奇花異卉 The Master Wants to Sit
這林中奇花異卉,其實可人情意。我要在此坐坐:一則歇馬;二則腹中饑了,你去那裡化些齋來我吃。」这林中奇花异卉,其实可人情意。我要在此坐坐:一则歇马;二则腹中饥了,你去那里化些斋来我吃。」
逐句解 Line by line
The rare flowers and uncommon plants in this wood are truly pleasing to the heart.
奇花異卉 is a set four-character phrase for exotic flora — the sort of thing written on the gate of a garden.
I should like to sit here a while: first, to rest the horse;
The doubled 坐坐 softens it to "sit a little." He is asking rather than instructing, which he rarely troubles to do.
second, my stomach is empty. Go somewhere and beg a little food for me to eat."
The 那裡 here is the vague, open kind — go somewhere, anywhere — and it takes the question-word reading nǎ, since the indefinite grew out of the question and not out of the "over there." Chapter 27 has Tripitaka saying almost this exact sentence, and it ended with him driving Pilgrim away.
Everything in this passage is an echo. Tripitaka stops in a wood, admires the flowers, sends Pilgrim off for food and settles down to wait. He has done this before, most memorably in chapter 27 before the White Bone Demon, and it went very badly indeed.
The novel is not being lazy in repeating the setup. It is counting on the reader recognising it, so that the moment Pilgrim leaves, the dread arrives without a word of warning being needed. Sending the only disciple who can see through a disguise off to fetch lunch is, by this point in the book, practically a summoning ritual.