Spoiler Alert... if you're trying your hand at translating the verse,
don't read the below.

>Hi, All,
>
>This verse was posted for examination on the dhamma-list:
>
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dhamma-list
>
>since none of the translations at Access to Insight is clear. Anyone
>like to try it?
>
>Di.t.thena ce suddhi narassa hoti,
>ñaa.nena vaa so pajahaati dukkha.m;
>aññena so sujjhati sopadhiiko,
>di.t.thii hi na.m paava tathaa vadaana.m.
>
>Sn 789 (Sn IV.4, Suttanipaata, A.t.thakavaggo, Suddha.t.thaka Sutta)

Hi,

Would it help if I posted KR Norman's translation? It's almost like
John D. Ireland's, though there are some parenthetical words added
for clarity. Between Ireland and Norman it seems possible to
understand. It's very elliptical.

I couldn't make heads or tails of Thanissaro Bhikkhu's translation,
btw. It was extremely free.

Anyhow, here's what Norman writes in _The Group of Discourses_, PTS 1995:

789

If purity comes to a man through what he has seen, or if he abandons
misery by means of knowledge, (then) he who has acquisitions (which
lead to rebirth) is purified by something else (than the noble path).
For his view betrays him as he speaks thus.

In _The Rhinoceros Horn_,PTS 1996, Horner/Rahula would amend it to:

If purity comes to a man through what he has seen, or if he abandons
misery by means of knowledge, (then) he who has _substrates_ is
purified by something else (than the noble path). _For the (false)
view declares him as a person speaking thus_.

best regards,

/Rett