松林開路 Into the Pine Forest
卻說唐僧聽信狡性，縱放心猿，攀鞍上馬。八戒前邊開路，沙僧挑著行李西行。過了白虎嶺，忽見一帶林坵，真個是藤攀葛繞，柏翠松青。三藏叫道：「徒弟呀，山路崎嶇，甚是難走，卻又松林叢簇，樹木森羅，切須仔細，恐有妖邪妖獸。」你看那獃子抖擻精神，叫沙僧帶著馬，他使釘鈀開路，領唐僧徑入松林之內。正行處，那長老兜住馬道：「八戒，我這一日其實饑了，那裡尋些齋飯我吃？」八戒道：「師父請下馬，在此等老豬去尋。」長老下了馬，沙僧歇了擔，取出缽盂，遞與八戒。八戒道：「我去也。」長老問：「那裡去？」八戒道：「莫管，我這一去，鑽冰取火尋齋至，壓雪求油化飯來。」却说唐僧听信狡性，纵放心猿，攀鞍上马。八戒前边开路，沙僧挑着行李西行。过了白虎岭，忽见一带林坵，真个是藤攀葛绕，柏翠松青。三藏叫道：「徒弟呀，山路崎岖，甚是难走，却又松林丛簇，树木森罗，切须仔细，恐有妖邪妖兽。」你看那呆子抖擞精神，叫沙僧带着马，他使钉钯开路，领唐僧径入松林之内。正行处，那长老兜住马道：「八戒，我这一日其实饥了，那里寻些斋饭我吃？」八戒道：「师父请下马，在此等老猪去寻。」长老下了马，沙僧歇了担，取出钵盂，递与八戒。八戒道：「我去也。」长老问：「那里去？」八戒道：「莫管，我这一去，钻冰取火寻斋至，压雪求油化饭来。」
逐句解 Line by line
Now the Tang Monk, having listened to his own willful temper and let the Mind-Monkey go, climbed into the saddle and rode on. Bajie broke the trail ahead, and Sha Monk carried the baggage as they journeyed west. Once past White-Tiger Ridge, they suddenly came upon a stretch of wooded hills — truly a place of clambering vines and twining creepers, of cypress green and pine blue.
The narrator's framing is not neutral. Tripitaka listened to his own wilful temper and let the 心猿 go — the Mind-Monkey, the allegorical name the novel uses for Wukong throughout, and for the restless faculty a pilgrim is supposed to keep reined. Letting it go is not being described as justice here; it is being described as a lapse. 挑著 takes 挑 as tiāo, to carry on a shoulder-pole, and ends in the unstressed zhe. 西行 takes xíng.
Tripitaka called out, “Disciples, the mountain road is rough and terribly hard going, and the pine woods grow thick and the trees stand ranked all round. Take the greatest care — there may be demons and wild beasts here.”
He warns his disciples about demons in the woods. He is right, and he is the one who will meet them. 三藏 takes zàng; 甚是 takes shén; 難走 takes nán, hard going; 仔細 takes zǐ, careful.
Watch, now: that blockhead braced up his spirits, told Sha Monk to lead the horse, and himself broke the trail with his nine-tooth rake, guiding the Tang Monk straight into the pines.
獃子 is the blockhead, the novel's standing nickname for Bajie — affectionate and unillusioned at once. 釘鈀 takes 鈀 as pá, his nine-tooth muckrake. 那 is nà; 帶著 ends in the unstressed zhe.
Just as they went along, the elder reined in his horse and said, “Bajie, I am really famished today. Where might we find some vegetarian food for me to eat?”
Both readings of 那 in one line. 那長老 takes nà, that elder, pointing; 那裡 takes nǎ, where, asking. 長 is zhǎng, senior — the elder, not the long.
Said Bajie, “Master, please dismount, and wait here while this old Hog goes to look.” The elder got down from his horse, Sha Monk set down his load, took out the alms-bowl, and handed it to Bajie.
歇了擔 takes 擔 as dàn, the shoulder-load as a thing, not dān, to carry it. 長老 takes zhǎng. Sha Monk hands over the alms-bowl, and it is the last piece of business the party transacts intact.
“I'm off, then,” said Bajie. “Where are you going?” asked the elder. “Never mind,” said Bajie. “On this errand of mine, I'll bore through ice to strike fire and fetch the meal, press oil from snow and beg the rice back home.”
鑽冰取火 and 壓雪求油 — bore through ice to strike fire, press snow for oil. Both name flat impossibilities, and both are Bajie promising to perform them. The reader is meant to hear the boast and know exactly how much begging is about to get done. 長老 takes zhǎng; 那裡 takes nǎ.
The narrator's framing is unusually pointed. Tripitaka listened to his own wilful temper and let the Mind-Monkey go: the banishment of the previous chapter is named not as justice but as a failure of the master's own discipline, the Mind-Monkey being precisely the faculty a pilgrim must not release. The party that rides into the forest is therefore already diminished, and the master's warning about demons and wild beasts lands with the irony fully loaded. He is right, and he is the one with no protection.
The scene also brings back the ordinary comedy of the road after the high tragedy of the wind. Bajie's grand promise to bore through ice and strike fire is bluster, and the reader suspects it before he has taken three steps. The chapter is laying two traps at once: the demon ahead on the road, and the disciple whose laziness will leave the master alone to walk into it.