Unique Registers and Specialized Terminology: Sanskrit and the Tibetan Language in Translation

Marcus Perman2022-10-26T05:35:53-06:00

Art Engle has translated both Vasubandhu’s Pañcaskandhaprakarana (ཕུང་པོ་ལྔའི་རབ་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ་) with Stiramathi’s commentary and Asaṅga’s Bodhisattvabhūmi (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས་). Over the course of many years of close textual study and Buddhist practice his insights into the translation of Sanskrit and Tibetan texts will be of interest to a great number of those translators faced with issues arising from translating Tibetan texts that are themselves translations of older Indian texts. Similarly, Christian Wedemeyer has translated Āryadeva’s Caryāmelāpakapradīpa (སྤྱོད་པ་བསྡུས་པའི་སྒྲོན་མ་) and annotated translations of short works on the Guhyasamāja, including sādhanas and instructional works by Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Nāgabodhi, Candrakīrti, and others. His recent work on these texts […]

Translating Abhidharma Materials

2022-10-30T22:47:58-06:00

Is Abhidharma just a collection of dry, boring lists? Presenters in this workshop comment on the need for Abhidharma literature as the basis of both morality and advanced meditation practice when bringing Tibetan Buddhism to a Western setting. Art Engle presents the need for a viable English translation from original source texts of the Abhidharmakośakārikā and Abhidharmasamuccaya. Ian Coghlan discusses terms, grammar, and syntax related to meditative states and the subtlety involved in creating satisfactory, standard English terms for this material. Gyurme Dorje presents short passages from Abhidharmakośa and traces the illusion of terminology and taxonomy through Tibetan traditions.