This is another in a series of weekly blog posts comparing and contrasting the Sanskrit and Chinese Lotus Sutra translations.
As I near the end of this chapter by chapter comparison of H. Kern’s English translation of the 11th century Nepalese Sanskrit Lotus Sutra with English translations of Kumārajīva’s fifth century Chinese Lotus Sutra, I find a pattern has developed. Kern adds a filigree of details while Senchu Murano clarifies and directs readers in his translation of Kumārajīva.
For an example of Kern’s embellishment consider the story of the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Gadgadasvara. Kern has this as Chapter 23. Kumārajīva has the story of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva as Chapter 24.
In this story, Many Treasures Buddha is asked to invite Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva to visit. Here’s how Murano tells this:
Thereupon Many-Treasures Buddha called [loudly] to [Wonderful-Voice] Bodhisattva [from afar], “Good man! Come! Mañjuśrī, the Son of the King of the Dharma, wishes to see you.”
Thereupon Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, accompanied by eighty-four thousand Bodhisattvas, left his world [for the Sahā World]. As they passed through the [one hundred and eight billion nayuta] worlds, the ground of those worlds quaked in the six ways; lotus flowers of the seven treasures rained [on those worlds], and hundreds of thousands of heavenly drums sounded [over those worlds] although no one beat them.
Kern embellishes upon this:
And the Lord Prabhūtaratna, the Tathāgata, &c., who was completely extinct, instantly produced a token in order to admonish the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Gadgadasvara (and said): Come, young man of good family, to this Sahā-world; Mañjuśrī, the prince royal, will hail thy coming. And the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Gadgadasvara, after humbly saluting the feet of the Lord Kamaladalavimalanakṣhatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña, the Tathāgata, &c., and after three times circumambulating him from left to right, vanished from the world Vairokanarasmipratimandita, along with eighty-four hundred thousand myriads of koṭis of Bodhisattvas who surrounded and followed him, and arrived at this Sahā-world, among a stir of Buddha fields, a rain of lotuses, a noise of hundred thousands of myriads of koṭis of musical instruments.
Another example of this occurs when the bodhisattva greets Śākyamuni.
Murano has Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva say:
“World-Honored One! I bring you a message from Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha. [He wishes to say this.] Are you in good health? Are you happy and peaceful or not? Are the four elements of your body working in harmony or not? Are the worldly affairs bearable or not? Are the living beings easy to save or not? Do they not have much greed, anger, ignorance, jealousy, stinginess and arrogance, or do they? Are they not undutiful to their parents, or are they? Are they not disrespectful to śramaṇas, or are they? Do they not have wrong views, or do they? Are they not evil, or are they? Do they not fail to control their five desires, or do they? World-Honored One! Did they defeat the Maras, who are their enemies, or not.
Kern has Gadgadasvara say:
The Lord Kamaladalavimalanakṣhatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña, the Tathāgata, &c., inquires after the Lord’s health, welfare, and sprightliness; whether he feels free from affliction and at ease. That Lord has also charged me to ask: Is there something thou hast to suffer or allow? the humors of the body are not in an unfavorable state? thy creatures are decent in manners, tractable, and easy to be healed? their bodies are clean? They are not too passionate, I hope, not too irascible, not too unwise in their doings? They are not jealous, Lord, not envious, not ungrateful to their father and mother, not impious, not heterodox, not unsubdued in mind, not unrestrained in sexual desires.? Are the creatures able to resist the Evil One?
Let us all inquire after each others’ sprightliness – “the quality of being energetic and in good health, especially when you are old: Due to his sprightliness, everyone thought he was much younger than he actually was,” Cambridge English Dictionary.
As for Murano’s efforts to add clarity and direct readers consider the many transformations of the bodhisattva.
Kern introduces this feature of Gadgadasvara in this way:
Dost thou see, Padmasri, how the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Gadgadasvara now looks? Padmasri replied: I do, Lord; I do, Sugata. The Lord said: Now, Padmasri, this Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Gadgadasvara preaches this Dharmaparyāya of the Lotus of the True Law under many shapes he assumes; sometimes under the shape of Brahma, sometimes under that of Indra, sometimes under that of Siva, sometimes under that of Kubera, sometimes under that of a sovereign, sometimes under that of a duke, sometimes under that of a chief merchant, sometimes under that of a citizen, sometimes under that of a villager, sometimes under that of a Brahman.
For his part, Murano puts these transformations in the past.
Flower-Virtue! Now you see Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva here and nowhere else. But formerly he transformed himself into various living beings and expounded this sūtra to others in various places. He became King Brahman, King Sakra, Freedom God, Great-Freedom God, a great general in heaven, Vaisravana Heavenly-King, a wheel-turning-holy-king, the king of a small country, a rich man, a householder, a prime minister, a brahmana, a bhikṣu, a bhikṣunī, an upāsakā, an upāsikā, the wife of a rich man, that of a householder, that of a prime minister, that of a brahmana, a boy, a girl, a god, a dragon, a yakṣa, a gandharva, an asura, a garuda, a kiṃnara, a mahoraga, a human being or a nonhuman being.
The other English translations of Kumārajīva’s Lotus Sutra are closer to Kern than Murano.
The BDK English Tripiṭaka has:
O Padmaśrī! You think that the body of Bodhisattva Gadgadasvara exists only here; however, this bodhisattva manifests himself in various bodies. He has thus taught this sutra in many places for the sake of the sentient beings.
Gene Reeves has:
Flower Virtue, you see merely the one body of Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva which is here. But this Bodhisattva appears in many different bodies, everywhere teaching this sutra for the sake of the living.
None of the other translators of Kumārajīva includes Murano’s suggestion that World-Voice’s transformations happen in the past.