You obviously require the French original of Louis de la Vallée Poussin’s book, Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi: La Siddhi de Hiuan-tsang. Nonetheless, it may be useful to others here to know that an English translation of this book is available from the translator. A Canadian nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Ani Migme Chodron, has been translating French language classics of Buddhism into English and providing PDFs of her translations free upon request (animigme@gampoabbey.org). She has done this as a labor of love, during her more than twenty years as a nun at Gampo Abbey in Canada. She is now 91 years old.

Not only has she translated Poussin’s 2-volume translation of the Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi, she has also translated other Buddhist classics from French: Étienne Lamotte’s 5-volume partial translation of the Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, his translation of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, Walpola Rahula’s translation of the Abhidharmasamuccaya, Van den Broeck’s translation of the Amṛtarasa (La Saveur de l’Immortel), and André Bareau’s Les Sectes Bouddhiques du Petit Véhicule. Most recently she has translated R. A. Stein’s Vie et chants de ‘Brug-pa Kun-legs le yogin (The Life and Songs of Drugpa Kunlegs).

Ani Migme’s translation of Étienne Lamotte’s 5-volume heavily annotated translation of the first major section of Nāgārjuna’s Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra (Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagessse) is especially noteworthy. Lamotte’s designated translator, the late Sara Boin-Webb, had translated this massive work many years ago. It was supposed to be published by Peeters, but after all these years this has not yet occurred even now. Sara was very frustrated by this, and did all she could to try to make this happen. She died in 2008. While this is of little solace to Sara, English speakers now have access to Lamotte’s great work, thanks to the parallel labor of Ani Migme. The first volume of Ani Migme’s translation of this book was completed in 2001.

Best regards,

David Reigle

Colorado, U.S.A.