Reviews Of Diffeent Books

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

Page 43

REVIEWS
237
bodhisattvas) have as ministers the virtues of insight, cf. Ferrari: "questo è (dovuto al fatto che) hanno come ministro la virtù della gnosi.”
In 1.75 K has the correct reading uddharatāt but Carol Meadows keeps the reading of F co.:
māmsārthino māmsam idam harantu
majjānam apy uddharanāt tadarthi / Carol Meadows's translation of pāda b is completely unacceptable: “by drawing out even my marrow, let the one who wants it stake it]."
If on the whole the edition of the text by Carol Meadows marks progress on Ferrari's edition thanks to the superior readings found in K, the same cannot be said of the translation which is full of elementary mistakes. Carol Meadows does not refer even once to Ferrari's translation which she does not seem to have consulted. In many instances Ferrari's translation is by far to be preferred. It is obvious that Carol Meadows was insufficiently qualified to undertake a translation of the PS. It is impossible and useless to point out every error made by Carol Meadows but the following instances may suffice.
pitrnām api putreșu putrāņām ca pitrsv api / pritisarvasvabhūteșu suhrtsu suhrdām api // gunapracayabaddhasya vyūdhesu samareşv api/
darśitasthairyasārasya snehasetor vidāriņaḥ // 5.22–23 Carol Meadows translates: "They break the bond of affection, which expresses the very essence of constancy, that fathers feel for their sons and sons for their fathers, that friends feel for friends with whom they share all joys, and that one is bound by a mass of virtues feels even for armies arrayed in battle." Carol Meadows completely misunderstood verse 23: “They (sensual enjoyments) destroy the dam of affection which is formed by the mass of virtues and which has shown the strength of its firmness even in the case of armies arrayed for battle.” Carol Meadows translates setu by “bond', although the dictionaries give this meaning only for the Rgveda. In a note on p. 206 she reproaches Ferrari for stating that abhyasanti is a 4th Class verb here following the conjugation of the 1st Class by referring to the 1st Class conjugation noted for as- by Whitney in his Roots, etc. (p. 5). Whitney here notes one case in the Rgveda of the 1st Class conjugation for as-! Carol Meadows is very uncritical in her use of dictionaries. For instance in 1.60 she translates dainya as 'covetousness', a meaning taken from Wilson's dictionary by Monier-Williams. Another wrong use of the dictionary is found in her translation of tādrk in 2.20: