A Collection of Buddhist Wisdom Verses - Ancient Buddhist Texts

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In the Text and Translation edition of this book there will be
found the Pāḷi text along with a literal translation, and also
translations of the variant readings and relevant material from
the commentaries, which help explain the text. This is intended
for the student, who wants to understand precisely what the Pāḷi
is saying and what the commentarial exegesis of difficult terms
amounts to.
In this edition, though, I have dropped all the annotation so as to
highlight the ethical message contained in the verses themselves,
as this is meant more for those who want guidance for their life
from the Teaching.
Against my normal practice in the English section, though, I
have included the Pāḷi in this edition, as I wanted to include it as
part of the reading of the text.
As regard to content I have modified the literal version so that it
reads more fluently, and have organised it into mainly 6, 8 and
10 syllabic lines of unrhymed unstressed English verse. 1
The translation is clarified in some ways compared with the
literal version, but I have endeavoured to stay as close as
1 This is fairly close to the structure of the original Pāḷi, where the
verses are mainly 8 (Siloka) 11 (Tuṭṭhubha) and 12 (Jagatī) syllabic
unrhymed and unstressed lines.
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