Rong zom gsung 'bum dkar chag Q1

Short Title:

 Rong zom gsung 'bum dkar chag Q1

Location:

 Almogi 1997: Tib critical edition 74–75, English translation 115–116.

Quote:

 yig rnying ’a mtha’ da drag sogs ma bsdus pa zhig ’dug pa deng sang gi brda dag ltar bcos nas| yig skyon rnams bsal bar byas pa gsar du sku zhabs sprul pa’i skus spar du bsgrubs pa ldeb sum bcu tham pa bcas khyon phyi dum ’dir ldeb grangs sum brgya dang dgu bcu bcas bzhugs so||

da dung yang mkhas pa’i dbang phyug chen po ’di’i gsung che phra ci rigs gang zag blo ldan dag gis btsal na dbus gtsang sogs su| sngar gyi yig rnying rnams kyi khrod du rnyed par srid la rnyed na go rim nges pa med par ’di’i ’phro mthud de dbyangs bcu drug gi rim pas pod grangs su bsgrig par bya ba’i rten ’brel ’phro can du byas pa yin no||

theg tshul la yig rnying gi brda ltar bris pa ches mang yang ci rigs bklag bde ba’i phyir bcos par byas| da dung yang gsung rnams rnyed srid na brda dag skad gsar bcad deng sang gi lugs ltar bcos na bklag bde bar snang| gzhan yi ge’i brda dag re zung dag yig ltar bcos rgyu ’dug kyang don gyi go ba la mi gnod pa rnams rang sar bzhag| tshig phrad re zung tsam re bsnan na go bde bar phan yang ma dpe sor bzhag ltar ma bcos par bzhag go||

There was [an old exemplar of this work] with old orthographies such as the suffixes ’a and da-drag left unabridged. It was corrected according to the modern orthography and the spelling mistakes were removed. [This text] was newly brought into print by the venerable Tulku [gZhan-phan-chos-kyi-snang-ba], and [consists of] 30 folios. All together there are 390 folios in this [volume].

If searched for by intelligent individuals, various major or minor writings of this mighty scholar may possibly still be found amongst the ancient texts in dBus, gTsang and other [places]. If [texts] are found, [they] should be [added as] a continuation of this [collection of writings] without any definite order, and should be arranged in volume-numbers according to the order of the sixteen [Sanskrit] vowels. I have done this—[namely, using the first two vowels, a and ā, to mark these two volumes]—as an auspicious sign [to indicate that this collection] is yet to be continued.

Though there were a great many words written according to the old orthography in [Entering] the Way [of the Great] Vehicle (Theg tshul), I corrected [only] to some extent (ci rigs) for the sake of ease in reading. If texts may possibly still be found [in the future], it seems [to me] that if the orthography would be corrected according to the new grammatical standards of the present tradition, they would be easier to read.

Otherwise, though there may be some words to be corrected with regard to their orthography according to texts on correct orthography, one should leave as they are those that do not harm an understanding of the sense. Even though it might aid in an easy understanding if one were to add just one or two grammatical particles, one should leave [the text] unchanged, just as it stands in the original exemplar.

Remarks:

 The passage is found in Mi pham's catalogue to Rong zom pa's Collected Works and describes the editorial concerns he had and the policies he followed during the preparation of the two-volume xylograph edition.