持齋把素 You Keep Your Fast There
妖精道：「你那裡持齋把素，極貧極苦；我這裡吃人肉，受用無窮。你若餓壞了我，你有罪愆。」妖精道：「你那里持斋把素，极贫极苦；我这里吃人肉，受用无穷。你若饿坏了我，你有罪愆。」
逐句解 Line by line
The monster said, "In your place you keep the fast and hold to vegetables, the poorest and hardest of lives;
持齋把素 pairs two words for the same discipline — keeping the fast days and holding to plain food. 那裡 is demonstrative here, over there where you are, set against 這裡 in the next line.
here I eat human flesh, and there is no end to my enjoyment.
Ten characters, and the parallel with the line before is exact: your place against my place, austerity against enjoyment. He is comparing the two offers like a man weighing employment.
If you starve me to death, the sin will be on you."
罪愆 is guilt or transgression, and he is invoking it against the Buddha. Ten characters, and they are the most brazen sentence in the chapter.
The roc turns the job offer down on grounds of terms and conditions, and the case he makes is entirely coherent. Your life is poor and hard, mine is comfortable, and I decline.
Then the argument that has no business working. If you starve me the guilt is yours — he is using the Buddha's own doctrine of non-harm against him, on behalf of a man-eater's diet.
And it is not stupid. Every religious system that forbids killing has to answer the question of what a carnivore is supposed to do, and the roc has found the sore spot and pressed it. He has been the cleverest thing in this chapter from the first page and he is clever to the last.