永墮輪迴苦 If It Is Meat Wine
此酒果是素酒,弟子勉強吃了,還得見佛成功;若是葷酒,破了弟子之戒,永墮輪迴苦。」此酒果是素酒,弟子勉强吃了,还得见佛成功;若是荤酒,破了弟子之戒,永堕轮回苦。」
逐句解 Line by line
"If this wine is truly a plain wine, your disciple will force himself to drink it, and still come to see the Buddha and accomplish the work;"
The petition turns into a conditional oath, and the balance of the two clauses is the shape of a legal instrument. In 勉強 the second character is qiǎng, to compel — so it is not merely reluctance but forcing himself. And 得 is dé, the full reading after the adverb for still, so the sense is will yet manage to see the Buddha.
"and if it is a meat wine, and breaks your disciple's vow, then let him fall forever into the bitterness of the wheel of rebirth."
The matching clause, and the penalty he names for himself is the one he named to Pilgrim earlier: 輪迴, samsara, the round of rebirth. He is not asking to be excused. He is asking to be judged on whether the thing in the cup is what she says it is.
The prayer is a conditional oath and it is scrupulously fair. He does not ask for a way out; he asks to be held to the truth of the matter. If the wine is what she claims, he will drink it under protest and expects to be forgiven. If it is not, he accepts the worst penalty his religion holds.
This is the answer to the narrator's accusation earlier in the scene. Everyone says the Tang Monk is a monk of a true heart — so how does he come to be talking to a woman fiend? The reply is that he is standing in a demon's hall with a wedding cup in his hand, and he is spending the moment putting his case to heaven.