"Without omitting any of the words above given, the following would be preferable— 1. සමූහ සදන ඔහුකන්දටනැගී ගේ ගෝලයෝ ඔහුලඟට ආකල 2. ඉගැන්නුවාය. ඒ නම් 3. දිලිඳුන්ට @gdi p£0.çoooo.ia. 66 හිඉඳ ගත්තායින්පසු ඔහු සදේනඟා ඔහු මෙසේ ස්වර්ග රාජ්‍යය අයිතිනිසා Nor, as far as we can be guided by the English version, does the above appear to us to be a correct translation. has no equivalent in English- is singular, and not multitudes. @ in the old version is preferable to the above; although rendering the English literally, it should be wwwxam.-'When he was set,' conveys 'after he was set;' and the Evangelist evidently wishes us to understand the period when the disciples came-'when he was set, the disciples came unto him.' The Cotta version, however, does not give one an idea as to when the disciples came. According to the distinctly separate periods, into which the above passage is rendered in Singhalese, it is perhaps not unreasonable to suppose that the disciples came unto him before he was set.' is 'near;' but unto requires . A person may come unto one, and yet not come near him. ආවාය for the 3rd person plural is ungrammatical: it should be po3, or ɔ (see § 44.) Here we find a change of expression by the translators, who in the controversy regarding Tô and Obawahanse objected to io, upon the plausible ground of a violation of the prohibition solemnly given in Revelation xxii. For, 'opened his mouth' is rendered iDodo.on, which means tuned or sounded. To such a departure we do not positively object; but do is incorrect: it should be . But wherefore change the English expression, which is in the original, oriental idiom, and foreign to the occidental? gaddas:Dus is a common but idiomatic Singhalese expression, and means, without abusing by (word 6 of) mouth.' Why then not render' opened his mouth,' literally, as in the old version, eqro? Or, why not shorten the expression by still keeping to the original words, and idiom (Sanscrit) or god (Singhalese)? Budha 25 is said to have 'opened his Lotus-mouth' D∞ɔ, and to have 'inquired' from the priests' in what conversation they had been engaged.' සුතුව උනුදැයි විතාලේ මුනි - Guttila. "In this respect all the oriental languages are, we believe, agreed. The Pali has the following, (vide translation of a portion of the commentary on the Rupasidhi by Mr. Turnour in the Mahawanso, p. xxvii.) 'Baghawá opening his sacred mouth like unto a flower expanding under the genial influence of Suriyo's rays, and pouring forth a stream of eloquence like unto that of Brahamo, said' &c. 66 " is not the Singhalese for the first and in the second verse: nor was there any necessity, arising out of any supposed difference of idiom, to omit in the Singhalese the pronoun them after 'taught.' g @sinin is, strictly speaking, ungrammatical. According to the Sidath Sangarawa it should be 9, (see Appendix C.) in the nominative case. @ though not wrong, is yet better expressed සින්හි දුක් සිත්හි දුක්පත් වෙලායා Being poor in heart (or spirit)-Meeripennè. "But lest it should be supposed that we have carefully selected the above passage, we shall turn to the very commencement of the new version, where at least, for divers reasons, one expects greater accuracy than in the 'parenthetical clauses of St. Paul.' COTTA VERSION. දෙවියන් විසින් පටන් ගැම්මේ දී ස්වර්ගයත් පොලවත් මැවුවාස In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.