咬衣泣諫 The Horse Pleads
小龍聞說,一口咬住他直裰子,那裡肯放,止不住眼中滴淚道:「師兄啊,你千萬休生懶惰。」八戒道:「不懶惰便怎麼?沙兄弟已被他拿住,我是戰不過他,不趁此散火,還等甚麼?」小龙闻说,一口咬住他直裰子,那里肯放,止不住眼中滴泪道:「师兄啊,你千万休生懒惰。」八戒道:「不懒惰便怎么?沙兄弟已被他拿住,我是战不过他,不趁此散火,还等甚么?」
逐句解 Line by line
At this the little dragon caught his cassock in its teeth with one bite and would by no means let go, and, unable to hold back the tears in its eyes, said: "Brother, I beg you a thousand times — do not give way to sloth!"
Here 那裡肯放 means "would in no way let go," so 那 is the rhetorical nǎ; 眼中 takes 中 as zhōng. 直裰 is a monk's cassock; 休生懶惰 is "do not breed laziness in yourself." A wounded animal has a man by the coat in its teeth and is crying, and this is the most eloquent anyone in the chapter has been.
Bajie said: "And if I'm not slothful, what of it? Brother Sha is already taken; I'm no match for him in a fight; if we don't break up the band now, what are we waiting for?"
散火 — literally "scatter the fire," to break up the band — takes 散 as sàn; 還等甚麼 takes 還 as hái and 甚 as shén. Bajie answers tears with arithmetic: Sha is taken, the demon is stronger, therefore disband.
The pathos rests on a mute animal made suddenly articulate: the dragon-horse takes hold of his brother's robe in its teeth, weeps, and begs. Against that Bajie sets a flat, self-preserving calculation. The word 散火, "break up the band," names the real crisis of the passage — which is not the demon's strength but the pilgrims' willingness to stay together.