長里短, the long and short of home and neighbourhood, means every domestic triviality — and here 長 is cháng, paired against 短, short, not the zhǎng of head-of-household. 踢天弄井, kicking heaven and fiddling with wells, is an idiom for being able to turn a hand to absolutely anything. 般 is bān. He has just described himself as a farmhand, a rainmaker, a builder and a plumber, and he means all of it.