Dear Gunnar
You wrote:
> As a former student of musicology, I would prefer to leave "vina"
> untranslated - it is a musical instrument with no other name in any
> western language, as far as
> i known. It is often translated as "lute", which is closer (I think it
> belongs to the lute types of chordophones, not to the harp, lyre, or
> cither type), but still not quite good.
>
> The translation of the names of musical instruments is an eternal
> problem, and an eternal point of disagreement between musicologists
> and others. When ancient Greek texts in English translation speak of
> "flutes", it is more often than not a translation of
> _aulos_, which was actually a shawm, more like an oboe than a flute.
>
> This is not of essential importance to the Dhamma, of course, but
> sometimes I like to take a look about details as well - at least when
> it is easily done.
Thanks a lot. Music is, understandably, a distant field for me. In fact,
I don't understand many terms you have used such as "chordophone, lute,
lyre, oboe", etc. --- I would need to see big pictures of these
instruments!
My translation is based on the Burmese tradition, which translates
vii.naa as "saung", a Burmese word meaning a harp. I have no evidence
otherwise.
with metta
Ven. Pandita