原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
東倒西歪 The Gate Hangs Off Its Hinges
長老拽步近前，只見那門東倒西歪，零零落落。推開看時，忍不住心中悽慘：長廊寂靜，古剎蕭疏；长老拽步近前，只见那门东倒西歪，零零落落。推开看时，忍不住心中凄惨：长廊寂静，古刹萧疏；
逐句解 Line by line
長老拽步近前，只見那門東倒西歪，零零落落。
长老拽步近前，只见那门东倒西歪，零零落落。
The elder strode up close, and saw that the gate was leaning every way and falling to pieces.
拽 is yè here, the reading this edition uses elsewhere for 拽步, to stride out. And 倒 in 東倒西歪 is dǎo, to topple — leaning east and lurching west is still the ordinary Chinese phrase for anything that will not stand straight.
推開看時，忍不住心中悽慘：長廊寂靜，古剎蕭疏；
推开看时，忍不住心中凄惨：长廊寂静，古刹萧疏；
When he pushed it open and looked, he could not keep down the desolation in his heart: the long galleries silent, the ancient monastery bare and thin;
剎 is chà, from the Sanskrit kṣetra, a field or domain, and by extension a Buddhist establishment — not the shā of braking. The character appears four times in this chapter and this is its first.
The chapter's fourth set-piece begins, and it is the only one that is not a landscape. Mountain, pine wood, and now a building — and the building is the one that is falling down.
Tripitaka's reaction is the tell. He has walked into a great many temples on this journey. This is the first one that makes him want to cry before anyone has said a word to him.