I decided today (Dec. 31 here in the US) to tabulate exactly where I’m at in terms of translating the four Āgamas after the past year working full-time on MĀ and various parallels to important Pali suttas. So here’s the numbers:
| Āgama | Sutras Translated / Total | Pages Translated / Total | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dīrgha (T1) | 2 / 30 | 4.2 / 148.5 | 2.8% |
| Madhyama (T26) | 47 / 222 | 57.3 / 388.3 | 14.8% |
| Saṃyukta (T99) | 84 / 1360 | 18 / 372.5 | 4.8% |
| Ekôttarika (T125) | 22 / 472 | 19.5 / 281.2 | 6.9% |
| Total | 155 / 2084 | 99 / 1190.5 | 8.3% |
To give a sense of scale, 1 page of Taisho Chinese usually translates to 1,000-1,200 words of English. So, I’d expect a translation of all four Āgamas to total at least 1.2 million words.
Looking at the numbers, it’s pretty clear I spent a good part of the year focused on the Madhyama, and I believe I’ve already translated more of the Ekôttarika Āgama that anyone has in the past.
It’s a pretty daunting amount of material to translate from classical Chinese. Another thing that’s been daunting about this project besides its size is the difficulty of translating four different ancient translations of lost texts and coping with their varying styles and vocabularies.
Looking forward to 2021, the project will continue, and I’m hoping to pick up the pace now that I’ve worked with all four Āgama texts. I’d like to reach a pace closer to 20% of the total in one year, which certainly seems doable if I can continue to work full-time on it.
I want to thank everyone who has supported this project, and Happy New Years to everyone around the world!
Dharma Pearls 