Dissertating, teaching, and other commitments have obviously kept this weblog in a state of torpor. Today, reading through Eugène Burnouf's French translation of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, I couldn't help but think about how much I love French Buddhology. Case in point: Burnouf's translation of kulaputra. Here is a fairly mundane and uninteresting word in Sanskrit which means "son of a good family."
How does Burnouf render Skt. kulaputro vā kuladuhitā vā "son or daughter of a good family"?
le fils ou la fille de famille
Such sublime grace in translation! More graceful, in fact, than the original Sanskrit. This is one of many reasons why I have always loved French Buddhology. To make myself read more French, and to keep engaged in writing this blog, I propose to periodically update this site with summaries of articles from the Journal Asiatique, a wonderful old journal begun in July 1822. I will begin with the first issue, and will let you know what little gems I find.
If you'd like to follow along, you can download all the old issues of JA from here.
