[Buddha-l] new translation Naagaarjuna

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Sat, 2005-12-17 at 16:06 +0100, Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:

>  the English version of my translation of the Mulamadyamakakaarikaah has 
> been recently made available on www.eloquenceweb.com, ISBN: 9077787054. 

Congratulations. This new English translation is from the Dutch, you
say. Was the Dutch translation made from Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese,
Mongolian or all of the above? 

> New is that I try to see Naagaarjuna as a philosopher.

In what way is this new? The first scholar to bring Nagarjuna in a major
way to the attention of the West was Shcherbatskoi, who presented the
thought in a neo-Kantian framework. Murti followed suit with comparisons
of Nagarjuna to Hegel and Kant. Fred Streng compared Nagarjuna with
Wittgenstein. Magliola compares Nagarjuna with Derrida. Mervyn Sprung
produced a superb translation of parts of the MMK and Candrakirti's
commentary in which his explicit agenda was to produce a philosophical
rendering. Kalupahana translates Nagarjuna as a Logical Positivist. I
dealt with him as being akin to a Pyrrhonian Skeptic. Mark Siderits has
an extensive philosophical treatment of great subtlety and complexity.
Indeed, of all the many translations of Nagarjuna, perhaps the only one
NOT to see Nagarjuna as a philosopher is Stephen Batchelor, who sees
Nagarjuna more as a poet. Batchelor's prose summary of Nagarjuna is the
very best I have ever read; his translation is the very worst I can
imagine.

> I apologize for my mistakes. 

Once one is forgiven the big mistake of trying to translate Nagarjuna at
all, all minor infelicities can be forgiven.

> Happy reading and happy holidays.

If you said a thing like that in America, you'd probably be arrested!
First of all, nobody here reads well enough to derive happiness from the
activity. And second, the theocracy that has taken control of this
country has mounted a campaign alleging that people who say "Happy
holidays" are virtually declaring holy war on Christians and therefore
giving comfort to the terrorists. 

Be glad you live in the Low Country, Erik!

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico