First translation (agama to english)

Translations
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Dear forum ,

Yesterday i was thinking , it seems there are too many agama sutras that are still unavailable in english and if i could contribute a little to this forum and everyone that are interested in the nikaya parallel could benefits from it .
Probably if Charles Patton dont mind and could lend a hand to proofread if there are some errors .
So here goes my first try-out .

八力 (SA 694)

The eight powers

如是我聞：
Thus i have heard

一時，佛住舍衛國祇樹給孤獨園。
At one time Buddha was staying at
Anāthapiṇḍika’s park in Jeta’s Grove of Sāvatthī .

爾時，尊者舍利弗詣世尊所，稽首禮足，退坐一面，白佛言：「世尊！漏盡比丘有幾力？」

At that time , Venerable Sariputra approached the Buddha dwelling , bowed and sat down at one side , he addressed the Buddha , saying : “ World-honored One ! A bhiksu whom the defilements has ended have how many powers ? ”

佛告舍利弗：「漏盡比丘有八力。何等為八？謂漏盡比丘心順趣於離、流注於離、浚輸於離，順趣於出、流注於出、浚輸於出，順趣涅槃、流注涅槃、浚輸涅槃。

The Buddha told Venerable Sariputra : “ a bhiksu who has ended the defilements has eight powers . Which are the eight ?
That is , the mind of taintless bhiksu leaning towards renunciation , streaming towards renunciation , inclining towards renunciation , leaning towards detachment , streaming towards detachment , inclining towards detachment , leaning towards nibbana , streaming towards nibbana and inclining towards nibbana .

若見五欲，猶見火坑。如是見已，於欲念、欲受、欲著，心不永住，修四念處、四正斷、四如意足、五根、五力、七覺分、八聖道分。」

If upon seeing the five kinds of sense desires, it is akin of one seeing the fire pit , as such one then has clearly seen it , one will not forever dwells with sensual thoughts , sensual feelings and governed by desire , thus developed in the four kinds of mindfulness meditation … four right effort … the four bases of supernormal powers … the five faculties … the five powers … the seven awakening factors … and the noble eightfold path. ”

佛說此經已，尊者舍利弗聞佛所說，歡喜奉行。

After the Buddha spoke the sutra , hearing thus Venerable Sariputra was delighted and adhered with what the Buddha said .

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May I suggest revisions to the English translation?

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The difference between 離 and 出 is probably “seclusion/renunciation” and “escape/exiting” (from the world).

浚輸 is curious. It looks like a literal translation of P. ninna. “Moving downslope,” I guess is the meaning. But 浚 can mean:

  1. to dig a well
  2. to deepen a riverbed
  3. to be deep and abstruse
  4. to be careful or discreet

Whereas 輸 likely means to be move, go about, send.

So in Chinese, my first guess would be to “go deeper/carefully.”

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I think we just need to clean up the grammar and punctuation so it’ll present well to native English speakers.

For example:

  • remove spaces between the end of words and commas,
  • capitalize first letters of sentences,
  • add subjects to verbs that Chinese leaves out (except with imperative sentences that given instructions, they can have no subject like these bullet points),
  • use definite or indefinite articles (a and the) for most nouns.

That sort of thing. The meaning looks good, though, beyond that!

A more complicated thing is that English doesn’t allow clauses to be strung together forever with commas (we call that a “run-on sentence”) like Chinese punctuate their paragraphs. There’s some discretion to how to break up Chinese paragraphs into shorter English sentences. You can combine a couple sentences with an “and” and couple other things to make it flow well. It’s a bit of an art with introductory words, dependent clauses, and such. So, just as a suggestion:

If upon seeing the five kinds of sense desires, it is akin of one seeing the fire pit , as such one then has clearly seen it , one will not forever dwells with sensual thoughts , sensual feelings and governed by desire , thus developed in the four kinds of mindfulness meditation … four right effort … the four bases of supernormal powers … the five faculties … the five powers … the seven awakening factors … and the noble eightfold path. ”

Could become:

If one sees the five kinds of sense desires, it is akin to seeing a fire pit. As such, when one has clearly seen it, one will not forever dwell with sensual thoughts, sensual feelings, or be governed by desire. Thus, develop the four kinds of mindfulness meditation … four right efforts … the four bases of supernormal powers … the five faculties … the five powers … the seven awakening factors … and the noble eightfold path. ”

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It’s great to see others taking the initiative to translate! :grinning: I am grateful for this and I’m sure many others are as well.

You might wish to check out my translation of a parallel to the āṭānāṭiya sutta, which Charles Patton also assisted me on. (Just scroll down to the bottom for the link.)

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I also might suggest that you use the Sanskrit terms throughout to keep it consistent since that is what the Chinese is based off of, I noticed you used the pāli a few times. (IAST: Śrāvastī; Pāli: Sāvatthī)

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