Dear Bhante and group,

Thanks for the challenging questions.

>
>
>The numbers underneath are the number of syllables in each semi-line added
>together, ie. 4 syllables in one semi line + 5 syllables in the other = 9. I
>counted short syllables as 1/2 and long ones as 1, I think this is the
>normal way to do it? This is the first time I tried to apply any of the info
>about metres I read in Warder's Introduction.

I still haven't studied metre very closely but I believe there's an important difference between counting syllables and counting 'quantities' i.e. lahu/garu. I'll need to go back and look at chapter 30 in Warder for a refresher, but I believe you're doing the latter. When counting syllables, then one syllable is one syllable regardless of length.

>
>I've seen in teach yourself Pali books they have some system with
>semi-circles and bars to represent long and short syllables, but I don't
>know how to type these into an email without the Insert>Special Characters
>option that is in Word.

Perhaps dashes and lower case 'u' would work? For example:

u u _ u _ u u u _ u


Also, do underlined letters show up in emails? If so, then they could be used for syllables that can be either lahu or garu, example:

u u u u u _ u u

(this is a test, just to see if it looks right. It looks fine on my setup)

>
>
>Also, it occured to me that it's quite likely that the PTS edition will have
>noticed if these stanzas are supposed to be verse and put them back already,
>I don't have the PTS edition yet, will be ordering it soon hopefully, so far
>we just have the CSCD.

I don't have the PTS of the Udana, but the Sri Lanka Tipitaka Project file which is based on the PTS has broken the lines like this:

"Ye hi keci sama.naa vaa

Braahma.naa vaa bhavena bhavassa

Vippamokkhamaaha.msu

Sabbe te avippamuttaa bhavasmaati vadaami.



Ye vaa pana keci sama.naa vaa

Braahma.naa vaa vibhavena bhavassa nissara.namaaha.msu

Sabbe te anissa.taa bhavasmaati vadaami."

(it's in the folder "Khudd1", file "Ud", search string" 3. 10" (with the space after the decimal point)

Assuming this reflects the PTS reading, perhaps it gives a hint as to what sorts of verses they are (if they are verses).

The SLTP files have a huge number of typos in them (making them often almost worthless) but they can give an idea of the PTS reading for a volume you might not have. They are downloadable from Journal of Buddhist Ethics:

http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/palicanon.html#unicode

(it looks like they have a new unicode version i HTML which should be interesting. I was working with the old text files)


Hope this helps,

/Rett