Re: Fwd: Re: [Pali] sevitabba

Dear Bhante Kumara,

For one translation to be used in all contexts you would have to pick the most general of the terms, so I think "to be used" or "to be employed" would work the best. Lennart's suggestion of "to associate with" or perhaps "to resort to" is also good. I wonder if it makes more sense to change the translation of the word to suit the context, however, given the polyvocality of the word in Sanskrit/Pali? This would be an important question for Pali-English translation practice,

Metta, Bryan



--- On Mon, 4/25/11, Kumara Bhikkhu <kumara.bhikkhu@...> wrote:

From: Kumara Bhikkhu <kumara.bhikkhu@...>
Subject: Fwd: Re: [Pali] sevitabba
To: "Bryan Levman" <bryan.levman@...>, "Lennart Lopin" <novalis78@...>
Cc: Pali-owner@yahoogroups.com
Received: Monday, April 25, 2011, 9:09 AM

Dear Bryan and Lennart

For some strange reason, I postings suddenly don't reach the group. So, I'm sending this to you directly. I'm also cc-ing the owner to alert him so that he may sort it out.

>Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 13:43:54 +0800
>To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
>From: Kumara Bhikkhu <kumara.bhikkhu@...>
>Subject: Re: [Pali] sevitabba
>
>Dear Bryan, Lennart and everyone else,
>
>Yes, I do see that "sevati" is variously translated, and "to associate with" is probably the best known meaning for it, since in Mangala Sutta, there's "asevanaa ca baalaana.m, pa.n.ditaana~nca sevanaa".
>
>I'm trying to find a word that would someone fit into every context in Sevibbaasevitabba Sutta. If you have to choose only ONE English word to be used in EVERY instance in that sutta (and stick with it for the rest of your life!) which one would it be?
>
>kb
>
>Lennart Lopin wrote thus at 21:14 23/04/2011:
>>Dear Bhante Kumara,
>>
>>In German its being translated sometimes as "Umgang pflegen" which is
>>translated into English as  "to associate/interact with someone/something".
>>Great sutta btw,
>>
>>metta,
>>Lennart
>>
>>On Sat, Apr 23, 2011 at 2:48 AM, Kumara Bhikkhu <kumara.bhikkhu@...>wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear friends,
>>>
>>> How would you translated sevitabba?
>>>
>>> Before you reply, I suggest you have a look at Sevibbaasevitabba Sutta
>>> (MN114), where it's probably used the most often in all of Pali texts. Ven
>>> Bhikkhu Bodhi have it as to be cultivated, but it's rather odd to speak of
>>> robes, almsfood, villages and towns that are to be cultivated!
>>>
>>> kb



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