權安息一時 A Moment's Rest at Your Door
長老聞言，扶著八戒，下馬躬身道：「老婆婆，我弟子有三個徒弟，合意同心，保護我上天竺國大雷音拜佛求經。只因我大徒弟（喚孫悟空）一生兇惡，不遵善道，是我逐回。不期他暗暗走來，著我背上打了一棒，將我行囊衣缽搶去。如今要著一個徒弟尋他取討，因在那空路上不是坐處，特來老婆婆府上權安息一時。待討將行李來就行，決不敢久住。」长老闻言，扶着八戒，下马躬身道：「老婆婆，我弟子有三个徒弟，合意同心，保护我上天竺国大雷音拜佛求经。只因我大徒弟（唤孙悟空）一生凶恶，不遵善道，是我逐回。不期他暗暗走来，着我背上打了一棒，将我行囊衣钵抢去。如今要着一个徒弟寻他取讨，因在那空路上不是坐处，特来老婆婆府上权安息一时。待讨将行李来就行，决不敢久住。」
逐句解 Line by line
The elder heard her, leaned on Bajie, came down from the horse and bowed, saying: “Venerable dame, this disciple has three disciples of his own, of one mind and one purpose, who are escorting me to the country of India, to the Great Thunderclap Monastery, to worship the Buddha and seek the scriptures.
He gets off the horse to speak to her. 老婆婆 keeps 婆婆 at pó po, the light second syllable that this form of address always takes. 弟子 takes 子 as the full word for a person, zǐ -- and note that Tripitaka uses it of himself, a disciple before the Buddha, in the same breath as 徒弟 for his own followers.
“It is only that my eldest disciple (he is called Sun Wukong) has been savage all his life and would not hold to the way of goodness, so I sent him back.
The source breaks off into a bracketed aside here -- 喚孫悟空, he is called Sun Wukong -- and it is the only bracketed aside in the whole chapter. It reads like a gloss inserted to be certain the reader knows which disciple is meant, and it is kept as printed rather than folded into the sentence. 一生 lifts 一 to yì, by the ordinary rule. 兇惡 takes 惡 at è, wicked, not the wù of disliking.
“I did not expect him to come stealing up on me and lay a blow of his rod across my back, and carry off my baggage, my robe and my bowl.
著我背上打了一棒 is 著 marking the point of contact, zhuó -- the construction ruled in Chapter 55 on a sentence of identical shape. 背上 is the noun "back", bèi.
“Now I mean to send one of my disciples to look for him and get them back; and since the open road out there is no place to sit, I have come to your honoured house to rest a little while.
要著一個徒弟 is 著 again, still zhuó, but doing a different job: setting somebody to a task. Two appearances of the character in one passage, two constructions, one reading. 坐處 takes 處 at chù.
“As soon as the baggage has been fetched we shall be on our way, and I would not presume to stay long.”
將 is the little word that hauls the object forward, jiāng. 行 appears twice and is xíng both times: the baggage in 行李 and the going in 就行.
This is the fullest and most orderly account anybody gives of the situation, and Tripitaka gives it to a stranger at a farmhouse door. He supplies the destination, the number of his disciples, the name of the offender, the offence, his own decision to expel him, the assault, the theft, his intended remedy and the limit of what he is asking. As testimony it is complete.
It is also wrong at the one joint that matters, and the bracketed aside makes that visible. The source inserts 喚孫悟空 to be sure the reader knows which disciple is meant -- the only such aside in the chapter, and it is spent on pinning down a name. Everything else in the speech is accurate. The name is not.
The manner repays attention too. He gets down off the horse to speak to her, and he bows. He has spent this chapter refusing water from a kneeling man and calling him a baldpate; here, to a woman who has just told him to go elsewhere, he is courtesy itself. The novel makes no comment on the contrast and does not need to.