原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
兩個象奴 Like Two Elephant Grooms
真個獃子舉鈀柄，走一步，打一下；行者牽著鼻子：就似兩個象奴，牽至坡下。真个呆子举钯柄，走一步，打一下；行者牵着鼻子：就似两个象奴，牵至坡下。
逐句解 Line by line
真個獃子舉鈀柄，走一步，打一下；
真个呆子举钯柄，走一步，打一下；
The fool did indeed take the rake by the handle, and at every step he took he landed a blow.
走一步 and 打一下 are set against each other: one step, one blow, and so on all the way down.
行者牽著鼻子：就似兩個象奴，牽至坡下。
行者牵着鼻子：就似两个象奴，牵至坡下。
Wukong led it by the nose, and the pair of them were for all the world like two elephant grooms bringing it down to the foot of the slope.
著 reads zhe, the leading kept up. 象奴 — a keeper of elephants, a real trade at any court that kept them.
The comparison is the joke and it is a very precise one. An elephant groom is a real occupation — courts that kept elephants for processions employed men to walk them — and the picture of two of them bringing a beast down a hill is entirely ordinary. What is being walked down the hill is a demon king.
Bajie's contribution is exactly measured: one step, one blow, with the handle, on a creature already held by the nose. The prose puts the two phrases side by side so that the rhythm of it comes through, and the effect is of a man doing a job thoroughly and without any risk whatever.