原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
等我去看 Let Me Go and See Him
老怪道：「莫怕，等我去看。」掄著一條鐵杵，走近前看時，見那獃子果然醜惡。老怪道：「莫怕，等我去看。」抡着一条铁杵，走近前看时，见那呆子果然丑恶。
逐句解 Line by line
老怪道：「莫怕，等我去看。」
老怪道：「莫怕，等我去看。」
The old fiend said, "Do not be afraid. Let me go and look."
The same nine-character shape Pilgrim used when he flew up to look at this very creature. The two commanders behave identically: reassure the frightened subordinate, then go and see for yourself.
掄著一條鐵杵，走近前看時，見那獃子果然醜惡。
抡着一条铁杵，走近前看时，见那呆子果然丑恶。
Swinging an iron pestle, he walked up close, and when he looked, that blockhead was indeed hideous.
著 is zhe: swinging, and going on swinging. 鐵杵 is an iron pestle, the pounding kind — a weapon matched to Bajie's rake, since both of them fight by hammering downward. 果然, indeed, confirms the imp's report the same way the narrator confirmed Tripitaka's.
The fiend goes to check his subordinate's account personally, and the account holds up. He is a competent commander, which is more than the chapter can say for either of the brothers so far.
Two portraits are now about to face each other, and the novel has built them the same way: a cue, four lines of verse, a rhyme running clean through. The mountain has one monster on each side of it.