Albert J. Edmunds Hymns of the Faith (Dhammapada)

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. If ever an immortal classic was produced upon the continent of Asia, it is this. Its sonorous rolls of rhythm are nothing short of inspired; and, while sticking to an almost literal translation, Ihave tried to convey some flavour of the original by using an archaic and poetic style. Perhaps it is too ambitious a wish to hope to naturalize in English this Buddhist Holy Writ, as the King James version has naturalized the Christian; but if I fail some one else will succeed. No trite ephemeral songs are here, but red-hot lava from the abysses of the human soul, in one out of the two of its most historic eruptions. These old refrains from a life beyond time and sense, as it was wrought out by generations of earnest thinkers, have been fire to many a muse. They burned in the brains of the Chinese pilgrims, who braved the blasts of the Mon golian desert, climbed the cliffs of the Himalayas, swung by the rope-bridge across the Indus where it rages through its gloomiest gorge, and faced the bandit and the beast, to peregrinate the Holy Land of their religion, and tread in the footsteps of the Master. Verses were graven on the walls of august temples at the Command of Hindfi emperors who abolished capital punishment, mitigated slavery, and established hos pitals for men and animals, under the sway of this marvellous cult; and by Ceylon monarchs whose ruined reservoirs, as large as lakes, astonish us among the wonders of antiquity. And to-day, after twenty centuries of Roman and Christian culture, they have won the admiration of Europeans and Americans in every seat of learning, from Copenhagen to the Cam bridges, and from Chicago to St. Petersburgh.