Then the queen came up close, seized Tripitaka in one grip, and called out in a pretty, coaxing voice, 「My dear imperial brother, be pleased to mount the dragon carriage and come up with me to the hall of the golden bells, and let us be matched as husband and wife.」

御弟哥哥 stacks an intimate address on an official title — roughly "my dear imperial brother" — and the queen coins it here and keeps it for the rest of the chapter; the doubled family word takes a light second syllable. In 一把 the 一 shifts to yì before the dipping tone of 把: it is the same phrase and the same grip Tripitaka used on Pilgrim at the start of the plan, now used on Tripitaka.

The elder trembled so that he could not keep his feet, and was like a man drunk, like a man witless.

似醉如痴 inverts the 如醉方醒, 似夢初覺 of the plan passage — there he woke out of a daze, here he goes back into one. 戰兢兢 is a doubled sound-word and keeps its ordinary readings; 不 shifts to bú before the falling tone of 住.

Pilgrim, at his side, instructed him: 「Master, there is no need for so much modesty. Be pleased to mount the palanquin with our teacher-mother.

師娘 — teacher-mother, the wife of one's master — is Pilgrim's own coinage for the queen, and delivering it deadpan in front of the whole court is the most audacious line he speaks in the chapter. 教 is jiào.

Have the passport countersigned quickly, and let us be off to fetch the scriptures.」

去罷 takes 罷 as the little rounding-off word ba that softens a suggestion, not the verb bà of 茶罷. Where it sits decides which it is, as always with this character. 倒換 takes 倒 as dǎo.

The elder dared not answer; he gave Pilgrim two rubs with his hand, and could not stop the tears from falling.

把行者抹了兩抹 is a small private signal, hand to sleeve, made where the court cannot see it. The novel does not say what it means and neither does Pilgrim. 落 is luò, not the là the same character takes elsewhere.

「Master, do not distress yourself,」 said Pilgrim. 「Such wealth and rank as this — and you will not enjoy it? What are you waiting for?」

The line is cruel taken straight and kind taken as cover, and Tripitaka, weeping, has to take it one way in public and the other in private. 還 is hái; 哩 is li.

Tripitaka had no help for it and could only comply. He wiped his eyes, forced his face into a cheerful set, stepped forward, and with the sovereign lady —

The sentence does not end here. 與女主 — together with the sovereign lady — is left hanging, and its verb is the first line of the verse that follows, 同攜素手. The colon is the printer's mark introducing the verse, not a break in the grammar, so the English ends on a dash rather than a stop. 沒 is méi; 只得 takes 得 as dé; 強整 takes 強 as qiáng.

took hands, pale hand in pale hand, and shared the dragon carriage.

素手 — plain or white hands — is a poetic word for a woman's hands, applied here to both parties at once. The line finishes the prose sentence above and is at the same time the opening four-and-four couplet of the verse, which is an unusual seam.

The sovereign lady, all gladness, desired to be joined as man and wife; the elder, all dread, thought only of worshipping Buddha.

The opposition that governs the whole piece is stated here for the first time and will be restated four more ways before the verse ends. 喜孜孜 and 憂惶惶 are matched doubled sound-words and keep their ordinary readings; 佛 is fó.

The one would have the bridal chamber, the flowering candles, the mated ducks; the other would have the Spirit Mountain of the Western Region, and the sight of the World-Honoured One.

Two complete and incompatible futures in exactly parallel wording. 洞房花燭 is the fixed four-character phrase for a wedding night — bridal chamber and flowering candles — and is still the phrase used today. 鴛侶 are mandarin ducks standing for a married pair. 靈山 is Vulture Peak and 世尊 renders bhagavat, the World-Honoured One.

The woman emperor in true feeling; the holy monk in false.

女帝真情, 聖僧假意 is the couplet the passage is named for. Four characters against four, and the piece will now expand each half in turn — statement first, then gloss, a small structural move these set verses use to organise an opposition.

The woman emperor in true feeling, hoping for concord and to grow old together;

指望和諧同到老 — hoping for concord and to grow old together — is what she actually wants, and the verse says it without a trace of irony. The novel is careful, here as everywhere in this chapter, not to make her ridiculous.

the holy monk in false, hiding his feeling away close and nourishing his primal spirit.

養元神 answers the 喪元陽 of the plan passage: what he refused to lose there, he is hoarding here. 牢藏 takes 藏 as cáng, to store or conceal — the first time in this chapter the character appears on any reading but the zàng of 三藏.

The one, glad at the sight of a man's body, could hardly wait to lay their heads together in broad day and be husband and wife;

伉儷 is the formal literary word for a married couple, and setting it against 白晝並頭 — heads together in broad daylight — is a deliberate collision of high and low. 恨不得 takes 得 as dé, in a fixed idiom of impatient wishing: to wish one could hardly wait.

the other, afraid to meet a woman's beauty, thought only of slipping the net that instant and going up to Thunderclap.

脫網 is the chapter's own word for the plan — 假親脫網 — so the verse is quoting the scheme back at the reader. 雷音 is Thunderclap Monastery, the pilgrimage's destination. 思量 takes 量 as liáng.

The two came together and mounted the palanquin as one — who would have guessed the Tang monk had a mind apart?

和會同登輦 describes what an onlooker sees; 各有心 — each with a mind of his own — supplies what only the reader and three disciples know, and closes the verse on what makes the whole tableau false.