The night before I went to bed pretty late because I was struggling to translate the following Sanskrit verses from Śantideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra. I hope I've done a decent job so please feel free to leave your comments.
Bodhicaryāvatāra is a beautiful Mahāyāna text that I find very inspiring. May this bring some light in your lives.
The Sanskrit text:
ratnojjvalastambhamanorameṣu
muktāmayodbhāsivitānakeṣu /
svacchojjvalasphāṭikakuṭṭimeṣu
sugandhiṣu snānagṛheṣu teṣu // Bca_2.10 //
manojñagandhodakapuṣpapūrṇaiḥ
kumbhairmahāratnamayairanekaiḥ /
snānaṃ karomyeṣa tathāgatānāṃ
tadātmajānāṃ ca sagītavādyam // Bca_2.11 //
Analysis of the Sanskrit words:
ratna-ujjvala-stambha-mano-rameṣu=L.pl. in the delighting for the soul of jewel blazing pillars
muktāmaya-udbhāsi-vitānakeṣu=L.pl. consisting of pearls-shining-awning -> in awnings shining of pearls
svaccha-ujjvala-sphāṭika-kuṭṭimeṣu=L.pl. crystalline-blazing-crystal-inlaid floors -> on the floors inlaid with crystals transparent and blazing
sugandhiṣu=L.pl. in perfumes
snānagṛheṣu=L.pl. in bath-rooms
teṣu=L.pl. in these
manojña:gandha-udaka-puṣpa-pūrṇaiḥ=I.pl. with perfumes and water and flowers filled
kumbhair=I.pl. with jars
mahāratnamayair=I.pl.of the most precious gems/materials (as pointed by Peter)
anekaiḥ=I.pl.with many
snānaṃ=Ac.sg. bath
karomy=pres.1.sg. I prepare
eṣa=N.sg. this, here
tathāgatānāṃ=G.pl. for the Buddhas
tadātmajānāṃ=G.pl. of theirs [spiritual] sons
ca=and
sagītavādyam=N. sg. with songs [and] music
and now, the English translation:
In perfumed bath-rooms with floors
paved with transparent blazing crystals
and the delights of jewel blazing pillars
with awnings shining of pearls, in these...
...with jars made of the most precious materials
full of perfumes and water and flowers,
I hereby prepare the bath for the Buddhas
and theirs [spiritual] sons with songs and music.
March 21'st: I remade the translation. Thank you Dan!
March 22'nd: I remade the translation thanks to Peter and Dan who pointed to me the wrong usage of eṣa with first person verbs. For more details on this, see the comments.
5 comments:
For "I do bathing of the Buddhas ..." I think "I prepare a bath for the Buddhas" would be an alternative. The
genitive in the sense of "for" occurs often in the Bca. For then I think it would be a bath "together with Song and Music" (nevertheless a very beautiful part of Sanskrit poetry).
Thanks for suggestions. This is exactly the purpose I do these short translations for. Namely for learning from the more experienced people around the world.
I've seen in couple of places that the final was translated the way you say but I think I was a bit obtuse, and not managing to figure out what kind of compound is, I left it the way is.
Thank you for stepping by!
Ratna is usually translated as 'gem', however, I think that it has a more general meaning of 'precious material', hence gold, silver, etc. are also 'ratna'.
You might want to think about 'eṣa' for a bit. You seem to take it as qualifying snānaṃ which I think is wrong (N - Acc.)
I took a look in Coulson for eṣa and look what I found:
When it qualifies an already defined substantive, it may be represented in English by 'here', 'here is/are', 'see', etc.
...........
The most striking example of this usage is in conjunction with of first or second person verb:
eṣa udyānaṃ praviśāmi see, I am going into the garden
Now, for the half verse: snānaṃ karomyeṣa tathāgatānāṃ
tadātmajānāṃ ca sagītavādyam my try is "I prepare the bath for the Buddhas and Bodisattvas here with songs and music."
Sounds better this way?
ok, let's do it this way. I think that this construction has a flavour of a formal statement, so:
"I hereby prepare ... "
Just as in:
"I hereby kindle/raise/(whatever) the bodhicitta ... "
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