和尚做不成 Being Monks Will Not Do
行者上前放下衣物道：「師父，要過滅法國，和尚做不成。」八戒道：「哥，你勒掯那個哩？不做和尚也容易，只消半年不剃頭，就長出毛來也。」行者上前放下衣物道：「师父，要过灭法国，和尚做不成。」八戒道：「哥，你勒掯那个哩？不做和尚也容易，只消半年不剃头，就长出毛来也。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim came forward, set down the clothes and said: "Master, if we are to get through the Dharma-Destroying Kingdom, being monks will not do."
He answers by putting the bundle on the ground first. 做不成 is cannot manage to be, cannot pull it off — the pattern that says an attempt will fail rather than that a thing is forbidden.
Bajie said: "Brother, who is it you are squeezing?
勒掯 is lè kèn, to put the screws on somebody, and 勒 takes lè in it — not the lēi of pulling a strap tight, which is the reading the same character takes a few lines later when Bajie complains about a headcloth gripping his skull. Two readings, two passages apart. This 那 is nǎ, the questioning one: which of us.
Not being monks is easy enough. Just leave off shaving for half a year and the hair will grow out."
Bajie has understood the problem as a hair problem and solved it on a timescale of months. 只消 is need only, all it takes is.
Bajie assumes he is the target. Being squeezed, put upon, singled out for the unpleasant job — that is his default reading of anything Pilgrim proposes, and he is usually right.
His solution is also perfectly logical and completely useless, which is his other speciality. Half a year would indeed grow the hair out. The party has to be through the gates before the city wakes up.