Now, the life possessing Śariputra with faith in Buddha said this to Noble Avalokiteśvara: How, a certain son or daughter of good family which is desiring to practice, is to be taught the practice in this(asyām) profound Perfection of Wisdom?
Now, I have few things I am not sure about:
- āyuṣmān (possesing life) this translation simply don't sounds ok in my mind. How this word is usually translated?
- anubhāva (faith, firm opinion MW) is it right to have it translate here by "faith"?
- avocat (aor vac*) is it right to translated it by "said"?
I have used the e-text provided by the Digital Sanskrit Buddist Canon Site
I'll come back with the reading in the manuscripts available to me (if there are differences).
2 comments:
Often the Monier-Williams dictionary proves unhelpful with texts like this. You would be better off consulting Edgerton, or even the Pali Text Society dictionary. You can find the PTS dictionary online at:
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/
āyuṣmān = venerable
anubhāva = a tricky word indeed to translate. Roughly, "power." For some cursory background, see Graeme MacQueen's two-part article "Inspired speech in early Mahāyāna Buddhism" in the journal Religion, 1981 and 1982. To put it crudely, Śāriputra is here inspired or empowered by the Buddha to speak.
avocat - You got this one right!
If you are beginning to learn, it is often helpful to be strict and wooden in your interpretation of relative and correlative clauses. So:
"WHICHEVER gentleman desires to practice in this profound Perfection of Wisdom, how shall [HE] be trained?"
When you get more free and interpretive, you can do something like:
"How shall a gentleman, who desires to practice in this profound Perfection of Wisdom, be trained?"
Thank you very much for visit and help you offer. I don't know why I failed to check the Edgerton this time. Maybe I was tired.... ;-)
āyuṣmān I find in Edgerton as addressing formula to equals or inferiors (sir) and by reference to āvusa brother.
Regarding the "way" to translate, this is my first time when I'm using a more freer word order. I'm pretty happy not to take it completely wrong. :-)
Thanks again for the visit!
Post a Comment