Bhante,

Over a year back I suggested to Yong Peng to introduce the trilinear method to the website, as I have done for the Maha Satipatthana Sutta and the Anapanasati Sutta, to help learning Pali and understand the suttas.

Trilinear simply means "three lines". In this case,
Pali, word for word translation, and modern English.

In the case of the Chinese Agama translation, we might have five lines:
Buddhist Textual Chinese (classical), modern Chinese, pinyin, English word for word translation, modern translation.

Rod Bucknell suggests that we may omit the modern Chinese line, as there is little need for it in Buddhist Studies.

Of course, such a process is very tedious. I took about months to finish the Maha Satipatthana Sutta trilinear.

Namakkara

Piya

--- "Ven. Pandita" <ashinpan@...> wrote:

>
> Dear Nina
>
> Thank you for forwarding to me your post to Pali list. I think I
> have
> some comments.
>
> You wrote:
>
> >we are used to the trilineair translations, but the relation of
> word to
> >word is important in order to penetrate to the deep meaning of the
> texts.
> >
> >
> I must admit I don't understand the term "trilinear translations"
> Would
> you please explain?
>
> >Bhante:
> >
> >A.2. Nominal Identity (Denominative) Relation1 [NID]
> > The special feature of this relation is the indeclinable "naama"
> meaning
> >"by name". Otherwise, it is similar to the Nominal Identity
> (ordinary)
> >relation.
> >e.g.saro Nandaa naama = (The) lake (is) Nandaa by name, i.e.,
> called Nandaa.
> >saro ---> Nandaa (NID)
> >
> >
> >N: We could also say: what is designated by the name Nandaa? It is
> a lake.
> >
> >
> Perhaps you mean that that short sentence can also be translated as
>
> "What designated by the name Nandaa is a lake" However, if the
> content
> of the sentence, or the translation in this case, is to change, the
>
> relations inherent in the sentence must also change. In this case,
> you
> must reverse the direction of the relation as follows to justify the
> new
> version:
>
> Nandaa (naama) ---> saro (NIO)
>
> *** The content of the translated version of a Pali sentence
> must
> correspond to, and be justified by, the set of relationships
> therein. ***
>
> >Text Vis: viirabhaavo viiriya.m. ta.m ussahanalakkha.na.m,
> >'Energy' (viriya) is the state of one who is vigorous (viraa).
> >Its characteristic is marshalling (driving).
> >
> >
> I'd like to discuss the second sentence. It is a perfect example of
> NIO.
> ta.m ---> ussahanalakkha.na.m (NIO) [Note that they of the same
> case,
> gender and number, and thereby, possibly of the same content]
>
> Now a problem arises. The pronoun "ta.m" refers to "viiriya"(a sort
> of
> cetasika) mentioned in the preceding sentence; how could it be
> identical
> with "ussahanalakkha.na.m" meaning "the characteristic of marshaling
>
> (driving)"?
>
> This problem can be solved by explaining " ussahanalakkha.na.m" as a
>
> relative compound (bahubbiihi samaasa) It should be literally
> translated
> as "one having the characteristic of marshaling". Then the whole
> sentence should be translated as follows:
>
> "This is one (i.e., a type of cetasika) having the characteristic of
>
> marshaling"
>
> >The Tiika to this passage:
> >Viirabhaavoti yena viiro naama hoti, so dhammoti attho.
> >As to the words, the state of one who is vigorous, that a vigorous
> person,
> >someone who is so called, actually is a dhamma (so dhammoti
> attho).
> >
> >
> Let's see the word "Viirabhaavoti" first. It is what we call a
> sa.mva.n.netabba ( I have tentatively translated it as "commented
> unit"), some word or phrase quoted by commentators to comment upon.
> We
> usually view such a word as an indeclinable compound to be
> translated as
> "the word viirabhaavo", etc.. In this sentence, it can be viewed as
>
> having genitive case and related to "attho" in Possessor relation
> (POS).
>
> viirabhaavoti ---> attho (POS)
>
> The whole clause "yena viiro naama hoti, so dhammoti" is viewed as
> an
> indeclinable compound related to "attho" in Nominal Identity (NIO)
> relation.
>
> yena viiro naama hoti, so dhammoti ---> attho (NIO)
>
> Then we can do the preliminary translation as "'yena viiro naama
> hoti,
> so dhammo' is the meaning of the word 'viirabhaavo'"
>
> Now we can analyze that clause "yena, etc." further. You see, "yena"
> is
> a relative pronoun identical with "so" in the following clause. I
> will
> give the relations directly.
>
> yena ---> hoti (CAU) [ See the Causality relation for the
> Instrumental
> case in RG]
> viiro (naama) --- hoti (DASD) [See the Double Active Subject
> (Denominative) relation in RG]
>
> If you check with RG, you would notice that DASD requires two active
>
> subjects; here there is only one, namely, "viiro". Where is
> another?
>
> Here we should introduce the Principle of Text Insertion
> (/paa.thasesa/), which permits inserting certain text if something
> is
> missing with the relation required. It is nothing but ellipsis in
> other
> words.
>
> In this context, we may insert "yokoci = 'someone'" Then the
> relation
> would become like this:
>
> yokoci ---> hoti (DASD - P) [Double Active Subject (Denominative) -
>
> Primary Subject relation]
> viiro ---> hoti (DASD - S) [Double Active Subject (Denominative)
> -
> Secondary Subject relation]
>
> Then the translation of the relative clause would be as follows:
>
> "One by which (someone) is named a hero ..."
>
> You see, it is not complete yet in English syntax.
>
> Now for "so dhammo".
>
> so ---> dhammo (IAD) [See the Identical Adjective relation in RG]
> dhammo ---> ?
>
> We must apply the text insertion again because "dhammo" is hanging
> in
> the air, i.e., nothing to be related to.
>
> In this context, we may insert "viirabhaavo" Then:
>
> dhammo ---> viirabhaavo (NIO)
>
> Then the relative clause and the following one can be combined to be
>
> translated as:
>
> "That dhamma by which (someone) is named a hero is /viirabhaava/"
>
> Then the whole sentence can be translated as:
>
> The meaning "That dhamma by which (someone) is named a hero (is
> /viirabhaava/)" is the sense of "viirabhaava"
>
> Here we should note an important point: in this example, the scope
> of
> /iti/ is " yena viiro naama hoti, so dhammo" One principle of RG is
> that
> such a clause must be self-contained. In other words, all necessary
>
> relations must be defined complete within the scope.* No word in the
>
> scope can be related to another out of the scope*.
>
> Nina, don't you think your example is too difficult for beginners? I
>
> think it is.
>
> with metta
>
> Ven. Pandita
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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