SuttaCentral
Hello friends,
I’m finally getting the hang of Pali grammar and I’m fairly confident that I can start translating simpler suttas to one of my mothertongues? Or to try it out. Can anyone give recommendations? Some helpful points
Thanks!
The commentary on Dhp 1 (the Cakkhupālattheravatthu) is recommended by Bhante Yuttadhammo. He has this lovely word-by-word reader available: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e5WrqbXH0-upLAmFNp_ILdoFPy8_9YA9/view?usp=drivesdk
Other than that, Bhikkhu Anandajoti has a number of Pali readers as well, excellent for students at this level: Pāli Readers - Google Drive
Sadhu! I’ll take a look at it for sure!
The sutta readings from Gair and Karunatillake’s “A New Course in Reading Pali” might be a good start, especially because the Ven. Bodhi recordings are up on the Chuang Yen Monastery website.
→ Wait, do you want to translate for other people to read, or for yourself as a learning exercise? Two very different things.
Just curious: What are your mother tongues? And how many “mothers” do you have?
Commentarial Pali, as I understand it, can be very different from sutta Pali. With the DhpComy you will have a lot of story telling, not so much doctrine. And lots of long sentences with “having done this, having done that, having done this other thing…”
Lots of short suttas in AN1 and AN2. And they also have a lot of repetition which is ideal for learning.
I found the Vimanavatthu and Petavatthu to be some of the more straightforward verses to read. But again, it’s more story telling but with doctrine as well. Also lots of (helpful) repetition.
Ah! I use mother tongue to mean…languages learned at birth. And maybe heritage language if we’re counting that.
I speak English as a native (yay) and a Philippine language. I also have heritage in another Philippine language. There’s a small movement in the Philippines right now to translate the suttas into the majority language. If you look up “sangha theravada pilipinas” I think you’ll see one of the starting attempts by Philippine Theravada Buddhists to translate the suttas into the language!
Of course…only one mother (if we’re counting this lifetime) lol.
I will try these!
And right now…to translate as a learning exercise, but heading towards translating for other people to read in a non-English language.
Great! And best of luck for your project!
Thank you!!! If the translations are good enough we’ll try to figure out how to get it in the sutta central platform haha. Always good to have more Southeast Asian language on here!
In this case you should consider setting up your project in Bilara, the SuttaCentral translation app.
Maybe you want to get a bit more familiar with Pali first, but at some point (before the work to copy everything into Bilara becomes too overwhelming) that would probably be the way to go.
Just curious if that is Filipino or Tagalog. I lived for some time in Winnipeg where there is a very large Filipino community. Most speak English, of course, but it would be great to have other options to offer for suttas.
Many blessings for your learning and work!
Filipino is based on Tagalog! But I just say Tagalog since there are words from other languages in the Philippines, included within Filipino, that I don’t know.
And yes! Most Filipinos speak English but in Manila and other provinces where there is an interest in Buddhism most find the English suttas unreachable–Buddhism there, unfortunately, remains in the field of the highly educated (i.e. those who have gone through college) and the suttas remain unreachable for the average Filipino 
Sadhu Bhante! Btw I think at your current monastery there is one Filipino postulant–he and I had a conversation about bringing Dhamma to the Philippines when I visited last month. 
Ahhh I was hoping it would be pretty straightforward…seems like some tech finagling is in order. Thank you Ayya, I’ll go ahead and do that once I get my first successful translation!
Just contact Bhante Sujato and Carmi here on the forum to get the necessary help. And here’s the place where we meet.
Venerable @Sunyo might have some thoughts on where to start. He taught Pali at Bodhinyana with the idea of starting from day one with sutta translation.
(Ven. I’ve really liked your pali club recordings and notes.)
Generally all Pali suttas are of a similar difficulty. I’d say just translate whatever you find inspiring and interesting, because that is the easiest way to keep motivated and to really want to figure out what the sutta says, rather than just seeing it as an exercise.
Except verse. Stay away from verse! Until you have a good basis in the prose (which is the normal non-verse stuff).