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Tibetan re in its wider context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Walter Simon
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Extract

In a previous article I had dealt with Tibetan re in ha-re and re-skan. In attempting to study re in its wider context I wish to exclude from consideration re in re-ba to hope and re in re-źig re-śig ‘little while, moment’. re in re-ba does not seem to call for any special comment. As far as re in re-źig is concerned, it may suffice here to stress the identity of re in re-źig with re in ga-re ‘where?’ on the one hand, and re in re-re ‘each’ on the other. All three cases pre-suppose the basic meaning of ‘part, member, item, etc.’. The specialization in time of re-źig (part = moment)has its spatial counterpart in ga-re (what part, which part(s)? = where ?), ga being identical with ga in ga-na ‘;where’ or in ga-la introducing a rhetorical question (whewre [in all the world]?). In re-re the distributive function is due to respetition (item by item, member [of a group]by member), obviously extended from there also to single re in the meaning of ‘each’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , October 1968 , pp. 555 - 562
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1968

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References

1 ‘The Tibetan particle re’, BSOAS, XXX, I, 1967, 117–.

2 The occurrence of skye–ḫa-re in a passage of the Tibetan translation of the Avadānasatakawhich is practically identical with example 3 of the previous article (see p.120) [N, mDo, Ha, 205a’] enables us to omit the asterisking of ḫa-re.

3 See below, p.560.

4 Note also re-c'uṅ-na occurring in the same meaning in the bTsun-mo-bkaḫi t'aṅ-yig (see B.Laufer, Der Roman einer tibetischen Kōnigin), 1912, p. 182, n.4.

5 cf. the distributive function due to repetition in the case of numerals (see, e.g., H.A.Jäschke, Tibetan grammar [with ‘ Addenda ’ by A.H.Francke, assisted by W.simon], Berlin, 1929, §21, p. 33), or in 80–80 ‘ singly, individually’ (literally ‘place by place’).

6 The identification of na-re with Skt. nanu (see J. Nobel Udrāyana, Kōnig von Roruka. II. Wōrterbuch, Wiesbaden, 1955, 43 [included alson in Professor Lokesh Chandra's Tibetan-Sanskrit dictionary, VII, New Delhi, 1960, 1333])is untenable.

7 London, 1881 (or later reprints). 300.

8 Grammaire du tibétain littéra‚re. II. Inder morphologique

9 cf. the two examples on p.558 where the person to whom a message is conveyed has been ment‚oned.

10 na–re is found there far more frequently than jäschke‘ remark (Dict., 300) ‘It hardly Occurs in old classical literature’ would lead us to expect. For the Tun-huang language see, e.g., pp.103.27, 104.36, and 1169.9 of J. Bacot, F.W. Thomas, and ch. Toussaint (ed.), Documents de Touen-Houang, Paris, 1940–6.

11 See, e.g., KarnaŚataka, N(arthang), mDo, Sa, 476B, and Sa, 61B.

12 See, e.g., Lalitavistara, N. mdo, Kha, 21B, and cf. below, P. 557.

13 Karmaśataka, N. mDo, Śa, 91B, and 175A.

14 See, e. g., jäschke‘s quotation from the waidurya snon–po (dict., 300a)gal–te gźan–dag na–re.

15 vinayaksudrakauastu, N, hDul, Da, 183A.

16 ed. Lefmann, Halle, 1902, I, 20.12–22.20.

17 N, mDo, Kha, 21B3–22B.

18 KarmaŚBataka, N, mDo, Ś, 56A3–4.

19 Avadānasataka, N. mDo, Ha, 120B7; Karmasataka, N, mDo, Sa, 140B5, 297A6–297B1,

20 Avadānaśataka, N, mDo, Ha, 249A5.

21 In one single case only have I found the instrumentative suffix combined with-na, the combination recalling de-bas-na (cf. also HJAS, v, 3–4, 1941, 389, etc.): KarmasBataka, N. mDo, Śa, 291A, mt‘on-nas kyan p‘a-ma-la smras-pa/ yab-yum k‘yed-kyis-na re⃜

22 See, e.g. M. Monier-Williams‘s Sanskrit-English dictionary, Oxford, 1899, 232.

23 Ed. Lefmann, 22.2

24 Ed. Speyer, II, St. Petersburg, 1906 (or reprint in ‘Indo-Iranian Reprint’s, III, 1958), 104.5–6.

25 N, mDo, Ha, 355B6–7.

26 Ed. Speyer, II, 8.9–11.

27 N, mDo, Ha, 285B1–2.

28 N, mDo, Cha, 125A7–125B1.

29 T, (a‚sħō) T (r‚p‚taka), XII, 957b18.

30

31 Dcitionarire tibetain-sanscrit, ed. J. Bacot, Paris, 1930, 1703, kathan being spelt katham.

32 I feel unable to comment on gatam.

33 Le pseudo-hapax aratikara et la lampe qu‚ rit‘, As‚atische Stud‚en, XVIII–XIX, 1965, 174, etc.; of. pp. 185, 187 and p. 192, n. 37.

