密叢深處 Cliffs Breed Monsters
三藏道：「雖然是山不礙路，但恐嶮峻之間生怪物，密叢深處出妖精。」八戒道：「放心，放心。這裡來相近極樂不遠，管取太平無事。」三藏道：「虽然是山不碍路，但恐崄峻之间生怪物，密丛深处出妖精。」八戒道：「放心，放心。这里来相近极乐不远，管取太平无事。」
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka said, "Granted that a mountain does not block a road. Still I fear that among such steeps there are strange creatures bred, and out of the deep places in the thickets come demons."
Tripitaka concedes the proverb and then keeps his fear anyway, which is a very human move. He is not arguing about roads; he is arguing about what lives beside them.
Bajie said, "Relax, relax.
Doubling the phrase is how spoken Chinese does reassurance, the way English says "there, there."
We are getting near to Ultimate Bliss now, and it is not far. I guarantee peace and quiet, with nothing to worry about."
極樂, Ultimate Bliss, is the Pure Land of Amitabha — the destination in the devotional sense, as against India in the geographical sense. Bajie is being cheerfully vague about both. 管取 is bookmaker's language: I guarantee it, I will cover the bet.
Three characters, three ways of handling the same mountain. Tripitaka fears it, Pilgrim reads it, and Bajie waves at it and promises everything will be fine. None of them is looking at it.
Bajie's guarantee is the funniest thing in the passage because it is exactly wrong. This chapter contains one of the more dangerous encounters of the whole journey, and the danger arrives not as a monster on a cliff but as a young woman tied to a tree, asking politely for help. Tripitaka is scanning the ridges. The trouble is at ground level.