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.

那獃子 nà (獃子, 子 zi). 不教吃草 “would not let it eat grass,” 教 causative jiào. 拉著…趕著 both durative zhe. 嗒嗒嗤嗤 onomatope of the driver's clicks. His true errand is not grazing.

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

三個女子 “three young women,” 女子 (nǚzǐ) with 子 the noun zǐ; the following 耍子 (“to play, amuse oneself”) takes the suffix zi — one segment, two readings. 閑立著 “standing at leisure,” 著 durative zhe.

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

娘女們 “mother and daughters.” 閃將進去 “darted in,” 將 the verbal complement jiāng. The daughters' modest retreat leaves the widow to Bajie alone.

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

那婦人 nà (also 那裡, nà). 小長老 zhǎng lǎo, a wheedling “little elder.” 佇立 “to stand waiting.”

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

這獃子 (獃子, 子 zi). 唱個喏 “to make a bow with a murmured salutation.” 放馬 “to graze the horse” — the pretext, kept up to her face.

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

那婦人 nà. 忒弄精細 “much too finicky, too shrewd” — the widow's dig at Tripitaka's punctilious refusal.

“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 “to be taken in as a son-in-law.” 掛搭僧 “a lodging, itinerant monk,” 掛搭 the temporary registration of a wandering cleric at a monastery. 蹡路 “to trudge the road,” 強似 “better than,” 似 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 “bearing the Tang emperor's decree.” 有違君命 “to contravene the ruler's command.” Bajie pins the refusal on the others while distancing himself from it.

“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 “to foist it on me,” 都 dōu. 奈上祝下 an obscure colloquialism, roughly “deferential to superiors and placating to inferiors,” i.e. obligingly accommodating. 嘴長耳大 “long-snouted, big-eared” — Bajie's porcine features; here 長 reads cháng (“long”), against the zhǎng of 家長 below.

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.”

那婦人 nà. 無個家長 “no head of household,” here 長 reads zhǎng (家長, “householder”) — distinct from the cháng of 嘴長 above. 嫌醜 “to mislike (one's) ugliness.”

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

上覆 “to convey (a message) up to, to inform respectfully.” 令愛 “your esteemed daughter(s).” 揀漢 “to pick and choose a husband.”

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

那唐僧 nà. 人才雖俊 “though fine in person.” 不中用 “of no use, good for nothing,” here 中 reads zhòng (中用, “to be serviceable”). Bajie disparages his handsome master to advance his own homely suit.

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

我醜自醜 “ugly as I am,” conceding the point. 口號 “an impromptu doggerel verse,” 兒 the diminutive suffix. The lead-in to Bajie's self-advertising rhyme.

The woman said, “And how does it go?”

你怎的說麼 “how do you say it, then?” The widow's prompt draws out the verse.

Bajie said: “I —”

八戒道：「我 — the opening 「 of Bajie's recited 口號; the quotation stays open through the seven couplets that follow, closing only on the final line.

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

人物醜 “homely of person.” 勤緊 “diligent, hardworking”; 有些功 “have some competence.” The doggerel's boast opens with industry over looks.

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 use an ox to till” — Bajie's brute strength stands in for the beast.

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

一頓鈀 “one stroke of the (nine-tooth) muck-rake,” 鈀 pá, Bajie's weapon and farm-tool. 佈種 “to sow seed,” here 種 the verb zhòng (“to plant”). 及時生 “sprout in due time.”

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

能求雨…會喚風 “able to invoke rain… able to call up wind” — Bajie's boast of his weather-working powers, a relic of his former office as Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds.

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

嫌矮 “to think (it) too low.” 起上二三層 “to build it up two or three storeys,” 上 the complement 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.

掃一掃…通一通 “give it a sweep… give it a clearing,” the colloquial verb-reduplication for a quick doing. 陰溝 “a covered drain.” The doggerel descends comically from weather-magic to household chores.

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 neighborhood,” i.e. every domestic trifle; here 長 reads cháng (paired with 短 “short”), not the zhǎng of 家長 “householder.” 踢天弄井 “to kick heaven and toy with wells,” an idiom for boundless capability. 般 bān.