Thanks to everyone who has commented on my translation of Saddaniiti
Pariccheda 2 posted a few days ago. I have already responded to some
comments, but most of the questions had to do with the introductory
gaathaas:

Ito para.m pavakkhaami, sotuuna.m mati-va.d.dhana.m

kriyaa-pada-kkama.m naama, vibhatt'-aadiini diipaya.m.


The translation of these verses which I offered was:

I will explain, for the growth of my audience's wisdom,

the terminology of verbs, starting with endings.


Jim Anderson noted that mati-va.d.dhana.m is an accusative singular
compound, while my version would presuppose a dative. I understood
the compound as 'wisdom-growth' which would be a tappurisa compound
(dependent determinative in Collins' terminology). I won't try to defend
'wisdom' here, although mati is glossed 'wisdom, idea' in Buddhadatta's
Paali-English Dictionary, with subentries matimantu 'wise' and
mativippahiina 'foolish'. After some thought I prefer Mahinda's
'understanding', and 'grow' should be replaced by his 'enhance'.
But I don't understand how to interpret mati-va.d.dhana.m as a
bahubbiihi compound (attributive in Collins' terminology): perhaps
'one who has enhanced understanding', but this seems inappropriate.
It is the sotuu.na.m whose understanding is enhanced (we hope), and
therefore that word must be genitive plural rather than dative. The
real problem is how to construe sotuu.na.m mati-va.d.dhana.m. I agree
it would be clearer if it were dative, but I think we can take it as what
Collins calls 'adverbial accusative' (7. p. 22), even though purpose is not
among the interpretations he exemplifies.

Mahinda Palihawadana suggested the following translation:

I shall henceforth proclaim the order of the verb, which serves to enhance
the understanding of those who hear (the Pali texts), explaining the
case-endings etc.

I have a few bones to pick with this as well. First, it seems to me that
'proclaim' is not really the right word; we can proclaim a religious
teaching or a political manifesto, but we can hardly proclaim linguistic
terminology. On the other hand 'tell' isn't very good either. I suggest
'recount' or perhaps 'describe'. This is more something about English
than anything about Paali. Second, I think we cannot translate vibhatti
here as 'case-ending'. The case endings are syaadayo vibhattiyo,
endings of nouns according to gender, number and case, and that is not
what A. is going to go into. Rather it is tyaadayo vibhattiyo, endings
of finite verbs according to person, number and tense/aspect/mood,
as we have already seen. Just 'ending', which covers both sets, is the
right translation. But Mahinda's version highlights three issues which
are of some importance. The first has to do with sotuu.nam, which he
renders as 'those who hear (the Pali texts)'. My original rendition was
'my audience', which contains the element of 'hearing' but entails that
these are people who are hearing A. teach. Mahinda's version has it
that these people are hearing (but perhaps not fully understanding)
Paali. I think it quite likely that the second version is what A. was
saying, since it makes more sense as a preliminary comment on his
purpose, but I also think the Paali does not disambiguate the two
interpretations. The second issue has to do with sotuuna.m mati-
va.d.dhana.m, which he renders as 'which serves to enhance the
understanding of those who hear (the Pali texts)'. What is it which
does this? My version has that it is A.'s teaching which has this effect.
In Mahinda's version it is rather the content of the teaching, the
'order of the verb' which has this effect. Again, I think Mahinda is
probably right, but the Paali verse isn't explicit. And there is nothing
in the Paali which corresponds to the relative pronoun 'which' or the
verb 'serve'. The third issue has to do with kriyaa-pada-kkama.m
naama, which he renders as 'the order of the verb'. My original version
was 'the terminology of verbs'. Jim objected to this on the grounds
that kama.m does not mean 'terminology'. He is right, but 'terminology'
was not proposed as equivalent to kama.m, but rather as equivalent
to kama.m naama. It is appropriate because 'terminology' refers not
just to a collection of terms, but to a system (kama.m) of terms. And
I don't believe we can ignore naama on the grounds that kriyaa-pada-
kkama.m is the name of the chapter (it isn't). I don't really understand
the way naama is used here (notice that it is a bare noun stem, with no
vibhatti) but it must be connected with subsequent naming of the
various verbal endings. Finally there is vibhatt'-aadiini, rendered by
Mahinda as 'the (case-)endings, etc.' The expression X-aadi is often
translated as 'X, etc.' But it bothers me because of the vagueness of
'etc.' The expression is only used when there is a presupposed list
of which X is the first entry. Thus tyaadayo vibhattiyo is the list of 96
endings enumerated in (3) through (10) and beginning with ti. Vibhatt'-
aadiini is a list (explicit or implicit) of the terms of the verbal system of
which vibhatti is the first.

In the light of the above, and with appreciation of the contributions
of Jim and Mahinda, I propose the following revised translation.

I now recount, to enhance the understanding of students,
the terminology of verbs, explaining the endings, etc.

A peaceful and prosperous 2009 to all,

George Bedell

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "Mahinda Palihawadana" <mahipal6@...> wrote:
>
> On 12/30/08, Jim Anderson <jimanderson.on@...> wrote:
> The hardest part, I
> > find, is in the gaathaa at the beginning:
> >
> > Ito para.m pavakkhaami, sotuuna.m mati-va.d.dhana.m;
> > kriyaa-pada-kkama.m naama, vibhatt'-aadiini diipaya.m.
> >
> I suggesst the translation should be on the following lines: "I
> shall henceforth proclaim the order of the verb, which serves to
> enhance the understanding of those who hear (the Pali texts),
> explaining the case-endings etc."
>
> sotu in this instance is the student, literally, "one who hears",
> harking back to the oral tradition of textual learning and text
> preservation.
>
> kama.m: a commentator would gloss this with 'pa.tipaa.ti.m'. It means
> order, method, the regular way of a thing.
>
> naama: perhaps this indicates that "kriyaapadakkama" the name or the
> theme of the chapter. May be dropped in translation?
>
> diipaya.m: nom. sg. of the present participle of diipeti: explain,
> clarify (literally throw light on).
>
> Mahinda
>