Dear friends,

PT> This is the basic structure, please feel free to suggest additions or
PT> changes but we must have a consensus on this. That is, if we (some of us
PT> at least) agree to my idea. Let me start with an example and model answers.

After all we can be not too formal.
Something similar has been going on already, we've been discussing the
passages for some time.

PT> attaa hi attano naatho
PT> ko hi naatho paro siyaa
PT> (Dh 160)

There is amazing commentary and useful sound file at
http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/PALI/reading/gatha160.htm

Russian translation (Russian is quite similar to Pali):

Sam sebe zhe opora,
kto zhe drugoj mozhet byt' oporoj?

attaa is reflexive pronoun, and to my opinion does not serve as
subject here. The subject is implied from previous gathas,
157-159, and can be both 'you' or 'he'. In Russian I can preserve the
original ambiguity, however in English I have to choose either 'you'
or 'he'.

It seems that closest English equivalent to 'attaa' is '-self', i.e.
'yourself', 'himself', etc.

The sense of 'naatho' is clarified in the second half of the gatha
160, and seems to mean 'support, mainstay'.

Thus equally valid English translations:

Yourself indeed as your own mainstay,
for who else could be your mainstay?

Himself indeed as his own mainstay,
for who else could be his mainstay?

Herself indeed as her own mainstay,
for who else could be her mainstay?

PT> The translation will be done in two ways

For now I would prefer Pali-English translation.

Metta,
Dimitry