could this not refer to the child?
instead, referring to the characteristics of the state his mother is in. (she is in the weakened state, which is characterized by: the love of life and the HATE of death.)
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Probably ask the Pali experts for that.
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I know. but my translation was a response for the previous Arabic-titled translation. directing it to be put along the previous one for Arabic readers to pass-by when seeing the other translation, specially those who may compare it to the english translation. the other-translation is on snp. so. I targeted snp section’s metta.
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Apologies, I’ve only been able to briefly read the thread so if I’ve missed or duplicated something please forgive:
And so it was done! 
In fact, it was done in March after being raised in this thread; I’ll let you sing the “pending update” chorus line. 
That’s marvelous; as per the above I did this a little while ago, it’s just not showing on the site yet. In any case kp9 and snp1.8 are the same sutta. When I added your translation I added it at as both.
Also, I don’t know if it will be of help to you, but while looking for the thread in which the kp9/snp1.8 point was raised I found the following mentioned by another user: 20 Metta Sutta Translations.
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Hi Muhammad,
Once again, congratulations for translating the Buddha’s words into Arabic. As you shared the name of the translator, i was able to check how you exactly did it and what kind of trades of you had to take.
I think you was too literal in your translation, which came at the expense of style. Some verses came across as grammatically complicated, which is fine.
Most of my suggestions aims at simplifying the style, and maintaining the meaning. You may notice that in some occasions, i added words of my own, but i felt that it might strengthen the meaning and speak better to Arabic speaking readers.
Please note that you are the translator. As you are working on having your final version, feel free to take what you see fit of the suggested alternative. Letting go of all my suggestions is also a valid choice. It is primarily your work. 
ما يجب على امرئٍ أوتي الحكمة أن يعمله لتنزل عليه السّكينة هو هذا
هذا ما يجب عمله من قبل من أتقن الخير لتحقيق السكينة
يجب عليه أن يكون قادراً، قائماً، مستقيماً، بلا فخرٍ، سهل المعشر، لطيفاً، قنوعاً
يجب أن يكون قادراً، مستقيماً، صادقاً، بلا فخرٍ، سهل المعشر، لطيفاً، قنوعاً
سهل الإرضاء، لا ينفعل عند الصخب الشديد، حذراً في التّعامل مع الآخر، هادئ الحواس، ذكيّاً، بلا جُرأة، لا يطمع عندما يكون مع الآخرين
سهل الإرضاء، قليل الانفعال، مقتصد (أو زاهد) في سلوكة، هادئ الحواس، حذق، لا يتطاول، لا يحسد الآخرين
لا يقوم حتّى بالأشياء الهيّنة الّتي يلومها الحكماء الآخرون. (حاملاً هذه الفكرة دائماً)
يتجنب صغائر الاشياء مما ينهى عنه الحكماء (حاملاً هذه الفكرة دائماً)
عسى أن تعيش جميع الكائنات بسعادةٍ وأمان، ولتبتهج قلوبهم من الداخل
أيّاً من كانوا وتنبض الحياة فيهم
أيّاً من كانوا ممن تنبض فيهم الحياة
سواءً كانوا ضعفاء أو أقوياءً جدّاً
سواءً كانوا ضعفاء أو أقوياء
بلا استثناء، سواءً كانوا طوالاً أو قصاراً،
أو متوسطي الحجم، أو كباراً أو صغارا
أو ذوي كثافةٍ، يُرون أو لا يُرون
سواءً كانوا يسكنون بعيداً أو يسكنون قريباً
, يُرون أو لا يُرون
بعيدين أو قريبين
الذين هُم هُنا، الذين يُسعون لأن يدخلوا الوجود
الذين هُم هُنا، أو الذين يُسعون للوجود
عسى أن تبتهج جميع الكائنات من الداخل
عسى أن تبتهج جميع الكائنات
لا لأن يجلب أحدٌ لغيره الخراب
ولا يحقرنّه بأيٍّ طريقٍ أو مكان
عسى أن لا يجلب أحدٌ لغيره الخراب
ولا يحقرنّه بأيٍّ طريقٍ أو مكان
لا لأن يتمنى بعضٌ لبعضٍ أي سوءٍ
بسبب الاستفزاز أو بسبب العداوة
عسى أن لا يتمنى البعض للأخر أي سوءٍ
من قبل الاستفزاز أو من قبل العداوة
كما أنّ الأم تخاطر بحياتها
لأجل حبّ وحماية ولدها الوحيد
كما تخاطر الأم بحياتها
لأجل حماية ولدها الوحيد
كما يجب على المرء أن ينمّي هذا الحب الغير محدود
إلى كل من يعيش في كل هذا الكون
كذلك يجب على المرء أن ينمّي هذا الحب الغير محدود
إلى كل من يعيش في كل هذا الكون
مُمتدّاً من وعيٍ سامٍ
نحو الأعلى ونحو الأسفل وعبر العالم
مُمتدّاً من وعيٍ سامٍ في جميع الأتجاهات
نحو الأعلى ونحو الأسفل وعبر العالم
من غير انزعاج، مُحرّراً من الكره والعدوان
بقلب نابض ، مُحرّراً من الكره والعدوان
وعندما يقف المرء وعندما يقعد
أو عندما يستلقي من غير نعاس
و عقل راجح عند الوقوف أو القعود أو الأستلقاء
يجب عليه أن يعزم على أن يكون على هذه الحال–
هذا هو الشعور المقدّس الّذي يقولون عنه
على الحكيم المحافظة على هذه الحال
على هذا الشعور المقدس كما يقال
