Hearing these words, the pilgrim rejoiced in secret: “What luck, what luck — the Bodhisattva must have a remedy!”

聞得 ("hearing," 得 the complement de); 造化 ("good fortune, luck"). Guanyin’s very reproach kindles Wukong’s hope — if she asks why he did not come sooner, she must have what he seeks.

He pressed forward again and earnestly entreated her.

懇求 ("to beg earnestly, implore"). Hope lends fresh urgency to his plea.

The Bodhisattva said, “The sweet-dew water at the bottom of my pure vase can well heal an immortal tree or numinous sprout.”

淨瓶 ("the pure vase"), Guanyin’s emblem, holding the 甘露水 ("sweet-dew water") of compassion; 善治得 ("is well able to heal," 得 = de). Here, at last, is the cure the whole chapter has sought.

The pilgrim said, “Has it ever been tried and proven?”

經驗過 ("tested by experience, proven"). Even in his joy, Wukong wants assurance the remedy will serve.

The Bodhisattva said, “It has been proven.”

A flat, confident answer; Guanyin will now furnish the precedent.

The pilgrim asked, “And what was the proof?”

Wukong presses for the particulars, and Guanyin obliges with a tale of a wager with Laozi.

The Bodhisattva said, “In years past, the Most High Lord Lao made a wager with me: he pulled up my willow-branch, put it in his elixir-furnace, roasted it black and dry, and sent it back to me.”

太上老君 (Laozi, the deified sage, keeper of the elixir-furnace); 楊柳枝 ("willow-branch"), the spray Guanyin dips in her sweet dew; 炙得焦乾 ("roasted till scorched and dry," 得 the complement de, 乾 = gān, "dry"); 送來還我 ("sent [it] back to me," 還 = huán).

“I took it and set it in my vase, and in a day and a night it regained its green boughs and leaves, just as before.”

一晝夜 ("one day and night"); 復得青枝綠葉 ("regained green branches and leaves," 得 = dé, to regain); 與舊相同 ("the same as before," 相 = xiāng). The willow revived is the proof that the sweet dew can raise a scorched or broken growth.

The pilgrim laughed. “True luck indeed, true luck indeed!”

The doubled 真造化 ("truly fortunate") — Wukong’s delight bursting out. The willow’s precedent settles his last doubt.

“If even a thing roasted black could be healed back to life, how much less trouble is a mere toppled tree!”

烘焦 ("roasted, scorched"); 推倒的 ("the toppled [tree]," 倒 = dǎo); 有何難哉 ("what difficulty is there," 難 = nán). Wukong reasons, with restored confidence, from the harder case to the easier.

The Bodhisattva instructed her assembly, “Keep watch over the grove; I shall go and soon return.”

吩咐 ("to instruct, give orders"); 我去去來 ("I go and will be back"), a colloquial promise of swift return. Guanyin sets out to work the cure herself.

Then, bearing her pure vase in hand, with the white parrot warbling sweetly before her, she set out, the Great Sage Sun following behind.

白鸚哥 ("the white parrot," 囀 = zhuàn, to warble), Guanyin’s attendant bird; 隨後相從 ("following behind," 相 = xiāng). The compassionate power sets forth, at last, to mend what Wukong has broken.

There is a poem to prove it:

有詩為證 ("there is a poem in witness"), the storyteller’s formula.

The poem says:

詩曰 ("the poem says"), heading a verse in praise of Guanyin.

Her jade-white brow-curl, her golden form — the world can find no words for them; she is indeed the Compassionate One who saves from suffering.

玉毫 ("jade brow-tuft," the 白毫 or radiant curl between a Buddha’s brows); 金象 ("golden image, form"); 慈悲救苦尊 ("the Honored One of Compassion who rescues from suffering"), Guanyin’s defining epithet. 難 read nán.

In a past kalpa she met the Undefiled Buddha; and to this day has become a manifest, active body.

過去劫 ("a bygone kalpa," an aeon of the past); 無垢佛 (the "Undefiled Buddha," Vimala); 成得有為身 ("has become a 有為 body," 得 the complement de, 有為 = yǒu wéi, the "conditioned, active" body of Buddhist doctrine, in which she works within the world). The couplet gives Guanyin a scriptural pedigree.

Through many lives she has stilled the waves of the sea of desire; her whole field of heart is without a mote of dust.

慾海 ("the sea of desire"), the turbulent passions; 心田 ("the field of the heart, mind"); 絕點塵 ("without a speck of dust"), the image of perfect purity. The lines celebrate her stainless enlightenment.

Her sweet dew, long proven, is a truly wondrous art — it will surely keep the precious tree in everlasting spring.

甘露 ("sweet dew"), the healing water of her vase; 真妙法 ("a truly marvelous method"); 永長春 ("eternal spring," 長 = cháng). The verse ends by promising the very cure the chapter awaits: the ginseng tree restored to unfading life.