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Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 8:50 pm
by mettafuture
Hi Everyone,

I know "Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambuddhassa" means "Honour to the Blessed One, the Exalted One, the fully Enlightened One." I was just curious about which Pali word corresponded with which English word.

Your assistance would be appreciated.

Metta

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 10:57 pm
by DNS
Namo Homage or Honor
Tassa to the
Bhagavato Blessed One or Auspicious One or Exalted One
Arahato Worthy One / enlightened one
Samma Sambhuddasa Fully Enlighted by Himself

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 11:55 pm
by mettafuture
Thank you very much, David.

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 12:56 am
by yuttadhammo
David N. Snyder wrote:Tassa to the
"to that" would probably be more correct. bhagavato by itself would mean "to the blessed one" already.
Samma Sambhuddasa Fully Enlighted by Himself
Sammā is probably "rightly"... fully would be "paripuṇṇa" or some such thing. "sam" means self, so sambuddhassa could just be "self-enlightened", though "enlightened by himself" works too :)

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 3:25 am
by mettafuture
Thank you, Venerable.

This is the translation I've gathered from your replies so far

Namo Homage or Honor
Tassa to that
Bhagavato Blessed One or Auspicious One or Exalted One
Arahato Worthy One or Enlightened One
Samma rightly
Sam self
buddhassa enlightened

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 3:34 am
by DNS
yuttadhammo wrote: Sammā is probably "rightly"... fully would be "paripuṇṇa" or some such thing. "sam" means self, so sambuddhassa could just be "self-enlightened", though "enlightened by himself" works too :)
Okay, thanks Bhante!

:anjali:

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 7:52 am
by Kare
mettafuture wrote:Thank you, Venerable.

This is the translation I've gathered from your replies so far

Namo Homage or Honor
Just an additional detail:

Namo is related to the verb namati - to bend down or to bow.

So Namo then means a bow, which of course is meant as a homage or honor.

An alternative translation of the sentence could therefore be: "I bow down for the ... etc."

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 5:53 pm
by beeblebrox
In case the word "right" gives some people wrong ideas about sammā (I'm right, you're wrong), there's also "properly". I think it's more something along this line. What do you guys think?

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 6:10 pm
by mettafuture
This is fun. :D I love learning Pali. Thank you Kare & beeblebrox.

namo Homage or Honor or I bow down
tassa to that
bhagavato Blessed One or Auspicious One or Exalted One
arahato Worthy One or Enlightened One
sammā rightly or properly or supremely or fully
sam self
buddhassa enlightened


There might be too many translations for sammā. :D

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 6:13 pm
by Kare
mettafuture wrote:This is fun. :D I love learning Pali. Thank you Kare & beeblebrox.

namo Homage or Honor or I bow down
tassa to that
bhagavato Blessed One or Auspicious One or Exalted One
arahato Worthy One or Enlightened One
sammā rightly or properly or supremely or fully
sam self
buddhassa enlightened


There might be too many translations for sammā. :D
Isn't it nice to have the word rightly, properly, supremely and fully translated? :lol:

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 6:19 pm
by mettafuture
Kare wrote:
mettafuture wrote:This is fun. :D I love learning Pali. Thank you Kare & beeblebrox.

namo Homage or Honor or I bow down
tassa to that
bhagavato Blessed One or Auspicious One or Exalted One
arahato Worthy One or Enlightened One
sammā rightly or properly or supremely or fully
sam self
buddhassa enlightened


There might be too many translations for sammā. :D
Isn't it nice to have the word rightly, properly, supremely and fully translated? :lol:
:lol: Yes. I see now why some teachers prefer using the Pali words over the English ones. Sammā is much easier.

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 6:42 pm
by yuttadhammo
yuttadhammo wrote: "to that" would probably be more correct. bhagavato by itself would mean "to the blessed one" already.
I'm sorry, that's not right... it seems likely that "tassa" here should be "to him", not "to that (blessed one)"; so a proper translation (grammatically anyway, your choice of words may differ), would be:

Homage to him - the blessed one, the worthy one, the rightly self-awakened Buddha.

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 6:06 pm
by mettafuture
yuttadhammo wrote:
yuttadhammo wrote: "to that" would probably be more correct. bhagavato by itself would mean "to the blessed one" already.
I'm sorry, that's not right... it seems likely that "tassa" here should be "to him", not "to that (blessed one)"; so a proper translation (grammatically anyway, your choice of words may differ), would be:

Homage to him - the blessed one, the worthy one, the rightly self-awakened Buddha.
Thank you, Venerable.

:namaste:

Update -
  • namo Homage or I bow down
    tassa to him
    bhagavato the Blessed One or the Exalted One
    arahato the Worthy One or the Enlightened One
    sammā rightly or fully
    sam self
    buddhassa awakened-Buddha or enlightened-Buddha

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 8:47 pm
by Kare
yuttadhammo wrote:
yuttadhammo wrote: "to that" would probably be more correct. bhagavato by itself would mean "to the blessed one" already.
I'm sorry, that's not right... it seems likely that "tassa" here should be "to him", not "to that (blessed one)"; so a proper translation (grammatically anyway, your choice of words may differ), would be:

Homage to him - the blessed one, the worthy one, the rightly self-awakened Buddha.

You are both right. Every word in the sentence (except namo) stands in dative case, which implies a "to". Therefore it says "to him", "to the blessed one", "to the worthy one", "to the rightly self-awakened one". In Pali, that is normal usage. In English it feels superfluous with so many repetitions of "to", so we keep only one and skip the rest of them.

Re: Word by word translation of Namo Tassa...

Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 8:51 pm
by yuttadhammo
Kare wrote:
yuttadhammo wrote:
yuttadhammo wrote: "to that" would probably be more correct. bhagavato by itself would mean "to the blessed one" already.
I'm sorry, that's not right... it seems likely that "tassa" here should be "to him", not "to that (blessed one)"; so a proper translation (grammatically anyway, your choice of words may differ), would be:

Homage to him - the blessed one, the worthy one, the rightly self-awakened Buddha.

You are both right. Every word in the sentence (except namo) stands in dative case, which implies a "to". Therefore it says "to him", "to the blessed one", "to the worthy one", "to the rightly self-awakened one". In Pali, that is normal usage. In English it feels superfluous with so many repetitions of "to", so we keep only one and skip the rest of them.
Actually, I was correcting myself... I had said that it should be "homage to that blessed one", which thinking about it seems improbable, since, as you say, they are all in dative case, and so it should be "to him, the blessed one..." It was just a question of whether "tassa" is the main object and the rest are qualifiers, or "bhagavato" is the main object instead. Since the rest of the words are qualifiers, I would suggest a literal translation not be to add "to" to every word, but rather "who is" to the ones that are not the main object, i.e.:

"Homage to him, who is blessed, who is a worthy one, who is rightly self-awakened."

in the same way that one would translate (literally), "yo so bhagavā arahaṃ sammāsambuddho..." as "He who is blessed, who is worthy, who is perfectly self-awakened...".