千里姻緣使線牽 A Thousand Li of Destiny on a Thread
路過十字街彩樓之下，不期公主娘娘拋繡毬，打在貧僧頭上。貧僧是出家異教之人，怎敢與玉葉金枝為偶？萬望赦貧僧死罪，倒換關文，打發早赴靈山，見佛求經，回我國土，永註陛下之天恩也。」國王道：「你乃東土聖僧，正是『千里姻緣使線牽』。寡人公主，今登二十歲未婚，因擇今日年月日時俱利，所以結綵樓拋毬，以求佳偶。路过十字街彩楼之下，不期公主娘娘抛绣毬，打在贫僧头上。贫僧是出家异教之人，怎敢与玉叶金枝为偶？万望赦贫僧死罪，倒换关文，打发早赴灵山，见佛求经，回我国土，永注陛下之天恩也。」国王道：「你乃东土圣僧，正是『千里姻缘使线牵』。寡人公主，今登二十岁未婚，因择今日年月日时俱利，所以结彩楼抛毬，以求佳偶。
逐句解 Line by line
"Passing below the coloured tower at the crossroads, I did not expect that the princess would throw down the embroidered ball and strike this poor monk on the head. This poor monk is a man who has left home and follows a different teaching — how should I dare to be mated with a leaf of jade and a branch of gold?"
玉葉金枝 — a leaf of jade and a branch of gold, the standard phrase for imperial birth. Tripitaka is being properly deferential and also stating a real objection: monks do not marry.
為偶 — to be mated. The first character here means to be or to serve as, read wéi, not the everyday reading that means for the sake of. The chapter uses the other one seven times.
出家異教之人 — a man who has left home and follows a different teaching. He is in a Buddhist country arguing that he is foreign to it, which is delicate and a little desperate.
"I beg you a thousand times to pardon this poor monk's capital offence, exchange the rescript, and send me off early to Spirit Mountain, to see the Buddha and seek scriptures and return to my own country; and I shall record Your Majesty's heavenly kindness for ever."
赦貧僧死罪 — pardon this poor monk's capital offence. He is asking to be forgiven for having been hit by a ball. The formula is the standard one for addressing a throne, and it happens to be uncomfortably close to literal: refusing a princess is not a small matter.
倒換關文 again. Four times in this chapter with the rescript named outright, and every one of them is Tripitaka trying to change the subject back to his paperwork.
The king said, "You are a holy monk of the Eastern Land, and this is truly a case of a thousand li of destiny drawn together on a thread. My daughter has this year reached twenty and is unmarried, and because we chose today as favourable in year, month, day and hour, we built the coloured tower and threw the ball, to seek a good match."
千里姻緣使線牽 — a thousand lǐ of destiny drawn together on a thread. ⚠ The edition marks it as a quotation, so it is a saying being cited rather than the king's own words, and a citation is prose whatever its shape.
The image behind it is the old man under the moon who ties an invisible red thread between the ankles of two people destined to marry, however far apart they are born. The red thread is still the standard Chinese image for fated love.
The king is being gracious, and he is quoting a proverb about fate to a man who has just told him it was an accident.
Tripitaka's defence is legally sound and completely useless. He is a monk, he is a foreigner, he is under orders from another emperor, and he has somewhere to be. None of it touches the actual situation, which is that a father has watched his daughter choose and is not going to overrule her.
The king's reply is where the chapter's sympathy sits. He calls the monk a holy man of the Eastern Land, quotes a proverb about a thousand li of destiny on a thread, and explains that the date was chosen as auspicious. Every word is kind. He is handing a stranger his only child on the strength of a thrown ball and a good calendar day, and he means well by all of it.
The red thread deserves a moment. In the old story an old man sits under the moon with a book of marriages and a bag of red cord, and ties the ankles of two children who will one day marry no matter what stands between them. It is a lovely idea and it is being invoked here to bind a monk to a demon, by a father who cannot see either fact.