Theragāthā: The Elders' Verses: a review article

Abstract

The Theragāthā anthology of “Elders' Verses” is one of the canonical Pali verse texts for which K. R. Norman provided much-needed fundamentally revised English translations, with full-scale philological annotation that in most respects supersedes all that had gone before. He has now again revised these in the light of the progress that has been made over nearly forty years since their original publication. What emerges in Theragāthā is in large measure a delightful collection of character sketches of ascetic types, labelled with captions that contrast exemplary monks such as “Mr. Well-being” with others, such as “Beggarly Bhāradvāja”, the bumptious ex-brahmin convert, and “Rags”, who is inclined to sleep during the sermon. This specimen survey seeks, however, to emphasize how much effort is still required in order to achieve and communicate an adequate appreciation of the verses, by striving to free the poetry from commentatorial obfuscation and editorial corruption.