Book Reviews Of Scripture Of Lotus Blossom Of Fine Dharma

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 1

BOOK REVIEWS
SCRIPTURE OF THE LOTUS BLOSSOM OF THE FINE DHARMA (The Lotus Sūtra). Translated from the Chinese of Kumārajiva. By Leon Hurvitz. Columbia University Press: New York, 1976, XXXVIII +421 pp.
Leon Hurvitz's translation of Kumārajiva's version of the Saddharmapundarika is the third English translation of this famous text. The translations by Kato and Murano, published respectively in 1971 and 1974, were reviewed in a previous issue (Vol. VIII, No. 2, pp. 154-159). Hurvitz's work comprises a preface, the translation of the Chinese text, a glossary, notes on the Sanskrit text and an index. In the preface Hurvitz explains that he has attempted to satisfy two demands simultaneously, that of the series to which the present translation belongs and that of the translator's philological conscience. For this reason Hurvitz has added Sanskrit words and phrases either in parentheses or in notes in the back of the book for the benefit of “Sanskrit-oriented readers." In addition to this, where the difference between the two versions is sufficient to merit comment, the Sanskrit is given in English translation in the notes. · Alas, Hurvitz has been badly guided by his philological conscience for it is obvious that his knowledge of Sanskrit is definitely inadequate. Elementary howlers abound. To illustrate this a few examples may suffice. Kern-Nanjio p. 245.8–10 contains the following passage: tena khalu punaḥ samayeneyam trisāhasramahāsāhasri lokadhātus tathāgataparipūrņābhūn na tāvad bhagavataḥ śākyamunes tathāgatasyātmabhāvanirmitā ekasmād api digbhāgāt sarva āgatā abhūvan. Hurvitz translates: "Then indeed at that time the sphere of this thousandmillionfold world was filled with Thus Gone Ones. Nor is this to say that those fashioned from the Body of the Thus Gone One Sākyamuni arrived even from one quarter" (p. 374). Hurvitz adds the following comments: "I am by no means certain of the meaning of this. Two possibilities come to mind: (1) From no direction, no not one, did any Buddhas arrive who had been fashioned by Sākyamuni. This is as much as to say that they were all self-created. (2) Not by any means did they all come from any particular quarter, but from all
169