Rett's translation of Kaccayana 1-1

Hello,

  Obviously, because I'm working intensively with Kaccayana, I'm interested
in Rett's attempts to translate it.  As I have copies of both Senart's
summary-explanations (in French) and the one-and-only published English
translation (an obscure Maha-Bodhi-Society edition), I could chime in with a
comparative reading from those editions.

  I think Kaccayana 1-1 is pretty straightforward.  There are some tricky and
enjoyable verses later in the book; e.g., the opening verse of the book on
verbs, with a protracted metaphor of "waves of the ocean".

Re:
> I chose 'phonemes' here for akkharaa though it might have been
> possible to translate as 'letters'... Unlike English, Pali uses a phonemic
> script, so letters and sounds correspond on a one-to-one basis to
> each other.

(1) Sadly, not all scripts in which Pali is written are phonemic (e.g.,
Roman!), however, the major scripts of anitquity did always express one
syllable with one glyph (e.g., Sinhalese, Burmese and Khom/Khmer (but not
modern Thai script) are in this sense "perfectly syllabic"), (2) According
to popular theory, the verses of Kaccayana are supposed to pre-date the
writing of the Pali language (the storied "purely aural tradition" phase, to
which all Indian religions refer their origins, but few to none can
demonstrate beyond the level of a myth); so one could say "syllables" and be
done with it (i.e., de-emphasise the written component altogether).  I don't
think this is a serious issue.

E.M.

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