لكن عندما يعيش المرء بعيداً عن الرأي،
متحليّاً بالفضيلة، حاصلاً على البصيرة الكاملة،
مُلقياً وراءه الطمع نحو ما تشتهي الأنفس،
فإنّه يقيناً لن يُولد من جديد
من خلال تجنب التطرف في الرأي
و التحلي بالفضيلة و البصيرة
و الترفع عن الطمع و الشهوه
هي نهاية العودة ألى هذا العالم
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Okay, well there is further discussion of this, but if I may add, as the editor of the Mills translation, it isn’t the best source, as the guiding translation principle was to produce a poetic English translation, hence it is not very literal.
I’d recommend checking the translation against the more literal ones by Vens Anandajoti and Nyanamoli, as well as the excellent translations of Buddharakkhita and Piyadassi. More recently, but not on our site, Ven Bodhi has published a complete translation of the Sutta Nipata, which will of course be excellent. I plan to translate the whole of the Sutta Nipata next year.
Okay, thank you, I will look into whether we should distinguish these in a similar manner on our site.
Indeed!
What I would recommend is that you begin with the first three sermons of the Buddha. These include much of the core doctrinal concepts like the four noble truths, the five aggregates, and so on, and so they would help to establish your basic translation vocabulary. They are also fairly simple prose, and have been translated many times before. Finally, they are widely read.
- SN 56.11: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
- SN 22.59: Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta
- SN 35.235: Ādittapariyāya Sutta
We have built a web software for translating suttas called Bilara. This makes translation much easier, and also makes it easy to publish your translations in a line-by-line form on SuttaCentral.
So would you like to sign up for Bilara and work there?
One last thing, I usually recommend for translators that they work in a team of at least two people, with either two translators to check each other’s work, or else a translator and a proofreader. What do you think?
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Is the transliteration for the Arabic for brahmavihara al-mawaa al-muqadas? holy shelter? it’s very beautiful.
(Edited because I had an after-thought.)
Thanks, Ven. Sujato.
I will make a v2 taking the other english translations into consideration.
I will start with the first sermons as you instructed. but, for future translations, after i finish the first ones, is there any previous tries by buddhist scholars to rearrange the canon according to chronological arrangement? ex: first, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 100th sermon taught by Shakyamuni Buddha…etc.
i think it will be a good thing to know the timeline of sermons, because Shakyamuni Buddha was a logical man, he surely started with his followers a step by step way to teach them the Dhamma. I think there is some textual internal evidence, but it will be really a hard-work when it comes to the full canon of dixcourses.
i would like to. I hope that i can be of a benefit.
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Yes, it is, if it is right to translate it from pali into english as “heavenly or divine abode”, taking it as a singular.
Mawaa مأوى means “a place, in mind or in space, to take a rest in and enjoy”.
While Maljaa ملجأ means “a place to take refuge in, a secure place away from danger” which equates to (shelter) in english.
but, jumping of the pali-english dictionary, translating directly from pali into arabic, i will recommend “Al-mawaa Al-Ibrahimi”, since the “brhm” mutual sanskrit and semitic root cannot be ignored.
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Hi Muhammad, it’s great that you are doing this work!
Bhikkhu Nanamoli wrote a book “The Life of the Buddha” that does this. It includes material from the Suttas and Vinaya, I believe.
https://buddho.nl/en/the-life-of-the-buddha-bhikkhu-nanamoli/
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Yes, so far as it is possible (and he discusses the limitations of this approach, too).
Basically, the bulk of suttas have no indication of their time period, and of those that do indicate a time period, it is not exact. Ven Nyanamoli has reconstructed the sequence as best he can, but there is much that will never be known.
Perhaps using the information from the Agamas would help.
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Hello, mikenz66, Thanks for your compliment.
