Dear DC,

yes, a Pali-English dictionary is the minimum tool for anyone to translate Pali sutta passages into English. However, dictionaries do not always ensure correct translations. This is why discussions take place.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, DC Wijeratna wrote:

I wish a little clarification about the following paragraph.

> "As a Pali group, it is understandable that we like to include Pali sentences in our messages. However, it is expected that when Pali sentences are included, English translations are provided too. In addition, please use Velthuis encoding for typing Pali, and provide sources of all Pali quotations, e.g. nikaya name, sutta number and name (in Pali, at least)."

My concern is regarding "English translations". It is well known that there are many, especially technical words have many translations and there is no agreement about a correct translation. What do you suggest we do? Use PTS dictionary translation for a given word. Even this has certain shortcomings; PTS gives so many meanings to one word.