怎生過得 How Are We To Get Past
一路上喜喜歡歡，不時到了七絕山稀柿衕口。三藏聞得那般惡穢，又見路道填塞，道：「悟空，似此怎生過得？」行者侮著鼻子道：「這個卻難也。」三藏見行者說難，便就眼中垂淚。一路上喜喜欢欢，不时到了七绝山稀柿同口。三藏闻得那般恶秽，又见路道填塞，道：「悟空，似此怎生过得？」行者侮着鼻子道：「这个却难也。」三藏见行者说难，便就眼中垂泪。
逐句解 Line by line
They went along merrily enough, and before long came to the mouth of the Thin Persimmon Lane on Seven Perfections Hill.
一路上 takes its ordinary tone slide before a falling tone. The doubled 喜喜歡歡 sets the mood one clause before it is destroyed.
Tripitaka smelt that foulness and saw the road choked up, and said, "Wukong, how are we to get past a thing like this?"
Both readings of 得 appear inside this single segment: the full verb dé in 聞得, "smelt," and the light particle in 過得, "get past," where the verb stands in front of it. 塞 is sè, blocked.
Pilgrim covered his nose and said, "This one is hard indeed."
著 is the marker zhe, and 難 the adverb nán. He made the same gesture the first time they came this way.
When Tripitaka heard Pilgrim say it was hard, the tears came into his eyes.
中 is zhōng. The word that undoes him is 難, "hard" — and he has just heard it from the disciple who has never once used it about himself.
The party comes back to the obstacle the whole first half of the chapter described, and it is exactly as it was. Killing the demon has changed nothing about the lane — which is the joke the chapter has been holding since the old man explained the seven virtues of the persimmon.
Tripitaka weeps, and the text is precise about the cause. Not the smell and not the blocked road, but hearing Pilgrim say 難. He has spent the chapter listening to that disciple call things easy.
It is the second time this lane has reduced the Elder to silence or tears. The first time he was troubled in his heart and said nothing; this time he asked a question and got an answer he did not want.