諸天不知 What Is She Making
行者不敢強，只得走出竹林，對眾諸天道：「菩薩今日又重置家事哩。怎麼不坐蓮臺，不妝飾，不喜歡，在林裡削篾做甚？」諸天道：「我等卻不知。今早出洞，未曾妝束，就入林中去了。又教我等在此接候大聖，必然為大聖有事。」行者沒奈何，只得等候。行者不敢强，只得走出竹林，对众诸天道：「菩萨今日又重置家事哩。怎么不坐莲台，不妆饰，不喜欢，在林里削篾做甚？」诸天道：「我等却不知。今早出洞，未曾妆束，就入林中去了。又教我等在此接候大圣，必然为大圣有事。」行者没奈何，只得等候。
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim dared not press her, and could only walk out of the bamboo grove and say to the assembled Devas: "The Bodhisattva has set her household in order all over again today. Why does she not sit on the lotus dais, nor put on her adornments, nor look glad, but sits in the grove paring bamboo strips — what is it for?"
不敢強: 強 is qiǎng, to force or press a point, not the qiáng of strength. 只得 keeps 得 as dé. 重置 takes 重 as zhòng, setting something up all over again — and there is a grumble in it, as though she were rearranging the furniture. 削篾 is splitting bamboo into thin strips for weaving, the same work as the last line of the poem. 做甚 takes 甚 as the asking shén. A ？ cuts this speech in two in the modern text; the punctuation is an editor's, and both halves are one utterance.
The Devas said: "We do not know either. This morning she came out of her cave without dressing and went straight into the grove.
林中 keeps 中 as zhōng; 去了 takes 了 as the tag le. Her own attendants are as much in the dark as Wukong. She has told nobody what she is doing.
She also charged us to wait here and receive the Great Sage, so it must certainly be on the Great Sage's account."
又教 keeps 教 as jiào, causative; 為大聖 takes 為 as wèi, "on account of." They can work out whose business it is. They cannot work out what the bamboo is for.
Pilgrim, having no help for it, could only wait.
沒奈何: 沒 méi — nothing to be done about it. 只得 keeps 得 as dé. Wukong, who goes through every obstacle in the book, has here no recourse but to sit down and wait for a goddess to finish whittling.
The passage extends the mystery by confirming that it is a mystery to everybody. Wukong's questions to the attendants are a small comic inventory of everything wrong with the picture — 不坐蓮臺，不妝飾，不喜歡, not on her dais, not adorned, not even looking pleased — and he reaches for a domestic comparison, 重置家事, as though she had decided to reorganise the house. The attendants can tell him only that she came out undressed and went into the grove and that the business must be his. What the bamboo is for is being kept from her own court.
What the passage really records is Wukong reduced to waiting. He is the one who springs past guards and crashes into groves, and we have just watched him do it; here, turned out twice, he 沒奈何，只得等候 — nothing for it but to wait. Her refusal to be hurried has domesticated even the Great Sage, and the chapter lets the delay stand, because the delay is the point. The basket has to be finished before it can be used, and neither his rank nor his panic can make the weaving go faster.