The Great Sage, scrabbling about at the foot of the pillar, suddenly startled Bajie. That idiot, hanging from the beam, laughed ha-ha: “Brother! So the ears won't get eaten after all.” Pilgrim said: “Idiot — are you hanging comfortably? I'll be out this minute, and I'll surely save the lot of you.”

爬蹉 pá cuō, scrabbling and scraping about — the sound of a bound man working at his collar. 那獃子 nà dāi zi, that idiot, pointing 那: it is the narrator's standing epithet for Bajie, not an insult invented for the occasion. 可吊得自在麼 kě diào de zì zài me, are you hanging comfortably, on the how-well de — and 管情救了你們 guǎn qíng jiù le nǐ men, I'll certainly save the lot of you, from a man currently chained to a post.

Bajie said: “For shame, for shame! Can't get loose yourself, yet still think of saving others. So be it, so be it — master and disciples will all die together in one place, and it'll be good company asking the road in the world below.” Pilgrim said: “Don't talk rubbish — watch me get out.” Bajie said: “I'll watch how you get out.”

本身難脫 běn shēn nán tuō, can't get his own self loose — 難 read nán. 還想救人 hái xiǎng jiù rén, still thinking of saving others, 還 as hái. Then 罷罷罷 bà bà bà, so be it, so be it, so be it — three times, and each one the full-toned bà of resignation rather than the light coaxing ba. Bajie's vision of the whole party going down to the underworld together so they can ask directions in company is gallows humour of a very particular flavour: defeatist, self-pitying, and funny.

The Great Sage, while talking with Bajie, was all the while sizing up those two fiends with his eyes.

One sentence, and it quietly arms the escape. 口裡與八戒說話 kǒu lǐ yǔ bā jiè shuō huà, with his mouth, talking to Bajie; 眼裡卻抹著那兩個妖怪 yǎn lǐ què mǒ zhe nà liǎng gè yāo guài, with his eyes, running over those two fiends — the ongoing zhe, pointing 那. 抹 is to wipe or brush across, so the gaze is sweeping them the way a hand sweeps a table.