原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
只管跟著 Follow the Eldest Brother
不然，如何只管不到？」沙僧道：「莫胡談，只管跟著大哥走。只把工夫捱他，終須有個到之之日。」不然，如何只管不到？」沙僧道：「莫胡谈，只管跟着大哥走。只把工夫挨他，终须有个到之之日。」
逐句解 Line by line
不然，如何只管不到？」
不然，如何只管不到？」
otherwise, how is it that we simply never arrive?"
The punchline lands a beat after the joke, which is how Bajie times everything.
沙僧道：「莫胡談，只管跟著大哥走。
沙僧道：「莫胡谈，只管跟着大哥走。
Sha Monk said, "Talk no nonsense. Just keep following eldest brother.
The 著 in 跟著 is zhe again, the marker of an action kept up — keep on following, and go on keeping on.
只把工夫捱他，終須有個到之之日。」
只把工夫挨他，终须有个到之之日。」
Only put the work in and wear the road down, and there will surely come a day of arriving."
捱 is to endure something by pushing slowly against it — to grind out. Sha Monk is saying the distance can be outlasted, which is a different claim from Pilgrim's "work hard" and a good deal more patient.
Sha Monk speaks rarely and this is why the book keeps him. Tripitaka is anxious, Bajie is joking, Pilgrim has already lost patience — and the quiet one says the only thing that is actually true. You cannot know how far it is. You can keep going.
His phrasing repeats the word for work that Pilgrim used in the proverb a moment earlier, but he does something different with it. Pilgrim's version was deadly effort in exchange for reward. Sha Monk's is simply time applied steadily to distance until the distance gives way. Of the two, his is the one that describes what this journey has actually been.