If no sentient being exists, for whom is there compassion? 'A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life' by Santideva

Quoted below is from 'A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life' by Santideva, Chapter IX: The Perfection of Wisdom. I'm struggling to follow the line of thought, can someone please decipher what it means. This is what I deduce reading it and It really is incomprehensible to my feeble mind. 1. Sentient beings do not exist 1. For one to be compassionate he has to be deluded to believe that sentient beings exist. 1. Compassion itself is a delusion 1. One should remain deluded to alleviate the nonexisting suffering of nonexisting sentient beings. How can all this be true? Please note I'm writing bluntly because I want to understand what it means not because of lack of respect for Santideva work, far from it his book is always in my heart... it just that I can't get through chapter 9 :/ > 75. [Qualm:] If no sentient being exists, for whom is there compassion? [Madhyamika:] For one who is imagined through delusion, > which is accepted for the sake of the task. > 76. [Qualm:] If there is no sentient being, whose is the task? [Madhyamika:] True. The effort, too, is due to delusion. > Never­theless, in order to alleviate suffering, delusion with regard > to one's task is not averted