Reviews Of Diffeent Books

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

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REVIEWS
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followed by a commentary. The text was first translated by W. Y. EvansWentz with the help of two Tibetan scholars: Lama Karma Sundhon Paul and Lama Lobzang Mingyur Dorje. In his notes Back criticises EvansWentz's translation. This translation is often very free and not devoid of imperfections which, perhaps, are due rather to Evans-Wentz than to his Tibetan informants. The text is written in verses of nine syllables in a kind of telegraphic style omitting particles, etc. This seems to have caused difficulties to Back which he could have avoided by paying more attention to Evans-Wentz's work. For instance, p. 66, 7 the Tibetan text reads: dros po gśis kyi gnas lugs ma mthon bas. Back translates: 'Weil man die Dinge nicht an ihrem natürlichen Ort sieht." Evans-Wentz has: “Unless one knows or sees the natural state of substances for things)” (p. 229). It is obvious that Evans-Wentz's translation is the correct one. Back mistranslates gnas-lugs, although he renders dros po'i gnas lugs (p. 46, 13) correctly by "die Existenzweise der Dinge". In quite a few places it is difficult to accept Back's translations. He has made a meritorious effort to render the text as closely as possible but without sufficiently taking into account the syntactical relations of the words.
It is rather surprising to see that Back mistranslates some well-known expressions. P. 38, 7: 'khor 'das yors la khyab pa'i sems gcig po. Back translates: "Obwohl das einzigartige Denken, das den Samsāra übersteigt und ihn) vollständig ausfüllt". Evans-Wentz has: "All hail to the One Mind that embraces the whole Sangsāra and Nirvāna” (p. 203). In other places Back always translates 'khor-'das correctly. He does not know that mtshan and dpe-byad designate the laksana-s and anuvyañjana-s. P. 134, 1: lons sku mtshan dan dpe byad lhan pa'i brda. Back translates: "ein Zeichen voller Schönheit und Zeugnis für den Sambhogakāya”. P. 40, 19: gzun 'dzin 'object (grāhya) and subject (grāhaka)'. Back translates it by “Zielvorstellungen". His translation of ma-mthon by “Blinde" is also strange: p. 74, 7: ma mthon rgyan gi gtam rgyud bsñad pa bzin. Back translates: "So gleichen sie doch Blinder, die eine lange Überlieferung erklären." EvansWentz has: "like harkening to flying rumours concerning a distant place one has never visited” (p. 237). Sometimes Back translates a reading which is found in a footnote and not in the text. For instance, p. 48, 23: rtag pa. Back translates rtog pa. The edition is not free from misprints. P. 38, 15: gyal bas; read rgyal bas. P. 40, 12: pyi rol; read phyi rol. P. 72, 10: pyogs su; read phyogs su. P. 131, line 18 from below: ma gton pa; read ma gtogs pa. P. 132, No. 2, line 7: tshul la yin pa'i; read thsul ma yin pa'i. P. 133, line 4 from below: rdo rje semd; read rdo rje sems.