— Gen. i. 1. "In the first place, the above passage is inelegant in construction. In the Singhalese, as in several Indo-European languages, the governing words generally follow the governed, and the former precede the verb (see note at p. 53.) Take for instance an example from Sidath' Sangarawa, 'the only acknowledged Grammar of the language,' ‘a book of the highest possible authority,'* and which we shall have to cite hereafter to test the grammatical accuracy of the sentence before us—දහම්පාර දම්සැර හු වි සි න්දෙසිනි The doctrines were preached by Budha (see p. 71.) Here the governing words are put after the governed, and the verb occurs last in the sentence. Hence, then, the sentence before us should run as follows:—- අහසත් පොලවත් දෙවියන් විසින්ම ව්ව ය. "But the words 'created by God' are ungrammatical, and therefore incorrect. If the translators had been conversant with the Singhalese language, they would not only have shortened the sentence by the omission of the particle 8, but would also have rendered the English sentence literally, and word for word, into idiomatic and grammatical Singhalese. The word 88 requires a passive termination in the verb (e) as in the example already quoted from the Sidath' Sangarawa—ç¿ðñóç® සැරීහු විසින් දෙසිනි. "That is to say, the sentence 'God created the heaven and the earth,' is at present translated by God the heaven and the earth created,' instead of, 'By God the heaven and the earth were created.' To return however to the subject of Singhalese poetry. The Singhalese poets abound in pastoral and descriptive poetry, which may be divided into many (nearly 35) heads; in which are comprised the several species of poetry The Rev. S. Lambrick, in his Pamphlet on To and Obawahansa, p. 25. known to the English. Besides the legitimate Singhalese poetry, there is a species called the Elu-sloka, of comparatively modern introduction. This last named follows the rules of Sanscrit Prosody, and is written in a variety of measures with which that beautiful language abounds: it will suffice to give three examples. 5 No. I. ON NIGHT. සඳ කැමි සඳ කත් උරා බොනුබලා රැබූ දිගැස් සිරොසින් කොඳ දත්පාහ සිමින් මෙස් සමඟුරත් සොවාසපන්වත් සදින් සැරැස්ස්රත්මිනරත් ලා රතඹරත් හමින්දුවත්ඇදිලී තුරු රැස් මී බඳුවන් ඉසීගි යරි දී තුන්වන්දමූ සේකරා. "When the Nocturnal spirit, seeing the goddess of Evening sip the honey of the Moon-beams, swiftly and indignantly approached (the latter), exposing with her mirth her flowery teeth, and waving the iron staff of Night; the Evening fled with her scarlet jewel of a Sun, and the crimson mantle of a scarlet Cloud: the remnants which she left behind, a silver salver, and the honey-drops which it, scattered, (illumined as), produced the Moon and the spangled Stars." The above selection from the Gangarohane, is composed in the Math'thebawikkrida tune, and comprises, as in the following illustration, an anapœst, a dactyl, cretic, tibrach, molossus, bachic, 6 and 7. † The rule for the construction of the above, which is the following: අභරාන්තෙ ලශීතිත්‍ර දශසති: මත්තො භවික්‍රීඩතං is its own exemplification-'An anapœst, a dactyl, a cretic, a tibrach, a molossus and a bachic, ending with two letters, of which the last is a guru, and with a pause at the end of the 13th syllable, compose the species called Math'thebawikkrida.' tb stands for brevis or 'short,' and for longus or 'long;' the first is called a lagu, and the last a guru. No. 2. ON MORNING. සව් දුක් කල කල්හි විනිසසරන්ගන්මින්තමස්පිරිස් ...ලෙව්වොත් එව් කුළුනෙන් පෙනෙත් පෙර දිගින්විත් උන්නැ සිය බියෙන්... අව්හුන් ඇස්දහරතැනින් තැනපිනිත් වූඒම ගුල්විලි කළුන්..මං වව්නෙත් සුවහස්ද කිට උපුළුගි සෙව් දිනුම්රු බිඟුන්. "When the spirit (pl:) of Night had approached and distressed all the world, the Sun with his attendant Rays in mercy appeared in the East; through fear of whom the spirit (died) pined away; and the tears which trickled down from his eyes assumed the form of Dew at divers places-and to witness his joyful advent the women-like ponds gave birth to millions of eye-like Lotuses-and the hum of Bees seemed as it were the hymns of victory." VERSIFIED. "Beneath Night's iron sceptre, groaning, lay J. R. B. The above Singhalese stanza, for which we are indebted to a native pandit, Don Andris de Silva Batuwantudawe, is composed in the Sard la Wikkridita tune,* and comprises, a සූර්යයශෛවර්ම සංජාස්තතස් සගුරු ව ශ ල වික්‍රීඩිතම් A molossus, an anapoest, an amphibrach, an anapost, 2 antibachics, and a guru, with a pause at the end of the 7th and 12th syllables, compose this tune. |