Now the fiend, reaching the gate, saw only corpses strewn across the ground — the whole company of sprites under his command.

卻說 — "now the tale turns to" — is the storyteller shifting scene. 屍橫滿地 is "corpses strewn across the ground"; 到得 is "reached," with 得 as the complement de.

In dismay he lifted his face to Heaven with a long sigh, and, unable to hold it back, wept aloud: "Bitter woe!"

慌得 is "flustered until," 得 the degree complement de. 仰天長嘆 is "gazed up and sighed long," 長 read cháng; 止不住 is "could not stop himself."

Grievous woe!"

痛哉 — "how grievous!", the second of his two cries.

There is a poem to bear witness.

有詩為證 is "there is a poem in proof," 為 read wéi, to serve as. The formula introduces a verse the author vouches for rather than one a character speaks.

The poem says:

詩曰 — "the poem runs," the tag that turns prose into verse.

Hateful, the wayward ape and the base, unruly horse; the numinous embryo, transmigrating, came down to the mortal dust.

猿乖馬劣 is "the wayward ape and the unruly horse" — Wukong and the dragon-horse, seen down the wrong end of the telescope, through the demons' resentment. 靈胎轉託 is "the numinous embryo took rebirth"; 降塵凡 is "came down to the mortal dust," 降 read jiàng, to descend, not the xiáng of subduing a demon. The descent is the demons' own.

Only for a wrongful thought they left the gates of Heaven; and so, forgetting their true forms, they fell to this mountain.

錯念 is a single errant thought; 天闕 is the gate-towers of Heaven; 忘形 is "forgot their true form." The couplet supplies the cause of the fall, and it is startlingly small — one lapse of mind, and out of Heaven.

Like wild geese lost from the flock, their grief cut deep; the demon-host, its clan wiped out, wept streaming tears.

鴻雁失群, "wild geese parted from the flock," is the standard figure for the bereaved. 妖兵絕族 is "the demon-soldiers' line extinguished"; 潺潺 is the ceaseless trickle of the tears.

When will the burden of sin be full, the lock of transgression opened — that they may return to the root, restore the origin, and mount again to the imperial pass?

孽滿 is "the karmic debt paid in full"; 開愆鎖 is "unlock the fetters of guilt." 返本還原 (fǎn běn huán yuán), "return to the root, restore the origin," takes 還 as huán, to return; 上御關 is "ascend to the imperial pass." The whole stanza ends on a question, and the chapter will answer it.