Thank you very much for this good information. I will take his book into consideration and make a read on it.
This is a very good thing, but why it is a modern approach? I mean to arrive late is better than you don’t arrive from the first place. but, why buddhist scholars and bhikkhus hadn’t done this approach over the last 2500 years? The first sangha on the first council, if they made an appendix index of list of discourses arranged based on timeline to be introduced with the official arrangment (of Ven. Ananda), this approach will be more wholesome and flawless.
Good question! In fact the ancients did something similar as well, and assembled multiple biographies of the Buddha, which included a range of teachings in more-or-less chronological order.
The first steps towards this are, in fact, found in the canon, especially in the long texts of the Buddha’s first days after awakening (Kd 1 Pabbajja Khandhaka AKA Catusparisat Sutra) and his final journeys (DN 16 Mahāparinibbāna Sutta).
The commentaries include various information about how to arrange the teachings chronologically; this information was used in Nyanamoli’s book.
As the Buddha’s biographies evolved, filling our and expanding these origins, they began to include much later material: Jatakas, more legends of the Buddha’s life, and so on. Over time, the legendary material overwhelmed the historical, and it became difficult to discern which was which.
There are indications of a critical attitude taken towards this material at some points, but on the whole, it seems that the traditions mostly accepted the legends as fact.
This lasted until the modern era, when text-critical methods, originally developed from Bible studies, were applied to Buddhist texts. One of the key innovations was archeology. At last we were able to see that Vesali and Savathi and the Deer Park are not just places mentioned in scripture, but are real geographical locations. Together with a range of critical methods, including comparative study, this gave us a much clearer picture of the historical relationship between different Buddhist texts.
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I’m not sure what would be gained by knowing a chronological order of the sermons. According to the records we have in the Suttas and Vinaya, his first students seemed to be very advanced to begin with, based on their quick understanding of the Dhamma. So we can’t really conclude that ordinary people will get the same benefit by starting with them. What’s more important is that the Buddha taught in different ways to different people, often based on the circumstances. And in many suttas we do get that background info as well as the gradual way he taught them if that in fact was what they needed.
Why didn’t they do it? I would say because it didn’t really matter. If we respect the wisdom of the early sangha, then we might conclude they had a good reason. We get a good idea of what happened in the early days of the Buddha’s enlightenment, but after that it’s not so important. In terms of knowing the Buddha, his personal development reached it’s conclusion at the moment of enlightenment. After that, the purpose of the Dhamma is to help people also achieve enlightenment, and that happened on a per-person basis with different teachings needed for different people.
BTW, thank you so much for your translation work. It’s a huge good karma!!
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7 posts were split to a new topic: Converting the measurements from the Buddha’s time into modern units
i see, and maybe others also, that his teachings are a building block, to build a complete and flawless house in one’s mind based on logic and reasoning. this is a step by step building, starting from base and finishing with the last block of building, which is usually called the finishing block that connects all other blocks with each other. this is how i see the building of Dhamma is made.
of course his first students were very advanced. but, in Vedas and previous ways of Dhamma, which were not pure and flawless in his time. he, from scratch, cleansed their minds of previous logical flaws and wrong ways of thinking, then started to build a flawless formula. they of course, because of knowing both the wrong before, and the right now, are faster than others in learning and adapting into the Right middle way. (those who know both wrong and right thing to follow, are more eager to adapt and absorb the right, from those who don’t know the wrong from first place. because the importance of following the right thing is caused, among other causes, from loving to avoid the wrong thing which when was followed before, gave a bad feeling or state of mind).
plus, his teachings were not only for his first students “who were more advanced in other ways of thinking before the enlightened awake”, his teachings are also meant for new ordained students, young ones, lay followers, ordinary people also, ignorant people who didn’t know a thing or two before, “in first public discourses, if were spoken. if concepts are not taught from zero, what will the ignorant first listener of the Dhamma will benefit from? how can he say that his teachings are meant for all, if not all are understanding all of his teachings?” because of that, timeline and chronology are ‘in my view’ a very important matters.
Maybe, they did it, maybe they don’t. we don’t know for sure. traditions of the first sangha are lost in history and time. all of what we have is already available after the split.
Sir, If really the wisdom of the first sangha is already respected among the first sangha it self, we would not have seen a schism among the first sangha.
