Dear Yong Peng,
I also find it difficult in these longer sentences to know what belong to
what.
op 10-08-2003 13:33 schreef Ong Yong Peng op ypong001@...:

> Pali Primer Exercise 10
> 21. Samudda.m taritvaa diipa.m gantvaa vatthaani aaharitu.m vaa.nijaa
> icchanti.
> sea / having crossed / [to] island / having gone / clothes / to
> bring / merchants / wish
> Merchants wish to cross the sea to go to the island to bring the
> clothes.

N: When I see taritvaa, I am inclined to translate: after having crossed the
sea,
and having gone to the island, the merchants wish to bring the clothes.
What about this?
Y: 22. Pupphaani sa.mharitvaa udakena aasiñcitu.m upaasako kumaare

> ovadati.
> flowers / having collected / with water / to sprinkle / lay
> devotee / admonishes
> The lay devotee admonishes the boys to collect flowers and
> sprinkle (them) with water.

N: I am inclined to think that the lay devotee has sprinkled the flowers
with water and then admonishes the boys to collect them.
Who is doing what and when, or doing what first?? I think the -vaa endings
indicate that it is done first, and that the doer is the same as the subject
of the verb at the end. I am interested, because I have a lot of -vaa in my
transl.
Warder, ch 6, the gerund , pubbakiriyaa: the particle us used to express an
action preceding (pubba) the action of the main verb. ..The agent of the
gerund is the same as that of the main action. In this way the agent is
described as performing a series of actions.
I find it much easier to start at the back with the main verb and then work
my way to the front. In such cases I find personally the word by word
translation distracting.
Nina.