Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 31 — The Zend-Avesta, Part III / Yasna & Gathas (Mills, page scans)

We may notice the embarrassment caused the trlr. by the supposed necessity to attempt to follow the Gathic word for word, which appears in his rendering of the gen. Mazddo Ahurahyé, inserting pavan zak t A. His translation of hathr@ is especially intelligent, giving a change of form and two words. His concrete translation of §(k)yaothanandm is noticeable though free.

Ner. from some unknown reason renders mén as fem. by yd ete. He is also otherwise somewhat free, but affords a valuable rendering of the Pahl.

5. Gdtim may well mean ‘throne’ here (with the Pahlavi), as it generally means ‘throne’, or the like, in the later Avesta, but Vedic analogies induced Haug to render ‘way’, and I formerly followed, being still at present unable to shake off my preference for a rendering peculiar to the Gathic here. The word Khrafstré, which may be masc. (one does not willingly accede to a neuter), certainly indicates something to be opposed ; and the expression of opposition might seem to us present in vdurdimaidi as equalling ‘hold off’. But we naturally do not like to place an expression of that kind in immediate connection with what precedes in another tone, especially when var can also be rendered ‘choose’, ‘confess’, and even — ‘teach’, the intensive having causative meaning.

I therefore, although regarding mazistem as a suspicious adverb both formerly, when rendering ‘hold off, and now, incline at last to follow the Pahlavi partly: ‘By that mathra we most convert the Khrafstra-pollutedp. 4 a eep. 899 men with tongue’. Or better: ‘We cause the polluted ones to believe on the greatest (one)’. As to Sraoshem, one able scholar renders, ‘of the one most helpful toward the obedient one’. All the abstracts cover concretes, but as Ashd is subjective here, so is Sraoshem (spoken Seraoshem; see the metre).

The Pahlavi translator, affording the richest indications throughout, is evidently free, and not erroneous, in rendering Sraoshem by pavan Srosh (is he not literal?); and this is proved by the fact that he repeats the word ‘knowing’, bringing it down as it were from line a. His correct freedom is likewise indicated by his accurate rendering of the causative force which may inhere in vduréimaid?. With regard to his exaggerated freedom in rendering the form of and mdthrd, it should be said that, in view of its original, the Pahlavi might be translated as follows, especially if the oftenomitted izafat is supplied: ‘To this mathra the most, to it belongs (genitives by position, especially ash) the giving by tongue of the conversion of him whose intellect is confused’. As to curiosities, the terminations of sevistdt and vdurdimaidé are separately rendered. They were possibly and even probably severed from their stems, or stood otherwise divided in the MS. used by the earlier trlr.; see similar errors in our now surviving MSS. They stood as sev. iStdi and vdurdimai. di.

uriosities, the terminations of sevistdt and vdurdimaidé are separately rendered. They were possibly and even probably severed from their stems, or stood otherwise divided in the MS. used by the earlier trlr.; see similar errors in our now surviving MSS. They stood as sev. iStdi and vdurdimai. di. This accounts for the mischievous khvdstdr, and the superfluous yehabiénishnd, which possibly crept into the text from some remote predecessor’s note, and might even be bracketed with propriety here. The lengthy paraphrased translation for khrafstra indulges seemingly in etymology, dividing kra = ‘mind’, from the root of krdtu, and stré from star = ‘to prostrate’. This is of course literally erroneous, yet it renders the idea. Khvdstdér would be strictly referred to Ahura, if it were not for its sense ‘supplicator’, which makes it inapplicable to Ahura.

Omitting it for the sake of estimating the degree in which the Pahl. trl. approaches the Gatha, we may read line 4: ‘And the throne, or place, of Attharmazd, the bountiful (@ séd.), even Srésh; that is, that place is known through Srésh (Obedience)’.

Ner. seems to have seen no dén in the first gloss, and he intelligently adds a tud@m. He also restores the grammatical relation of sevistdi, rendering his original the Pahlavi by /dbAabhildshatah. Otherwise his rendering of his original is close.

