Gatha | Sentence Translation | Sentence Structure
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List of Abbreviations

# yo balo mabbati balyaj pandito vapi tena so

# balo ca panditamani sa ve balo ti vuccati

# (DhP 63)

Sentence Translation:

A fool who knows about his foolishness, just by that he is like a wise man.
And a fool, who is proud of his cleverness, he is indeed called a fool.

Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

yo balo mabbati balyaj pandito va api tena so
| | | | | | | | |
Rel.Pron.m. N.m. V.pass.in. N.n. N.m. part. part. Pron.n. Pron.m.
Nom.Sg. Nom.Sg. 3.Sg.pres. Acc.Sg. Nom.Sg. | | Ins.Sg. Nom.Sg.
|_____________| |_______| | |___| | |
|___________________| |_______|_______|________|
| |___| |
| |_________|
|________________________________|

List of Abbreviations

balo ca pandita+mani sa ve balo ti vuccati
| | | | | | | | |
N.m. conj. N.m. Adj.m. Pron.m. part. N.m. part. V.pas.in.
Nom.Sg. | | Nom.Sg. Nom.Sg. | Nom.Sg. | 3.Sg.pres.
| | |______| | | |_____| |
|_________|________| | | |________|
|____| | |____________|
|_____________________| |
|________________________|

Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

yo: yad-, Rel.Pron.: that which. Nom.Sg.m. = yo.

balo: bala-, Adj.: childish, young. As an N.m.: "like a child", fool, ignorant person. Nom.Sg. = balo.

mabbati, V.: to know, to be sure, to consider as. The verb root is man- (to think).
3.Sg.act.in.pres. = mabbati.

balyaj: balya-, N.n.: folly, foolishness. It is derived from the word bala- (see above).
Acc.Sg. = balyaj.

pandito: pandita-, N.m.: wise man, learned man. Nom.Sg. = pandito.

va, part.: as if, like.

List of Abbreviations

api, part.: also, as well, even (often spelled pi).

tena: tad-, Pron.: it. Ins.Sg.n. = tena.

so: tad-, Pron.n.: it. Nom.Sg.m. = so.

balo: see above.

ca, conj.: and.

panditamani: panditamanin-, Adj.m.: proud of one's own cleverness. It is a compound of:
pandita-, N.m.: see above.
manin-, Adj.: proud of. It is derived (by adding the possessive suffix -in) from the word
mana-, N.m.: pride.
Nom.Sg. = panditamani.

List of Abbreviations

sa: tad-, Pron.n.: it. Nom.Sg.m. = sa (or, as above, so).

ve, part.: indeed, surely.

balo: see above.

ti, part.: a particle, symbolizing the end of direct speech. In English this is expressed by quotation marks. Sometimes it is written as iti.

vuccati, V,: is called. It is a passive form of the verb root vac- (to say). 3.Sg.pas.in.pres. = vuccati.

List of Abbreviations

This verse consists of two syntactically separated sentences. In each line ther is one sentence.
The first sentence can be further subdivided into two sentences. They are:
1) yo balo mabbati balyaj (a fool who knows about his foolishness). Here the subject is the relative pronoun yo (that which, nominative singular) with its attribute, the noun balo (fool, nominative singular). The verb is mabbati (knows, 3rd person, singular, passive, indicative, present tense). The object is the noun balyaj (foolishness, accusative singular).
2) pandito vapi tena so (just by that he is like a wise man). The subject is the personal pronoun so (he, nominative singular) with its attribute, the noun pandito (wise man, nominative singular). The two particles, va (like) and api (also) form an attribute to these two words. The verb is omitted, implying the verb "to be". It has an attribute, the pronoun tena (by that, instrumental singular).
In the second sentence, the subject is the personal pronoun sa (he, nominative singular). It has the word balo (fool, nominative singular) as an attribute. This word has its own attribute, the adjective panditamani (proud of his cleverness, nominative singular). The verb is vuccati (is called, 3rd person, singular, passive, indicative, present tense). It has the clause balo ti ("fool", balo: fool, nominative singular; ti: particle symbolizing the end of the direct speech) as an attribute. The conjunction ca (and) serves as a connection to the first sentence. The particle ve (indeed) serves mainly for metrical purposes.

Commentary:

A group of Buddha's followers once went to the monastery to hear the Dharma. Two thieves joined them. One of them was busy stealing from the devotees, so he did not pay any attention to what the Buddha was saying. The other one listened and soon he understood the Dharma and stopped stealing.
When they returned home, the first thief laughed at the second one: "You are so stupid, you did not bring back anything! I am very wise, because I stole a lot of things." The other thief then went to the Buddha and told him what happened.
The Buddha explained by this verse that the fool who knows that he is a fool is wise at least to that extent, whereas the fool who thinks that he is wise can be truly called a fool.

Sentence pronunciation:

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:
yo
balo
mabbati
balyaj
pandito
vapi
va
api
tena
so
ca
panditamani
pandita
mani
sa
ve
ti
vuccati