黿背渡河 The Crossing
到了河邊，陳家莊老幼男女一齊來拜送。行者教把馬牽在白黿蓋上，請唐僧站在馬的頸項左邊，沙僧站在右邊，八戒站在馬後，行者站在馬前。又恐那黿無禮，解下虎觔絛子，穿在老黿的鼻之內，扯起來，像一條韁繩。卻使一隻腳踏在蓋上，一隻腳登在頭上；一隻手執著鐵棒。一隻手扯著韁繩；叫道：「老黿，慢慢走啊，歪一歪兒，就照頭一下。」老黿道：「不敢，不敢。」他卻蹬開四足，踏水面如行平地。眾人都在岸上焚香叩頭，都念「南無阿彌陀佛」。這正是：真羅漢臨凡，活菩薩出現。眾人只拜的望不見形影方回，不題。到了河边，陈家庄老幼男女一齐来拜送。行者教把马牵在白鼋盖上，请唐僧站在马的颈项左边，沙僧站在右边，八戒站在马后，行者站在马前。又恐那鼋无礼，解下虎觔绦子，穿在老鼋的鼻之内，扯起来，像一条缰绳。却使一只脚踏在盖上，一只脚登在头上；一只手执着铁棒。一只手扯着缰绳；叫道：「老鼋，慢慢走啊，歪一歪儿，就照头一下。」老鼋道：「不敢，不敢。」他却蹬开四足，踏水面如行平地。众人都在岸上焚香叩头，都念「南无阿弥陀佛」。这正是：真罗汉临凡，活菩萨出现。众人只拜的望不见形影方回，不题。
逐句解 Line by line
When they came to the riverside, the old and young, men and women, of Chen Village came all together to bow them farewell.
到了 takes 了 as the tag le. 拜送, to see someone off with bows. The whole village turns out to watch four monks and a horse get onto a turtle.
Pilgrim had the horse led up onto the white turtle's shell, set the Tang Monk standing at the left of the horse's neck, Sha Monk at the right, Eight Rules behind the horse, and himself in front of the horse.
教 jiào, causative; 白黿蓋 takes 黿 as yuán; 行者 keeps 行 as xíng, twice. The careful placing of four pilgrims and a horse across one shell is the picture the passage is built around, and Wukong arranges it like a man setting out chess pieces.
And fearing the turtle might play some trick, he loosed the tiger-sinew cord, ran it through the old turtle's nose, drew it up like a bridle-rein,
那黿 points, nà; 觔 is a variant writing of 筋, jīn, sinew; 絛子 takes 絛 as tāo and 子 as the toneless zi; 老黿 keeps 黿 as yuán. The 虎觔絛 is the tiger-sinew cord that holds up Wukong's tiger-skin kilt — pressed into service, without ceremony, as a bridle.
then set one foot on the shell and one foot on its head, held his iron rod in one hand and the rein in the other,
登在頭上 takes 登 as dēng, to tread up onto. Two occurrences of 著, both zhe: 執著 the rod and 扯著 the rein. One foot on the shell, one on the skull, weapon in one hand and rein in the other — he is riding the turtle the way a driver rides a cart.
and called out: "Old turtle, go gently now. If you tilt so much as a hair, I'll give you one straight on the head."
老黿 keeps 黿 as yuán; 歪一歪兒 takes 兒 as the toneless tag er; 照頭一下, one straight down on the head. The threat is still loaded, one passage after he vouched for the creature's honesty to his master.
The old turtle said: "I dare not, I dare not."
老黿 keeps 黿 as yuán. Two meek 不敢s from something forty feet round, entirely at the disposal of the small passenger standing on its head.
He then spread out his four feet and trod the surface of the water as if walking on level ground.
蹬開 takes 蹬 as dēng, to push off with the feet; 行 xíng. 踏水面如行平地, treading the surface of the water as though walking on flat ground — the marvel of the whole crossing delivered in one clause and then left alone.
The people were all on the bank, burning incense and knocking their heads, all chanting "Homage to Amitābha Buddha."
都 dōu twice, "all of them." 南無阿彌陀佛 is the chanted invocation of Amitābha, and 南無 takes its liturgical reading ná mó — a Chinese transcription of the Sanskrit namo, "homage to," which is why it sounds nothing like the ordinary readings of those two characters. 佛 is fó as always.
This is truly a case of a real arhat come down among mortals, a living bodhisattva made manifest. The people bowed until the forms could no longer be seen, and only then turned back — of which no more.
這正是 and a colon introduce a neat balanced pair — a real arhat come down among mortals, a living bodhisattva shown forth. It looks like the start of a poem, and in the edition it is not: it runs on inside the same prose sentence, with more prose after it, and is never set out as verse. So it reads as the narrator's aside rather than a set-piece. 不題 closes the crossing, the storyteller putting the thread down again.
The crossing is staged with a precision that tips over into comedy. Wukong arranges the four pilgrims and the horse across the turtle's back like pieces on a board — master at the horse's left, Sha Monk at the right, Bajie behind, himself in front — and then, not trusting the creature he vouched for a moment ago, runs the tiger-sinew cord off his own kilt through its nose and rides its head with the rod in one hand and the rein in the other. Having assured his master that a talking creature will not lie, he keeps a bridle on its nose and a threat over its skull for the whole eight hundred lǐ. The turtle's meek 不敢，不敢 finishes the picture: forty feet of river monster entirely governed by the small passenger standing on its head.
Against that comedy the passage sets one image of straight wonder — 踏水面如行平地, treading the surface of the water as though it were flat ground — and then lets the villagers raise the whole scene into devotion. They burn incense, they kowtow, and they chant 南無阿彌陀佛 until the pilgrims are out of sight.
The narrator supplies the words for what they have watched: 真羅漢臨凡，活菩薩出現, a real arhat come down among mortals, a living bodhisattva shown forth. The crossing that betrayed them on ice in the previous chapter is accomplished here on the back of a living animal, and the arc closes on water walked rather than water fallen through.