Re: [INDOLOGY] Luis O. Gomez Sukhāvatī-vyūha-sūtra translations

[Madhav Deshpande]

As a colleague of Luis Gomez at Michigan, I occasionally participated in
his translation projects.  What I remember of his practice of multiple
translations is that there was to be a translation for scholars that was
technical, very close to the text and annotated.  This assumed that the
reader also understood Sanskrit and was able to understand technical
aspects of the text, vocabulary, grammar, variants etc.  The other kind of
translation was intended for a wider general readership that had no access
to the original Sanskrit text and did not have specific expertise in
Buddhism.  What could a common reader get out of a Sanskrit text?  Not
everything, but indeed something of understandable content, something that
would be readable to an English reader with no background of Sanskrit or
Buddhism.

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus
Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan
[Residence: Campbell, California]


On Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 1:53 PM Jonathan Silk via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> My copy is in my office, closed for the holiday, so I can't verify all of
> this with my physical copy, but:
>
> 『梵文無量寿経・梵文阿弥陀経』 校訂、法蔵館、2011年
> Bonbun Muryōjukyō Bonbun Amidakyō kōtei, Kyoto: Hōzōkan 2011.
> 978-4-8318-7075-9
> Here's an Amazon Japan link:
> https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E6%A2%B5%E6%96%87%E7%84%A1%E9%87%8F%E5%AF%BF%E7%B5%8C%E3%83%BB%E6%A2%B5%E6%96%87%E9%98%BF%E5%BC%A5%E9%99%80%E7%B5%8C-%E8%97%A4%E7%94%B0-%E5%AE%8F%E9%81%94/dp/4831870757
>
> The book contains editions of both sutras.
>
> Jonathan
>
> On Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 9:56 PM David and Nancy Reigle <dnreigle at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Jonathan,
>>
>> Thanks for this information, that Luis himself seems to have had no plans
>> to publish whatever he had accomplished. His Preface to the 1996 book gave
>> the impression that much of the writing of the other two projected volumes
>> was already done. Besides saying that he had prepared two different
>> translations of each text, a free one and technical one (p. xi), he also
>> wrote (p. xiv):
>>
>> "In the introductions to the technical translations, I explain in more
>> detail what I mean by 'free' and 'technical.' There I also explain the
>> theoretical justification for this distinction and in what sense this is to
>> a great extent a working or pragmatic distinction."
>>
>> He indicated that his technical translations were heavily annotated. It
>> would be a shame if all this work was lost forever.
>>
>> I was glad to hear of your own work on the smaller sutra. Please do let
>> us all know when you publish this. Of course, no rush, but please live long
>> enough to complete it (unlike the lamented Luis Gomez)!
>>
>> You mentioned the Sanskrit materials published by Fujita. I wonder if you
>> are referring to the corrections he published in 1975, both to the larger
>> sutra edited by Atsuuji Ashikaga, and to the smaller sutra edited by F. Max
>> Muller and Bunyiu Nanjio. Or did he also publish complete editions? I only
>> know of his published corrections.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> David Reigle
>> Colorado, U.S.A.
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 12:10 AM Jonathan Silk <kauzeya at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear David
>>> As far as I know--and I tried to find out several times--Luis himself
>>> had no plans to publish whatever he had accomplished, despite my own
>>> entreaties and offers to help. Moreover, while I do not have direct contact
>>> with his widow, it is my understanding that access to the materials he left
>>> behind is not easy.
>>> As far as the smaller sūtra goes, however, I myself will publish
>>> something (let's not get into my promising a date!) which will try to take
>>> into account all available materials, including a reconsideration of the
>>> Sanskrit materials published by Fujita who, however, actually normalized
>>> his texts to a degree that perhaps slightly misrepresents the tradition as
>>> available.
>>> When I have something, I'll let you know.
>>> Best, Jonathan
>>>
>>> On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 9:08 PM David and Nancy Reigle via INDOLOGY <
>>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>
>>>> As many of you know, English translations by the late Luis O. Gomez of
>>>> both the shorter and longer Sukhāvatī-vyūha-sūtras, from Sanskrit, and
>>>> again from Chinese, were published in 1996 by University of Hawai'i Press
>>>> in the book titled, The Land of Bliss. These were what he called his "free"
>>>> translations of these texts. Two more volumes were to come out, giving his
>>>> technical translations of these texts, heavily annotated. Does anyone know
>>>> if these translations were completed? If they still exist? If they will
>>>> ever be published?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks.
>>>>
>>>> Best regards,
>>>>
>>>> David Reigle
>>>> Colorado, U.S.A.
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> J. Silk
>>> Leiden University
>>> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
>>> Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
>>> 2311 BZ Leiden
>>> The Netherlands
>>>
>>> copies of my publications may be found at
>>> https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk
>>>
>>
>
> --
> J. Silk
> Leiden University
> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
> Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
> 2311 BZ Leiden
> The Netherlands
>
> copies of my publications may be found at
> https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk
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