Translator's Preface
I made this translation of the Dhammapada, intending it to be a simple memorial text-book for my pupils, at intervals some seven or eight years ago, when reading the Pāli as a lesson in religion with my senior class in Ceylon. Its publication has been held up for several years owing to various causes, and, having left Ceylon in 1919, I was unable owing to distance to correct the proofs. My thanks are due to Mr. Fritz Kunz, B.A., of Adyar, Madras, for seeing the book through the press. The rather long list of alterations[1] is due to the fact that I saw no proofs till the whole was printed off, and had meanwhile desired to recast certain verses. The use of metre of course often prohibits the exact translation of certain philosophical and technical terms, but I have kept as close to the original as was possible. I have followed the Pāli text of Fausböll (1900), and have been much helped by Dr. Dines Andersen's Glossary of the Words of the Dhammapada. The Pāli Text Society's edition of the text (by Sūriyogoḍa Sumaṅgala Thero) appeared just after I had finished, and I have made several alterations in accordance with the readings of that edition.
F.L. WOODWARD
Chartley, West Tamar,
Tasmania
1921.
[1] transcribers' note—all alterations of the list mentioned have been duely incorporated in the text following, and the list itself has been omitted in this e-book.