Dhammapada, Dhamma Verses (KN 2)

Introduction – 10
Example (v. 35):
Dunniggahassa lahuno yatthakāmanipātino,
* For the mind that is difficult to subdue, flighty, flitting wherever it will,
cittassa damatho sādhu, cittaṁ dantaṁ sukhāvahaṁ.
restraint is good, a restrained mind brings happiness.
Here, For the mind… in the first line translates cittassa in the third.
Occasionally in the Pāḷi one of the vowels will be written in superscript (e.g. ar i yā);
this is done when the vowel employed is epenthetic (sarabhatti), 1 and is not pronounced
with its full length, owing to the need to fit the metre.
Example (v. 22):
Etaṁ visesato ñatvā appamādamhi paṇḍitā,
The wise, fully understanding this in regard to heedfulness,
appamāde pamodanti, Ar i yānaṁ gocare ratā.
rejoice in heedfulness, delight in the domain of the Noble.
Occasionally one of the vowels is marked with a breve, again this is because of the metre,
which in this place demands that a syllable that is normally heavy be counted as a light
syllable.
Example (from v. 44):
Kŏ imaṁ paṭhaviṁ vicessati
Who will know this earth
yamalokañ-ca imaṁ sadevakaṁ?
and the lower realm, together with the gods?
Different Editions
The present work has been divided into two different editions. The more scholarly is the
version found in the Texts and Translations section of the website, which discusses the
grammar and the interpretation of the text, and matters connected with the collecting and
positioning of the verses in the text, and occasionally shows how the text could have been
better written. There I have also collected related verses from the Dhammapada
collection at the end of each chapter.
The second is a more popular presentation, placed in the English section, which includes
giving a moral to the verse, followed by a synopsis of the commentarial story, the verse in
Pāḷi, and then a metrical translation. The model for this work was my previous Buddhist
Wisdom Verses, 2 which contained around fifty of the verses from the Dhammapada.
1
A broken, or hardly pronounced, vowel.
2
http://bit.ly/ABT-BWV.