夢中識爺 Known from the Dream
行者道：「你認得我是那個爺爺，就是這等呼拜？」那和尚道：「我認得你是齊天大聖孫爺爺。我們夜夜夢中見你。太白金星常常來託夢，說道只等你來，我們才得性命。今日果見尊顏與夢中無異。爺爺呀！喜得早來；再遲一兩日，我等俱做鬼矣。」行者笑道：「請起，請起。明日就有分曉。」眾僧安排齋飯，他師徒們吃了。打掃乾淨方丈，安寢一宿。行者道：「你认得我是那个爷爷，就是这等呼拜？」那和尚道：「我认得你是齐天大圣孙爷爷。我们夜夜梦中见你。太白金星常常来托梦，说道只等你来，我们才得性命。今日果见尊颜与梦中无异。爷爷呀！喜得早来；再迟一两日，我等俱做鬼矣。」行者笑道：「请起，请起。明日就有分晓。」众僧安排斋饭，他师徒们吃了。打扫干净方丈，安寝一宿。
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said: "How do you know which grandfather I am, that you hail and bow to me like this?"
那個 asks: 那 is nǎ, "which one." He is genuinely curious, having just been through this on the sand-flat. 得 in 認得 is full dé.
The monk said: "I know you are the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Grandfather Sun.
得 is dé again; 那 is nà.
Night after night we have seen you in dreams.
Not once, but night after night. 中 is zhōng.
The Great White Star of Venus came again and again to send us dreams, saying that only when you came would we get our lives.
託夢 is to send someone a dream — the standard way for a god or a dead relative to get a message through, and a thing Chinese literature takes entirely seriously. 得 in 才得性命 is full dé, to get.
Today I have indeed seen your honored face, no different from the dream.
The dream checked against the face, and they match. 尊顏, your honored countenance; 中 is zhōng.
Ah, Grandfather!
The relief breaking through the formality.
Happily you have come early;
喜得: the light de.
another day or two's delay, and we should all have become ghosts."
The persecution given a deadline, in the plainest words in the chapter. 一 is yì before 兩.
Pilgrim laughed: "Rise, rise.
Unruffled, as always when someone kneels to him.
Tomorrow it will all be made clear."
分曉, a clearing-up, the point at which a thing becomes plain. 分 is fēn.
The monks laid out a vegetarian meal, and the master and his disciples ate.
齋飯, the meatless meal proper to a monastery.
They swept the abbot's quarters clean and settled down to sleep for the night.
A 方丈 is the abbot's room, and the name is a measurement: one zhàng square, about ten feet, the size of the cell in which the layman Vimalakīrti received a host of bodhisattvas without running out of room. 乾 in 乾淨 is gān, dry and clean, not the qián it reads when it names the sign for heaven — two different words that simplified script writes alike. 一 is yì before 宿, xiǔ, a night's lodging.
The caretaker's recognition shows how far Heaven's preparations reached. 太白金星 reached not only the gang on the sand-flat but the temple monks too, showing them the Great Sage's face against the day of rescue.
His relief puts a deadline on the whole thing in the plainest words in the chapter: another day or two, and we should all have been ghosts. Wukong's answer is four words long and entirely unworried. Then the pilgrims eat and go to bed, and the chapter's comic climax is one watch away.