Dear Rett and friends,

thanks for your advice, Rett. I do agree to offer the best
translation of Pali suttas requires real talent. In the case of
English translation, it would requires a language scholar
specialising in Pali, who is a native English speaker, an expert in
Buddhism, Indian philosophy, with some background in Sanskrit, and
practising Buddhism, preferably a monk. :-)

If such resources are readily available, there is really no need for
us to take such trouble. Our attitude towards knowledge, especially
the understanding of Pali, shall not degenerate into making
assumptions and stopping there. We should encourage, not dissuade,
each other to make advances in Pali whenever possible, especially to
resolve problems even though it will take a bit more effort.

In fact, the quality of future translations, be it in English or any
other language, can only improve if the critical number of people
with good command of the Pali language increases.

Sometimes, we really need more brains to work together. John, Nina,
Ole and Stephen have been a good help in this case. And I look
forward to more people to come forward, participate, share and learn
together.


metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, rett wrote:

> John, from the above example, you would see that it is still
> possible to use the ablative in English if we are skillful enough.

Perhaps, but in that case it would be a job for a native speaker (and
one gifted at writing literature at that). The amount of effort a non-
native speaker would need to spend to accomplish those sorts of hyper-
clever translations goes beyond the point of diminishing returns. I'm
not saying it can't be done (at least some of the time) but it's a
lot of effort for little real benefit.