Thirty_Years_of_Buddhist_studies,Conze

18 Thirty Years of Buddhist Studies
number of years, and much of what I had said would have
become nearly unrecognizable. By contrast Prof. Nobel has
benefited from the superb craftsmanship of the house of Brill,
and the printing and layout of his book are as good as they can
possibly be. Nor can he be accused of undue haste. From 1927
onwards he has devoted to the intensive study of the Suvarnapmbhdsa
more than thirty years, which is about the time a
European needs to become really familiar with any of these
Sutras. And yet the result of all this labour is a sad disappointment.
Prof. Nobel's translation conveys none of the music,
the magnificence, the ethereal glory of this Sutra, crude misunderstandings
of Mahayana thought very often distort it
and sortie of the footnotes betray an almost staggering misapprehension
of quite ordinary technical terms. l This translation
compares most unfavourably with Prof. Nobel's own
editions of the Sanskrit and Tibetan text of the Suvarnapmbhasa,
which are models of almost faultless accuracy. The
reason is that our professor is a self-confessed "philologist' 1
who puts words before sense and takes no living interest in what
he translates. Buddhist thought has never aroused his curiosity,
and thei veil of haziness which he throws over it shows that he
fails to appreciate how precise and unambiguous it is. These
Sutras are spiritual documents, and the spirit alone can
fathom them. An uncomprehending attention to the letter
will easily turn the sublimest record of wisdom teaching into
a string of lifeless absurdities. If is indeed difficult to see
how a satisfactory translation of a Mahayana Sutra can be
expected from anyone but a devout and believing Mahayana
Buddhist.
For the rest there is little to report. In 1952 J. Ensinck gave
us a conscientious translation of a minor Sutra, the Question of
Rashtrapala. 2 A few years later I managed, against great odds,
to publish a new edition and an annotated translation of the
Diamond Sutra (1957-8). But that is about all. Of the Large
Prajnaparamita, the key to the entire Mahayana, not even an
edition of the Sanskrit text has been accomplished, though I
1 See e.g. p. 67 n. 7, 70 n. 2,102 n. 5, 155 n. 6,161 n. 1, 263 n. 5, 179 n.
4, 260 11. 5, 362 n. 1 (where he admits not knowing what the " four
brahmaviharas'* are).
2 Zwolle, Holland.