Natalie,

Every language has its own idiom (like each person his personality).
Although word for word (literal) translation helps to learn the vocabulary,
this does not make sense of the import or meaning of the passage.

In translation, we must first understand the sense of the passage. It is
this sense that we render into English, not the Pali words per se.
Academic scholar however would often do just this, which they claim
would be true to the letter.

However, practitioners who translate want to know what the Buddha or
the early monks intended to say through the forest of Pal words. This
will take some time of course.

There is the "middle way" in translation: we translate the sense, yet
try to reflect the beauty of the Pali form. Yes, not easy, that is why so
many people are trying. You can say that Buddhism has become a
translating religion, where people are beginning to trasslate the sacred
texts for themselves! Wow: talking of drinking water at the source.

Anyway, please don't be discouraged. We have to begin somewhere.
Learning Pali is like breathing: you keep on doing to until you become
relaxed with it. Accept it as a life long process if you aim is to know
the Buddha Word (that is the real aim of Pali).

To know Pali simple as Pali, a college course would be sufficient. To learn
Pali for self-liberation is more fun, even if we do not get paid for it.

I try not to look at Pali as grammar, but as living words sounds coming from
the Buddha and the early saints.

With metta,

Piya

On Jan 30, 2008 10:33 PM, Nina van Gorkom <vangorko@...> wrote:

> Dear Natalie,
> Op 30-jan-2008, om 6:24 heeft natalie_indeed het volgende geschreven:
> > N: 3. What's up with the "yena" and "tena"? These haven't even been
> > introduced in the book yet as a pair!
> ------
> Nina: instrumental, denoting direction. lesson 8. In pali you find
> this pair frequently, and the relative comes first. Where--there. It
> can be untranslated. Very useful to remember.
>












Also this is an example of a correlative sentence: very Pali. In Pali, we
simply render it by regarding the Ya and Ta as simply "the" in most cases,
or disregard them.

For example,

yena bhagavaa ten'upasa.nkami = (lit) where the Blessed One was, he
approached there.
Idiomatic English: "He went up to (or approached) the Blessed One."

Metta,

Piya Tan


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