Dhamma Wheel Buddhist Forum

Hi

Can you recommend 3 good Pali translators? I know Bhikkhu Bodhi is one, but any others? I would like to get a wider range of translation of the Suttas to have a better understanding of the Pali.

Greetings Wind,

It's hard because there is no sutta translator in modern times who has been as prolific at Bhikkhu Bodhi, so of most suttas, you'll be lucky to find 3 translations, let alone three translations of a high quality. As I've suggested elsewhere, it might be worthwhile spending time familiarizing yourself with key Pali words so that regardless of how someone translates a particular word, you can get the deeper sense of the word that was originally implied in the Pali.

Metta,
Retro.

Wind wrote:Hi

Can you recommend 3 good Pali translators? I know Bhikkhu Bodhi is one, but any others? I would like to get a wider range of translation of the Suttas to have a better understanding of the Pali.

http://www.seeingthroughthenet.net/eng/ ... =other&p=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; This anthology of suttas translated by Pali scholar and meditation teacher Ven Nanananda from the Samyutta Nikaya is excellent.

These anthologies are worth reading and are inexpensive and are worth having, particularly the first two which are excellent:
SAYINGS OF THE BUDDHA, translated by Pali scholar Rupert Gethin and current president of the Pali Text Society.
EARLY BUDDHIST DISCOURSES, translated by John C. Holder
BASIC TEACHINGS OF THE BUDDHA, translated by Glenn Wallis

These translations should be good to excellent and are are available in PDF:

http://www.bps.lk/onlinelibrary_wheels.asp#trans" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I would highly recommend Ven Nanaponika's works.

PALI WORKBOOK might be of interest in getting a basic handle on Pali terms.

That's disappointing that we don't have many good Pali translators. I hear the Pali Text Society already have the entire Pali Canon translated, who did the translations, and is it good?

Btw, I hope Bhikkhu Bodhi can finish the 4th Nikaya for Wisdom Publishing and I hope he doing well.

Greetings Wind,

Wind wrote:That's disappointing that we don't have many good Pali translators. I hear the Pali Text Society already have the entire Pali Canon translated, who did the translations, and is it good?.

I've only ever read tiny bits and pieces of the PTS translations. I get the impression they're OK, but being early they may predate certain key discoveries of relevance in the translation from Pali to English

Wind wrote:Btw, I hope Bhikkhu Bodhi can finish the 4th Nikaya for Wisdom Publishing and I hope he doing well.

Thus have I heard that his translation of the Anguttara Nikaya is done and (last I heard) is in the hefty process of review and other pre-publication activities. As for Bhikkhu Bodhi's involvement, I think he's done his bit, unless someone decides he needs to be consulted on anything.

Metta,
Retro.

retrofuturist wrote: Thus have I heard that his translation of the Anguttara Nikaya is done and (last I heard) is in the hefty process of review and other pre-publication activities. As for Bhikkhu Bodhi's involvement, I think he's done his bit, unless someone decides he needs to be consulted on anything.

Metta,
Retro.

Oh good. I haven't heard anything so I thought it was incomplete and never be completed. Good to know it's done and will be published sometime in the near future. Hopefully a new talented translator will pick up where Bodhi left off as he appears to be retired. I am already very content that 4 Nikayas are done

Wind wrote: Hopefully a new talented translator will pick up where Bodhi left off as he appears to be retired. I am already very content that 4 Nikayas are done

And it is still worthwhile to read differing translations, as from the sources I recommended above. As for the fifth Nikaya, the Khuddaka Nikaya, some of the texts have translations have been done rather well, and few others need to be redone, such as the Patisambhidamagga.

tiltbillings wrote:

Wind wrote: Hopefully a new talented translator will pick up where Bodhi left off as he appears to be retired. I am already very content that 4 Nikayas are done

And it is still worthwhile to read differing translations, as from the sources I recommended above. As for the fifth Nikaya, the Khuddaka Nikaya, some of the texts have translations have been done rather well, and few others need to be redone, such as the Patisambhidamagga.

I agree it's always good to look into different translations. Good to know there are some good translation of the 5th Nikaya.

Wind wrote: I hear the Pali Text Society already have the entire Pali Canon translated, who did the translations, and is it good?

Various translators from Norman to Rhys Davids. It is pretty good and good enough for a study resource. The language is a little archaic, but okay. Bhikkhu Bodhi's translations are by far the best, but of course they are the most recent and he is a well-educated intelligent scholar.

David N. Snyder wrote:

Wind wrote: I hear the Pali Text Society already have the entire Pali Canon translated, who did the translations, and is it good?

Various translators from Norman to Rhys Davids. It is pretty good and good enough for a study resource. The language is a little archaic, but okay. Bhikkhu Bodhi's translations are by far the best, but of course they are the most recent and he is a well-educated intelligent scholar.

Although certain translations can be laughably wide of the mark, because they are early they might not be subject to any preconceived ideas or adherent to tradition. It can be illuminating to read certain translations from the suttas from people who take the words at face value.

Retro............Is there any talk of a year of publication for the Anguttara?

I am not too comfortable with Bodhi's translations as he is biased towards notions of rebirth and misinterprets certain words thereby distorting meaning of the suttas. Just my opinion.

This has good translations I have seen so far: http://www.metta.lk/tipitaka/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sunrise wrote:I am not too comfortable with Bodhi's translations as he is biased towards notions of rebirth and misinterprets certain words thereby distorting meaning of the suttas. Just my opinion.

This has good translations I have seen so far: http://www.metta.lk/tipitaka/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seriously? It's useful to have those translations, but I often find them almost impossible to read.

What I like about Bhikkhu Bodhi is that he is generally clear about the various possible interpretations (commentary, modern interpreters such as Ven Nanananda, his own opinion...). And his English is very readable.

Mike

And, to follow up, Ven Nananada's selection of translations from the Samyutta Nikaya is well worth reading.
http://www.seeingthroughthenet.net/eng/ ... =other&p=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I've been reading those in parallel with Bhikkhu Bodhi's translations, which, as I indicated above, refer to Ven Nananada's interpretations (among others). Of course, it's also instructive to compare Ven Thanissaro's tranlations at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mike

Brizzy wrote:Although certain translations can be laughably wide of the mark, because they are early they might not be subject to any preconceived ideas or adherent to tradition. It can be illuminating to read certain translations from the suttas from people who take the words at face value.

Unfortunately, a lot of the early English translations suffer hugely from preconceived ideas - Christian ideas. They keep on slipping into a devotional mindset, a salvationist mindset, even a monotheistic mindset.
The ideal translator shares the world-view of the text but understands the world-view of the culture the translation will serve, so that he/she can anticipate and avoid the likeliest mis-readings. (That's as well as being a native-level speaker of English and good with Pali, of course.)
That just about means someone who has grown up in one culture and adopted the other.

Kim