恨苦相持 Locked in Bitter Struggle
那怪只說已將你吃了,拿個假人頭哄我,我們與他恨苦相持。師父放心,且再熬熬兒,等我把那妖精弄倒,方好來解救。」那怪只说已将你吃了,拿个假人头哄我,我们与他恨苦相持。师父放心,且再熬熬儿,等我把那妖精弄倒,方好来解救。」
逐句解 Line by line
That fiend only said he had already eaten you and took a false human head to hoodwink me, and we have been locked with him in a bitter struggle.
恨苦相持 — and here 相 is xiāng, the mutual reading, because a struggle takes two. The machinery gives the appearance reading instead, which is one of the two places in this chapter it leans the wrong way. 將 is the ordinary jiāng fronting the object.
Set your mind at rest, master, and bear up a little longer. Let me get that fiend brought down, and then it will be time to come and free you."
熬熬兒 is to endure a bit — the same verb used of simmering something slowly, which is a hard word to use to a man the household is planning to boil. 弄倒 takes 倒 as dǎo, to bring down. Wukong is refusing to untie him yet, and he is right.
Wukong tells his teacher the truth in two sentences: there was a false head, we were taken in, we fought. He does not mention the grave, the weeping or the pebbles.
The decision not to untie him immediately is the correct one and it costs the master several more hours on a tree. A freed prisoner in a cave full of fiends is a liability. Wukong has learned, over this chapter, to think before he acts, and his teacher pays the price of the lesson.