Bhashya
स होवाच मुख्यः प्राणः- किं मेऽन्नं भविष्यतीति ।मुख्यंप्राणं प्रष्टारमिव कल्पयित्वा वागादीन्प्रतिवक्तृनिव कल्पय-न्ती श्रुतिराह- यदिदं लोकेऽन्नजातं प्रसिद्धम् आ श्वभ्यःश्वभिः सह आ शकुनिभ्यः सह शकुनिभिः सर्वप्राणिनां यद्-अन्म , तत् तवान्त्रमिति होचुर्वागादय इति ।प्राणस्य सर्वमन्नंप्राणोऽत्ता सर्वस्यान्नम्येत्येवं प्रतिपत्तये कल्पिताख्यायिका रूपा-द्व्यावृत्य स्वेन श्रुतिरूपेण आह- तद्वै एतत् यत्किंचिल्लोके प्रा-णिभिरन्नमद्यते, अनस्य प्राणस्य तदन्नं प्राणेनैव तदद्यत इत्य-र्थः ।सर्वप्रकारचेष्टाव्याप्तिगुणप्रदर्शनार्थम् अन इति प्राणस्यप्रत्यक्षं नाम ।प्राद्युपसर्गपूर्वत्वे हि विशेषगतिरेव स्यात् ।तथाच सर्वान्नानामत्तुर्नामग्रहणमितीदं प्रत्यक्षं नाम अन इति स-र्वान्नानामत्तुः साक्षादभिधानम् ।न ह वा एवंविदि यथोक्त-प्राणविदि प्राणोऽहमस्मि सर्वभूतस्थः सर्वान्नानामत्तेति, त-स्मिन्नेवंविदि ह वै किंचन किंचिदपि प्राणिभिरद्यं सर्वैःअनन्नम् अनद्यं न भवति, सर्वमेवंविद्यन्नं भवतीत्यर्थः, प्राण-भूतत्वाद्दिदुषः, 'प्राणाद्वा एष उदेति प्राणेऽस्तमेति' इत्युप-क्रम्य 'एवंविदो ह वा उदेति सूर्य एवंविद्यस्तमेति' इतिश्रुत्यन्तरात् ॥
In plain words
He spoke: 'What will be my food, O chief breath?' Treating the chief breath as an interrogator and speech and the other organs as respondents, the scripture declares: 'Whatever food is known in this world, reaching from dogs and birds down to all living creatures—that is your belly,' thus declared speech and the senses. To convey the truth that breath is the consumer of all things and that everything is its food, the scripture sheds the guise of this allegory and speaks in its own direct voice: 'Whatever food is consumed by living beings in this world, that is the food of this breath; it is consumed by breath alone.' This is the true import. To signify its pervasive presence across every form of activity, 'Ana' is given as the direct name of breath. If prefixed with 'pra', it would indicate a specialized movement. Thus, the direct name 'Ana' stands as the pristine expression for the consumer of all food. For one who knows thus—who realizes, 'I am prana, residing in all beings, the eater of all food'—nothing consumable by creatures fails to be food. Everything becomes food for the enlightened person, because he has become one with prana, exactly as another scriptural passage affirms, starting with: 'From prana this universe rises, and into prana it sets,' adding, 'For him who knows thus, the sun rises and the sun sets.'
Close to the Sanskrit
He spoke: 'The chief breath: what will my food be?' Having conceived the chief breath as an interrogator and speech and the others as respondents, the Shruti says: 'Whatever food is well known in the world, from dogs along with dogs, up to birds along with birds, of all living beings, that is your belly,' so said speech and the others. For the sake of understanding that the food of breath is everything, that breath is the eater and the food of everything, discarding the allegorical tale from its form, the Shruti states in its own scriptural form: 'That indeed is this, whatsoever food is eaten by living beings in the world, that is the food of this breath, by breath alone that is eaten,' this is the meaning. For the sake of demonstrating the quality of pervading all forms of activity, 'Ana' is the direct name of breath. For with the prefix 'pra' etc. there would indeed be a specific movement. And thus the taking of the name of the eater of all foods, this direct name 'Ana', is the direct expression of the eater of all foods. Never indeed for one who knows thus—knowing the aforesaid breath as 'I am breath, situated in all beings, the eater of all foods'—for such a knower, does anything whatsoever that is edible by creatures, by all, become inedible or not food; all food becomes food for the knower, because of being of the nature of breath, from another scriptural text beginning with 'From breath indeed this rises, in breath it sets', 'The sun rises for him who knows thus, the sun sets for him who knows thus.'