Dhamma Verses (Dhammapada, KN 2)

Introduction – 9
Layout
Most of the verses are written in the Siloka metre, which has
four lines of eight syllables to the line. As the semantic unit is
normally a pair of lines, they are laid out in the text as two pairs of
lines.
The translation wherever possible also follows this structure, and is
given in four octosyllabic lines. If you count the syllables in the Pāḷi
and the English of the example (v. 29) below you can see this has
been adhered to: 1
Appamatto pamattesu, suttesu bahujāgaro,
abalassaṁ va sīghasso hitvā, yāti sumedhaso.
Heedful amongst the heedless ones,
wakeful amongst the ones who sleep,
like a swift horse who abandons
a weak horse, the wise one moves on.
Occasionally, because of the density, or lack thereof, of information
in the verse, I have had to vary this so that some verses are four lines
of six or ten syllables.
In the Dhammapada there are quite a few verses written in other
metrical structures, which include Tuṭṭhubha (11 syllables), Jagati
(12 syllables), Vetālīya and Opacchandasaka (both variable in
length). 2
These are set out as four separate lines, matching the semantic unit,
which here is normally the line:
1 I split the lines with markers here to clarify the syllabic lengths, in the text
these markers are omitted.
2 For more details of the metre see my New Edition of the Dhammapada:
http://bit.ly/ABT-NewDhp.