34 N, mDo, Ja, 352A.

35 The comparative rarity of this usage of re may be gathered from the fact that I did not succeed in locating more than one cliché each in these two extensive texts.

36 N, mDo, Ha, 363A2.

37 Ed. Speyer, II, 115.7.

38 N, mDo, Kha, 196A1 and 196B2.

39 The gloss stes-pa ni legs-pa has been preserved in sumatiratna‘ Tibetan-Tibetan-Mongolian dictionary (corpus Scriptorum Mongolorum, VI-vIII), Ulan Bator, 1959.

40 Ed. Lefmann, 265.18 and 266.13.

41 See above, P. 555, n. 4. In his translation Laufer often equates re with ‘how!‘ (wie!), but fails to do so consistently, as a comparison of the translation of the various examples would show (cf., e.g., his translation of the refrain of his ‘Fifth song’ which occurs with and without re). Nor is the exclamatory Usage of re mentioned in his ‘Inded’.

42 Reference to the text itsely are given by quoting both page and line in Laufer′ edition; for his translation reference to the page has been considered sufficient.

43 See also below, p. 560 and n. 49. Note that the same principle of word order is observed in the case of the negagion.

44 See jäschke, Dict., 228, where t′ag is identified with dag.

45 p. 533, sub 6.

46 Suvaranaprabhāsottama-sūtra. II. Wōrterbuch, Leiden, 1950, 209.

47 I. Die tibetischen Ubersetzungen, 169.22.

48 See Nobel′s edition of the Sanskrit text, Leipzing, 1937, 231 (śloka 48).

49 It seems that the attention paid by Jäschke to this special type of example has prevented this eminent lexicographer from recognizing the acutal meaning of exclamatory re, though he mentions that it is ‘ only used in emphatic speech’.

50 See here above. Two examples of snyin-re-rje are given in Jäschke2019;s dictionary, on pp. 294a s.v. sdug-pa (bod-[h]bans sdug-ge snyin-re-rje ‘the good, poor Tibetans’) and 607a s.v. ‘e-ma ‘(e-ma sems-can snyin-re-rje ‘alas, the poor people!)’, the former quoted from a prayer, the latter from the rGyal-rabs.

51 See above, p. 559, n. 39.

52 art. cit., 126.

53 op. cit., II, 112–13.

54 In the case of re-sakan Bacot adds the alternative rendering ‘en ancune maniére’.

55 cf. the chinese rendering of re-skan, p. 126, n. 52 of the previous article, and tibetan Ua cismos quoted there.

56 die legenden das Nā-ro-pa, Leipzing, 1933, 160: mit vollem munde sprechen, mūmmeln. The passage skan-sgra-dan bcas gsol-nas (p.103) was translated by H. V. Guenther (the life and teaching of Nāropa, Oxford, 1963, 50)as ‘eating noisily’.

57 The example offered by Bacot (form the Nansal) reads Da na sgohi t‘em-pa- ḛdi la gom-pargyal re-śes, which he translates, euqating re-倛es with jama‚, as ‘Jasa‚s je ne pourrai franchir le seuil de cette porte‚. It can easily be seen that pourrai translates in fact śes. (See his trois myst7éres ti;bètains, Paris, 1921, 246[=p. 219 of the English translation by H. I. Woolf, london, [1924].)

58 art. cit., 119–20.

59 The warning not to touch the stop string of a (magic) lute appears first (N. hDul, Da, 320B, cf. also Schiefner-Balston, Tib etan tales, repr., London, [1926], 229–30) as rgyud yan l‘og-ma la ma reg-śig nyes-pahi dmigsu gyur-la-re. A few later the text is varied to: nyes-kpahi dmigsu mi hgyur-bahi p‘yir rggud ltag-ma reg-śig.

60 See p. 125 of the previous article.

61 See Documents de Touen-Huang (as quoted above, n. 10). 105.10 ff., I10.23ff. Cf. also F. K. l‚ ‚n S. Egerod and E. Glahn (ed.), Studia Seria Bernhard Karlgren dedicata, Copenhagen, [1959], 57.

62 Documents de Touen-Huang, p. 137, n. 1 (and n. 3).

63 See above, p. 561, n. 54.

64 Inscr‚pt‚on (cf. G. The tombs of the Timbetan kings, Rome, 1950, 106):…myi gźig-go mui span-no ‘[Buddha’s doctrine] will not perish, will not be abandoned’. C‘os-byun: dkond-cog gsum (the Triratna)gźig re span re.

65 D. L. Snellgrove, Four Lamas of Dolpo, II, Oxford, 1968, appendix II (notes to vol. I), p.314, referring to p. 86 of the translation (‘I care for worldly matters!’) and II. 7–8 of A, p. 7 of the first section of the original (hjig-rten-gyi snan-ba skad-cit yod re).