6. Ashdddo is especially in place as describing a person, and also particulary idiomatic, when so understood, as a nom. sg. in agreement with t#, or a voc. in agreement with Mazda.

Ashdddo, so reading, would seem to equal rit@ni plus dé@s, or riténa (?) plus dé@s. It means ‘giving gifts (see dé@idz) in accordance with the Righteous

7” \

p. 400

Order’. We might more naturally expect a compositum to read ashaddo; perhaps we have two words here. ,

Others have preferred regarding ddo as an acc. pl. = ‘gifts’, Haug, vert dationes, One writer thinks it a sg. neut. in agreement, or apposition, with daregdyi.

Some able scholars have rendered daregdyt as ‘eternal’, while they regard ameretatdd(t) as equalling ‘long life’. This seems rather perverse. The original idea of ameretatdd(t) may well have been extreme length of life, but the entire eschatology of the Avesta shows without any doubt at all ‘that death-absence’ in the ‘world of mind’, and ‘at last’, was also inseparably connected with the idea.

Ereshvdis ukhdhaiS might equal ‘according to thy true promises’, but see mathra srevaé(é)md in the next verse. The theme of the entire piece seems to be the gift of inspired words; see ddthéng and sravdo in vy. 10. The Pahl. trlr. struggles severely in the glosses; dropping them, the sense comes out nearer to the Gatha.

ght equal ‘according to thy true promises’, but see mathra srevaé(é)md in the next verse. The theme of the entire piece seems to be the gift of inspired words; see ddthéng and sravdo in vy. 10. The Pahl. trlr. struggles severely in the glosses; dropping them, the sense comes out nearer to the Gatha.

(6) Through the true word do Thou give it (see at, and, as authority, if any be needed, for carrying down the force of a word from line a, see khaditinam in the last verse carrying down the force of daresdn? from a to 6), give it from him who is strong, as a joy;(c) and ours also are these gifts jee pees

The termination of aojénhvad(t) either caused its rendering to be thrown into the ablative, owing to its outward shape, or caused it to be actually mistaken for an ablative (not so however elsewhere; see zastavad(f) Y.29, 9, astvad(t) Y. 43, 16, agjénhvad(t) Y. 43, 16, spenvad(t) Y. 51, 21, benvad(f) Y. 53, 4.) The curious error, or careless freedom, occurs here and in Y. 3134: Possibly some textual defect misled a previous trlr.

Taurvayama, or some word which replaced it, probably appeared to the translator as a present middle participle, and a similar mistake occurs more than once.

Translated as ordinary Pahlavi free and flowing in style (which however is totally contrary to the treatment demanded for these documents forced as they are by a general attempt to follow the literal order of the Gatha) the rendering would be, as I formerly produced it: ‘Grant me, O Ashavahisht, --- the coming of Vohiman into the bodies of persons etc. - - (b) He has shown thee, O Adharmazd, to Zartisht - - -. This is of course erroneous as an exegesis of the Gatha, although it is far from erroneous when considered aside the GAthd, out of which however the translation originally grew.

Yet even this contains the ever-recurring and invaluable hints.

p. 401

Ner. departs from the original, influenced by hémanam. He renders the Pahl. as if it were an ordinary document. originally composed, and this is his usual custom.

7. One would say that, if language could indicate a meaning, ddid? ti Armaité(?) Vistdspdi ishem (or aé(é)shem) maibydchéd meant ‘grant (our) wish, that is, our prayer, OA., to V. and to me’. ,

And yet, merely because és stands in the Sansk. dictionary as ‘power’, Haug rendered Vermédgen, and alternatively Kraft, followed by others, and probably himself influenced by a desire to depart from the hint of Ner., which of course was a reproduction of that of the Pahl.

Men did not need ‘power’ to ‘hear the Mathras’; and this, even if ishem were the critical reading; but aé(é)shem, which unquestionably took longer to utter than ¢shem, is here the indicated reading (see the metre), and ésha, even in the Vedic, means ‘seeking’, and ‘desire’, as does also sometimes the 2nd ish. If there is any one word which we could expect to occur at every point in the Gathas, it is the word ‘prayer’, ‘desire’.

Vistdspdi. V.