Dear Nina,

> It is most kind of you to go over my translation, thank you very much.
> Pa.nidhi and nara are still problems.

I will just deal with nara now, before I go to my class, and have
another look at pa.nidhi when I get back.

Dh:

>> I would translate:

>> "A man should live in a suitable place
>> And be a befriender of noble ones."

>> Bh: (Thai translation: N?r?chon pheung y?u nai th?n th?i m?.
>> Pheung tham aar?y?chon h?i pen m?t).

N:

> N: my iMac does not give the symbols.

Neither does mine. I don't know why they disappeared after I
posted. Here's the passage without diacritics:

Narachon pheung yuu nai thin thii mo (mo: suitable).
Pheung tham aarayachon hai pen mitr.
(from the Mahamakut translation)

Dh:

>> Usually 'man' will suffice to translate 'nara'. 'Hero' is only
>> called for in reference to brahminical myths, or in verses of a
>> devotional character where the 'nara' is the Buddha or one of
>> his arahant disciples.

N:

> I thought of the Bodhisatta. He is called nara.

Dh:

All men are called nara, just as all women are called naarii. In
some passages all humans are called nara. In some (though not
so many) all living beings are called nara.

> I also think for us: we have to be like a hero to develop the
> Path. What about this: Like a hero one should....at the
> beginning. It could be: Like a man, but it sounds strange. Hero:
> not letting go, not making as halt halfway, not be discouraged,
> persevering like a hero.

Dh:

The word 'like' is not found in the passage. The Pali does not
say "one should do such-&-such like a nara". It says "a nara should
do such-&-such". In most of its occurrences in the Suttas nara is
nothing more than an alternative for purisa, manussa or satta. It
can refer to any kind of man or human, good, bad or indifferent.

An example from the Guha.t.thaka Sutta:

Satto guhaaya.m bahunaabhichanno,
ti.t.tha.m naro mohanasmi.m pagaa.lho;
duure vivekaa hi tathaavidho so,
kaamaa hi loke na hi suppahaayaa.

The man who remains attached to the cave (of the body), (who is)
covered with many (defilements), (and) plunged into confusion,
being of such a kind he is indeed far from detachment. For
sensual pleasures are indeed not easy to abandon in the world.

Passaami loke pariphandamaana.m,
paja.m ima.m ta.nhagata.m bhavesu;
hiinaa naraa maccumukhe lapanti,
aviitata.nhaase bhavaabhavesu.

I see in the world this race (of mortals) floundering, obsessed
with craving for existence. Base men wail in the jaws of death,
with craving for various existences unallayed.
(Sn 772 & 776, & Norman's translation)

You will find that naro is most often used in verse. In verses
that are neither devotional nor alluding to brahminical myth naro
is most often an alternative to puriso when the metre requires a
light followed by a heavy syllable. If two heavy syllables are
needed then puriso will become poso. Puriso itself is a bit of an
inconvenient word for poets. You will seldom find it in Pali
verse.

In verses where nara is contrasted with deva it is simply an
alternative to manussa, again for metrical reasons.

Naro as 'hero' is a marginal usage required only in certain
special cases, e.g. in verses that have a Vedic flavour, when
Indra or some other deva is praising the Buddha, and in mediaeval
Sinhalese compositions.

N:

> I still have a problem, since, as you say, it should be in the
> beginning, is the subject of the whole. A man should live in a
> suitable place, or: a hero, this is strange here. For the first
> two wheels a man or a hero are both strange. The Atthasaalinii
> uses: <a person thinks...> But I do not know the Pali here. For
> the last two wheels the hero fits. Please, could you help me? I
> see for nara in Ven. Buddhadatta dict. a human being. nara
> viira: a hero. PED nara: strong or valiant.

"Strong or valiant" is the PED's definition of nara's
hypothesized Indo-Germanic root *ner. The author's supposition
that this meaning infects nara itself is merely speculative. It
is true that the Vedic & classical Sanskrit nara can mean 'hero'
or 'husband'. Perhaps this influenced the PED compilers.

Buddhadatta's dictionary is based upon the 13th century
Abhidhaanappadiipikaa and its .tiikaa. His definitions are terse
and give only the primary sense that a word had in mediaeval
Pali. This primary sense will often be determined by influences
from Sanskrit literature and will frequently differ from the
primary sense that it has in the Pali canonical texts. Sometimes
it will even differ from the primary sense that it has in the
Atthakathaa.

Nara is a good example of this. The niruktis for this word given
in the Atthakathaa suggest that the commentators thought of it as
having a rather pedestrian origin. It does not seem to have been
as elevated a term as it later became in the works of the
grammarian Saariputta, the rhetorician Sangharakkhita, and the
mediaeval Sinhalese writers of devotional poems.

N:

> A man does not imply enough. Or we have to accept that in
> english there is loss of the force present in the Pali.

The Thais also do not seem to regard the term as meaning anything
more than man. My Pali-Thai dictionary gives:

khon (person), bukkhon (individual), manut (human), sattawalok
(beings in the world), burut (gentleman), chai (male), nara
(male), narachon (male person), nai (master).

But I am not really sure if I understand what your problem is
with nara as man. Perhaps if I give my translation again you
could point it out.

"A man should live in a suitable place
And be a befriender of noble ones.
Being well-established in the right course,
Having formerly performed deeds of merit,
Grain, wealth, honour, fame, and happiness
Come to him in abundance."

Best wishes,

Dhammanando