Bhante Sujato has explained on several occasions that one of the principles he uses for translation is one he learned from Ajahn Brahmali: Our source texts do have a meaning! Even if the translator does not fully understand it, they should translate according to what they think is the most likely meaning, even if later on this turns out to be wrong. Giving the reader a potentially wrong meaning is always better than giving some vague translation that doesn’t make sense.
One of the rare examples where I don’t really see this principle applied is in Thig 2.3. Or at least, I wasn’t able to decipher the meaning.
“Sumuttikā sumuttikā,
I’m well freed, well freed,Sādhumuttikāmhi musalassa;
so very well freed!Ahiriko me chattakaṁ vāpi
My pestle’s shameless wind was wafting;Ukkhalikā me deḍḍubhaṁ vāti.
my little pot wafted like an eel.Rāgañca ahaṁ dosañca,
Now, as for greed and hate:Cicciṭi cicciṭīti vihanāmi;
I sear them and sizzle them up.Sā rukkhamūlamupagamma,
Having gone to the root of a tree,Aho sukhanti sukhato jhāyāmī”ti.
I meditate happily, thinking, “Oh, what bliss!”
My problem is mostly about these two lines:
My pestle’s shameless wind was wafting;
my little pot wafted like an eel.
I really can’t imagine how it would look like if a pestle’s shameless wind is wafting, nor do I see a pot wafting like an eel. What does it mean?
Ven. Thanissaro has a totally different take on it:
So freed! So freed!
So thoroughly freed am I —
from my pestle,
my shameless husband
& his sun-shade making,
my moldy old pot
with its water-snake smell.Aversion & passion
I cut with a chop.
Having come to the foot of a tree,
I meditate, absorbed in the bliss:
“What bliss!”
Ekkehard Saß’ German translation says:
So gut befreit bin ich nun frei,
frei bin ich von dem Stößelwerk!
Der Schamlose lockt nicht mehr in den Sonnenschatten,
mein Reistopf ist nun leer geworden.Den Lustreiz und das Hassen auch
ich spalte weiter eifrig auf,—
geh unter eine Baumeswurzel:
„Ach, welch ein Glück!“—ich glücklich mich vertiefe.
Roughly translated this means:
So well freed, I am free now,
free from the pestle!
The shameless one doesn’t entice me into the shade any longer,
my pot of rice has now become empty.(Leaving out the second verse because the most relevant here is the first one.)
Looking at these three translations, they could hardly be more different.
Bhante @sujato, it would be helpful if you could explain your translation choice. Thank you!