On the German Sutta translations in Voice
SuttaCentral Voice hosts new segmented German translations of the Suttas of the Pali canon by Anagarika Sabbamitta, and in addition to that all existing German translations of these texts that can be found on SuttaCentral.
Why new translations?
Anagarika Sabbamitta, 2020
The German-speaking world is in the fortunate position that there are already many German translations of Early Buddhist Texts. The Pali canon is mostly covered, and German has been among the first European languages into which Buddhist texts have been translated.
For a long time I was very content with this situation, and it didn't occur to me that something else was needed.
Until … well, until I came across Bhikkhu Bodhi's English translations. This was the first time that I was less content with the existing German translations; and from then on I read the Suttas more or less exclusively in English.
When in 2018 Bhante Sujato published his new English translations on SuttaCentral, this was another experience that moved me further in the same direction. In his translation the Suttas sound so fresh and vivid and I very much enjoy reading them. And little by little there developed in me the wish to share this joy with German speakers who don't understand English.
In no way, however, would I like to belittle the excellent accomplishments of previous German translators. Thanks to their work it was possible that the Buddha's teaching was already known in German-speaking countries a long time ago and it has inspired many people. New translations will always be built on the basis of what exists already. To say it with an image by Bhante Sujato: Those who come after stand on the shoulders of those who came before.
Also, there will never be the one and only perfect translation that's valid forever. Society is changing, language is changing, and reading habits are also changing … maybe each generation will have to produce its own new translations.
In any case, I don't see my own work as a way of carving the Buddhist canon in German language in stone for eternity. What I can clearly say is that it is very fruitful for myself to do this work and to dive into the Suttas in this way. My hope is that others may also benefit from my approach and that the Suttas will be a bit more accessible at least for some people, and that some may perhaps share in the deep joy I feel in connection with these texts.
Now let me list a few points that make new translations appear desirable from my point of view:
- So far there is no consistent German translation of the Pali canon. The quality and linguistic formulation of the existing translations vary considerably. There is not even a consistent translation for each of the four main Nikāyas: The extant translation of the Saṁyutta Nikāya is by three different translators.
- Many of the existing translations are difficult to read for modern readers. Some were created 100 – 150 years ago and are using a language that's often not easily comprehensible any more. Much of it was written by linguists for linguists and wasn't necessarily intended for a wider public. Even when the translators intended to write for the people next door we often find coined words which don't make sense to someone who hasn't previously don an in-depth study of Buddhist philosophy and also Pali. What should a reader who is new to the Suttas understand for example by a word like “Genügensreiz” (Hellmuth Hecker for nandīrāga) or “programmierte Wohlerfahrungssuche” (Paul Debes for viññāṇa)?
- Another point is that in the language of the Pali canon the male gender is very predominant. This too is something that doesn't seem appropriate any more in modern society. Alice Collett and Venerable Anālayo have shown in their study Bhikkhave and Bhikkhu as Gender-inclusive Terminology in Early Buddhist Texts (PDF for download) that many of the grammatically masculine terms like bhikkhu or bhikkhave are in fact used in an inclusive sense. That means if the Buddha addresses his audience as bhikkhave he isn't exclusively talking to male monastics sitting in his company, but also to nuns, and at times to laypeople as well. A general rendering of bhikkhave as “monks” neither does justice to the situation in ancient India nor to the demands of modern gender-inclusive language.
- My last point is of technical nature: None of the existing German translations have so far been segmented. For more information about text segments as used on SuttaCentral and Voice see here. Segmenting existing translations requires a great amount of work and time.
The biggest problem that I saw when thinking about translating the Suttas is the fact that my knowledge of Pali is limited. An independent translation of a Pali text would be a challenge I wouldn't feel able to undertake. For this reason I decided to rely on Bhante Sujato's new English translations. And it's extremely useful that the SuttaCentral development team is building the new computer-assisted translation software called Bilara, which allows for trilingual work. The text is displayed in segments with Pali and English and also a third language side by side. For a segment in progress the translation memory shows examples of how this, or a similar passage, has already been translated elsewhere.
This allows for a translation with a high degree of consistency, and it is even possible with incomplete knowledge of Pali, since it always shows the English translation along with the Pali.
In addition, scv-bilara, developed by Karl Lew and used in Voice, provides a trilingual search function which is very useful.
I started my translation project in about mid-2019. I intend to translate the four main Nikāyas of the Pali canon and the early parts of the Khuddaka Nikāya. A list of what has already been translated can be found here. New texts are continually being added, and existing texts are regularly updated.
You can listen to or read all Suttas in Voice, with or without the corresponding Pali text as desired. If you enter an ID into the search box for a Sutta that I haven't yet translated a legacy text will be shown. For all search terms other than a Sutta ID, or when using the Inspire me! button, only segmented texts will be searched for technical reasons.
Feedback about the translations is most welcome. You can send an email to dhammaregen@gmail.com or address me on the SuttaCentral discussion forum Discourse.SuttaCentral.
Other German translations by Anagarika Sabbamitta on SuttaCentral
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Die Rede über den Kuhhirten from the Chinese Saṁyuktāgama, SA 1249, a parallel to MN 33 (The translation has been made on the basis of Bhikkhu Anālayo's English translation.)
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Saarländisch: Es Metta-Sutta in Snp 1.8 and Kp 9 (The translation has been made on the basis of the English translation by the Amaravati Saṅgha.)
Audio: Metta-Sutta Saarländisch
