Dear Dr. Pind,

Thank you very much for your comments. I believe that I understand now,
and have made (what I believe to be) the appropriate changes below as
well a fixing a couple of duplicate terms that slipped in last time.
Thank you also for bringing French into it. I do speak and read French,
and it actually helped me to understand things. I did type a question
below the translation for you if you have time to answer it.

[D.III.255 — xxxiii.(Sa’ngiiti).3.1.(iv)]*
aha.m [per pro/nom/1^st sg] I
kho [indec] indeed
kamma.m [n-a/nom/sg] work
akaasi.m. [karàkaa VI/aor/1^st sg] I worked/ I did
lit: Indeed I did do work
I did work

kamma.m [n-a/acc/sg] work
kho [indec] indeed
pana [enc/indec] but/however
me [enc/per pro/gen/1^st sg] me
karontassa [kar VI/ppr/gen/sg] by doing
kaayo [m-a/nom/sg] body
kilanto, [kilam I/pp/nom/sg] tired
handa [indec] well
aha.m [per pron/nom/1^st sg] I
nipajjaami[ni+pad III/ind act/1^st sg] I lie down
lit: (I worked,) but indeed by doing work, my body tired. So I am lying down.
(I worked,) but due to working, my body grew tired. So now I am lying down.


I know that you stated you don't have a problem with translating things "While doing the work." However, I am wondering more about the grammar underlying such a translation in relation to the genitive absolute. According to Warder a genitive absolute is constructed with a noun or a pronoun (as agent) and a participle both in the genitive and the agent and action stand apart from the agent and action of the rest of the sentence. At first glance that seems to be happening here:

(aha.m akaasi.m)........me karontassa.....kaayo kilanto.... Etc.

(I worked), but indeed while I [was] doing work, [my] body tired. So I am lying down.


My question, then, is what is it about the above sentence that gives you the clue that this is not a genitive absolute? How would the sentence change if we wanted a genitive absolute construction?


Thank you for your time and help,

Alan






Ole Holten Pind wrote:

>Dear Alan,
>
>May be I expressed myself badly. Now the participal genitive karontassa
>"doing" qualifies me that syntactically is dependent on kaaya "my body", and
>my kaaya became "tired" kilanta by doing the work. kamma is accusative
>syntactically dependent upon karontassa qualifying me as doing something
>viz. kamma. As I explained in my previous post the present participle
>sometimes is used to denote the action which is the cause of the action of
>the main verb, in the present case kilanta "tired". That is the reason why I
>introduced by, cf. the use of French en with present participles. This usage
>which is not uncommon in Sanskrit - it is described by Panini - is often
>overlooked, although it is quite common i Pali, and often misinterpreted by
>translators. I have nothing against the translation "while doing the work."
>
>Hope this made the issue crystal clear.
>
>Regards,
>
>Ole Pind
>
>
>