tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post714339202191319863..comments2024-02-06T22:19:13.028-08:00Comments on Mining Aśvaghoṣa's Gold: SAUNDARANANDA 3.12; The Four Noble TruthsMike Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-56324684584672744942008-12-27T02:59:00.000-08:002008-12-27T02:59:00.000-08:00Thanks for your question, Jordan -- asking for cla...Thanks for your question, Jordan -- asking for clarification of things you don't yet understand is the very best kind of question, as far as I am concerned. <BR/><BR/>The point you actually raised is easily clarified: The word Kaundinya is not in verse 3.12; it appears in the next verse, verse 3.13.<BR/><BR/>But how the two verses got jumbled together in the other translations requires further explanation: <BR/><BR/>EH Johnston, a student at Oxford under his Sanskrit guru AA MacDonnell, did a tremendous service by laying the foundations for future translations of Buddhacarita and Saundarananda -- not only by his translation itself, but by his pedantic efforts to clarify the source text. <BR/><BR/>However, Johnston was very far from understanding the all-important meaning of this verse, by his own admission -- he wrote in a footnote "The point of lataa in 12b is not clear to me except as filling up the verse."<BR/><BR/>Also symptomatic of Johnston's lack of clarity in regard to the four truths, was his decision to lump verse 12 and 13 together, thereby losing the 4-phased progression of each verse even more completely than usual. <BR/><BR/>I think Linda Covill has a brilliant way with words and I love her translations. The significance of lataa was not lost on her, and she translated it very nicely as "network." But her translation is built on the foundations that Johnston laid. So she followed Johnston in lumping verses 12 and 13 together. <BR/><BR/>My translation is also being built on the foundations that Johnston laid, but I have the advantage of working not only on those scholarly foundations, but working also to the same fourfold plan (at least I hope I am not deluding myself here) that Ashvaghosha himself was working to. <BR/><BR/>Each verse in the original Sanskrit consists of two long lines, each with a break in the middle. So each verse consists of four distinct phases. Even at the expense of inelegant English, I am making sure that I preserve the original order of those four phases in each verse.<BR/><BR/>And yes, I will keep on keeping on. Same to you!<BR/><BR/>MikeMike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-11199377221600017662008-12-26T20:11:00.000-08:002008-12-26T20:11:00.000-08:00Hey Mike, How did the other translations mention t...Hey Mike, <BR/><BR/>How did the other translations mention the Kaundinya with it not in the sanscrit? I don't understand.<BR/><BR/>Also Shanti can rather famously be translated as tranquility. A popular Hindu chant. <BR/><BR/>Thanks for your efforts, keep on keeping on!<BR/>JordanSlowZenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589294912054724123noreply@blogger.com