奏請借天 Petitioning to Borrow the Sky
好大聖，低頭捻訣，念個咒語，叫那日遊神、夜遊神、五方揭諦神：「即去與我奏上玉帝，說老孫皈依正果，保唐僧去西天取經，路阻高山，師逢苦厄。妖魔那寶，吾欲誘他換之。萬千拜上，將天借與老孫裝閉半個時辰，以助成功，若道半聲不肯，即上靈霄殿，動起刀兵。」好大圣，低头捻诀，念个咒语，叫那日游神、夜游神、五方揭谛神：「即去与我奏上玉帝，说老孙皈依正果，保唐僧去西天取经，路阻高山，师逢苦厄。妖魔那宝，吾欲诱他换之。万千拜上，将天借与老孙装闭半个时辰，以助成功，若道半声不肯，即上灵霄殿，动起刀兵。」
逐句解 Line by line
Fine Great Sage! He bowed his head, made the finger-signs, chanted a spell, and summoned the Day-Roaming Spirit, the Night-Roaming Spirit, and the Guardians of the Five Quarters: "Go at once and report to the Jade Emperor for me — say old Monkey has turned to the true fruit and guards Tripitaka on his way west to fetch scriptures, that his road is barred by high mountains and his master beset by ordeal.
日遊神 and 夜遊神 (rì yóu shén, yè yóu shén) are the Day-Roaming and Night-Roaming Spirits, patrol deities who go about noting what happens. 奏上玉帝 (zòu shàng yù dì), "to memorialise the Jade Emperor" -- 奏 is the technical verb for a formal submission to the throne. 路阻高山 (lù zǔ gāo shān), "the road blocked by high mountains." He is filing a request through channels, complete with a statement of his standing and the merits of the case.
"The fiends have those treasures, and I mean to lure them into a trade.
妖魔那寶 (yāo mó nà bǎo), "those treasures of the fiends," 那 the pointing nà. 誘他換之 (yòu tā huàn zhī), "entice them into a trade." He tells Heaven the plan is a swindle, in writing, without a flicker of embarrassment.
"A thousand times I beg it: lend old Monkey the sky to bottle up for half a shí chén, to help me succeed. If the answer's so much as half a word of refusal, I'll come up to the Hall of Divine Mists and set weapons flying."
將天借與 (jiāng tiān jiè yǔ), "lend me the sky," 將 once more doing the work of 把. The loan he asks for is 半個時辰, half a 時辰 -- and a 時辰 is a double hour, one twelfth of the whole day and night, which is why the modern word for our sixty-minute hour is 小時, a "small 時辰." So half of one is a full hour by our clock, not half of one. 靈霄殿 (líng xiāo diàn) is the Hall of Divine Mists, the Jade Emperor's throne room -- and the petition ends by threatening to wreck it.
Having promised the impossible, Pilgrim simply arranges to make it true, by requisition. The summons to the roaming spirits is framed as a formal petition -- his converted status, his commission guarding Tripitaka, the mountains barring the road, the trap he intends to spring. The bureaucratic register is deliberate. The Great Sage is going through proper channels, and what he is requesting through them is the sky.
Then the petition ends in pure Monkey. A thousand times I beg it gives way inside one sentence to a threat: refuse by half a word and I will come up to the throne room with weapons drawn. The whole comedy of his relationship with Heaven is in that join -- reformed servant and standing menace at once. Having wrecked the celestial court once already, he can afford to make the request politely.