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The Udana Translated from the Pali. By PETER MASEFIELD. Oxford: THE PXLI TEXT SOCIETY, 1994. Pp. xiii + 203. $17.95. This is the third translation of Udana into English. Masefield's is preceded by F L. Woodward's (1935) and recently by J. D. Ireland's (1990). It is, in fact, the fourth translation, once the earliest, by K. Seidenstucker (1920), is added, which has escaped the attention of the translator, as did the important textcritical and exegetical notes by the same author: Das Udana, eine kanonische Schrift des Pali-Buddhismus (Leipzig, 1913).
The reason for Masefield's efforts is to provide a translation closely following the interpretation as given by the commentator Dhammapala in his Paramatthadipani, which has also been translated by Masefield (vol. I; Oxford, 1994). Consequently it would have been...