原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
讓我一日兒 Ask For One More Day
那獃子慌了道：「長官，你是那裡來的？」行者道：「我是五閻王差來勾你的。」獃子道：「長官，你且回去，上覆五閻王，他與我師兄孫悟空交得甚好，教他讓我一日兒，明日來勾罷。」那呆子慌了道：「长官，你是那里来的？」行者道：「我是五阎王差来勾你的。」呆子道：「长官，你且回去，上覆五阎王，他与我师兄孙悟空交得甚好，教他让我一日儿，明日来勾罢。」
逐句解 Line by line
那獃子慌了道：「長官，你是那裡來的？」
那呆子慌了道：「长官，你是那里来的？」
The fool took fright: "Officer, where have you come from?"
那 reads nǎ, the questioning band. 長官 is the respectful form for a functionary.
行者道：「我是五閻王差來勾你的。」
行者道：「我是五阎王差来勾你的。」
Wukong said: "I am sent by the Five Kings of the Dead to fetch you."
五閻王 — the kings who preside over the underworld courts.
獃子道：「長官，你且回去，上覆五閻王，他與我師兄孫悟空交得甚好，教他讓我一日兒，明日來勾罷。」
呆子道：「长官，你且回去，上覆五阎王，他与我师兄孙悟空交得甚好，教他让我一日儿，明日来勾罢。」
The fool said: "Officer, go back for now and report to the Five Kings. They are on excellent terms with my elder brother Sun Wukong. Have them grant me a day, and come to fetch me tomorrow."
得 is the light de in 交得甚好, linking the verb to how well it is done, with 甚 at shèn meaning very. 罷 keeps bà.
Bajie's response to a summons from the dead is to try to pull strings, and the string he pulls is Wukong. My brother knows the management. It is the reflex of someone who has never in his life believed that rules apply straightforwardly, and it is being said to the brother in question, who is enjoying it enormously.
There is also something touching underneath the comedy. Whatever Bajie has said about Wukong this chapter — cursed him for dead, split his luggage, egged the master into punishing him — when he is frightened and out of options, Wukong is the name he reaches for. The novel does not point this out. It simply lets him say it.
The request itself is very small. Not a reprieve, not an appeal: one day. He is negotiating with death the way one negotiates with a tax collector, and expecting about the same result.