In every sangha, even the first one “after the enlightened departure”, there is non-agreements. the only difference is that, when the enlightened was here, any non-agreement and various views about various matters will be solved after his answer, because he speaks only what is right. and no one can go against his words. because to be in a sangha, is to had faith that the enlightened one words are all true and right.
but, after his departure, if any arhat or bhikkhu said no to Ven. Ananda. that is not right, you are wrong. Ven. Ananda and his successors at leading the sangha can’t kick him out for going against his words. from here stemmed a lot of various views of various things. even if Ven. Ananda quoted the enlightened one’s words to make a refute of the other opinions, saying “i’ve heared the enlightened one saying:…”, some another arhat or bhikkhu may say also: “i’ve heared the enlightened one saying: …, which contradicts your hearing”. of course the enlightened one words cannot be contradicted, one is false and one is true, but continuing in such a debate among the first sangha, may lead to some lay followers or some followers of other ways of thinking to say: “shakyamuni buddha’s first followers and students are fighting with each other because shakyamuni buddha said something to one, and said another contradicting something to the other. shakyamuni buddha was false, liar, a man of trickery, with contradicting teachings.”, that will lead, because the faith is still low in number, and fresh to people, into implications that may affect the sangha’s development and weaken or maybe unfortunately will lead to the end of Dhamma and Sangha.
to prevent that, out of wisdom, the good leader of the sangha, will not kick anyone of the sangha for going against his words, and will not continue in debates -for the purpose of not making it grow to reach the outer audience or the enemies of Buddhadharma".
how can “people” achieve enlightment from a thing that is characterized with “per-person basis” and “differenct teachings for different people”.
the “people” will say: (because of that different teachings are for different people, on a per-person basis. these teachings will not benefit me, will not lead to my enlightment. because i am different and another from “those different people who got enlightened from different teachings”, because i am different also, i want a different teaching, a teaching that is “per-person” that is made specially for me. but buddha is not here, he can’t give me these teachings, i can’t be enlightened by buddha’s way, i will search for another)/
because of this understanding, I go with that "while some of buddha’s teachings are per-person based and differ by the difference of people. there is also teachings that are based on common logic and reasoning, for all to follow, for the enlightment of all, public, tailored for all, not for one or individual student or personal, built step-by-step -needs to be arranged chronologically and in a timeline to be fully understood)
Thank you, Dear Sir Snowbird, you’re welcome. it’s both a huge karma for me and for all of those who are encouraging me by sweet words to translate more “like you, sir”.
I agree
I just don’t see how this is true. The Buddha did teach in a step by step way. But these steps were not given chronologically over the course of his 45 year teaching career. I don’t know of any support for the notion from within the texts themselves that the Buddha’s teachings were different from beginning to end. (People certainly have opinons though, e.g. Sutta Nipata) And I’m sure there is nothing in the Suttas that have the Buddha saying that the chronological order is important. So why should we?
More critically, knowing the chronological order of the suttas is (other than what has been mentioned) impossible. So for me this is a clear issue that falls under the pitfalls of wanting to know unknowable things. Not that you are saying that you won’t learn Dhamma till you know the chronological order… Just that there can be a danger of placing an importance on unknowables.
we agree these steps are not provided to us chronologically -or at least, this knowledge hadn’t been preserved over time ‘if some presumed that it were known by the inner and first disciples’"
the teachings were the same, hadn’t been different, hadn’t changed a bit. from the very first beginning until the latest of the end.
this step by step way, when known, will give opportunity for us to know some of the additional content that had been added later to the canon, which will not go in accord with the timeline and chronology, this will help us in identifying and avoiding this content. also, this will help us emulate how the minds of the first students received the sangha, working like a time-machine for us to help us putting ourselves at their times.
maybe in some days, months, years after. some extra internal evidence from some texts will help us more. the development of the analysis of suttas doesn’t have a limit. as Ven. Sujato mentioned above, there were times when “critical study” of the texts were not a concept known among buddhists, then after more than 2 thousand years, it had been known and used, and we got fruits from it the ancient ones didn’t taste.
what is not known now is not “unknowable” for sure and eternally. because there are things considered now “knowable”, but were considered before “unknowable”. what was before “unknowable” became now “knowable” because there was someone who tried to “know” and succeeded. taking in mind: “i will try more and more to know, not taking into consideration the sayings of those who say i will not know”. like the try mentioned above, Ven. Nyanamoli’s Book, there maybe another tries that will help more.
the Dhamma which relates to Shakyamuni Buddha’s Path is wisdom. Knowing and learning Wisdom is always good, at all times, places, states. it will bring our state of mind to higher realms, it will make us live our life at a better rate, getting more benefit from it, squeezing it into the last bit. the process of analyzing it to get more information will help us understand it more. understanding more will help us benefit more from the Dhamma, which means benefiting more from the benefits of Dhamma. this extra benefit, even if it is small among other Dhammic-matters, will remain a jewel that cannot be ignored.
This is great news. 
Thank you. 
@Muhammad: many sadhus for the great work that you are doing. Sadhu. Sadhu. Sadhu.
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