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I am comparing translations to see how the Sinhala would work, and, granted I am using Google Translate on the Sinhala version, I would at least expect it to be generally somewhat reflective of what is being said. But it doesn't say what I am looking for.

I am looking for this quote here or here:

As a mountain of rock
is unwavering, well-settled,
so a monk whose delusion is ended
doesn't quiver —
just like a mountain.

However what I find in the Sinhala version here or here is this:

"Just as a gal can stand steady, so the brain will not be a sin in the mind."

Or

The stanza is so immovable that it does not become immovable.

I am just picking pieces that appear close in the same area of text. Does one know if these translations in Sinhala are accurate? (And that it's just a major Google translate issue). Does that quote exist somewhere in the Sinhala?

I am trying to make do snippets of translation myself and am looking for a good example of interesting quotes. If one could paste the quote in Sinhala that would be amazing.

Or is this just an example of a translator taking "poetic expression" to the extreme, and they just took a general quote like "යම්සේ ගල්පව්වෙක් අචල වැ මොනොවට පිහිටියේ ද, එසේ ම මහණ තෙම මොහය ක්ෂීණ වීමෙන් පව්වක් මෙන් ‍නො සැලේ.", which Google translates as "Even if a galvanist is immobile, the loss of his brain will not be a sin.", and they just made up a poetic metaphor to translate it into English?

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    ChrisW is correct. But it's not lust. It's illusion or delusion.
    – XPD
    May 28, 2020 at 15:42

2 Answers 2

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I think that https://suttacentral.net/ud3.4/si/zoysa is the Sinhala version of Ud3.4 on suttacentral.

Google Translate translates the last sentence of that into English as follows ...

නොසෙල් වෙන්නාවූ මනාව පිහිටියාවූ ගල් පර්වතය යම්සේද එසේ මෝහය නැතිකර දැමූ භික්‍ෂුව පර්වතයක් මෙන් කම්පා නොවෙයි.

Like a well-formed rock, the monk who loses his lust does not shake like a rock.

The Pali says,

Yathāpi pabbato selo,
acalo suppatiṭṭhito;
Evaṃ mohakkhayā
bhikkhu,
pabbatova na vedhatī”ti.

... which I think says, "destruction of ignorance" (i.e. Moha) or "delusion" -- not "lust".

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    I'm Sinhala native from Sri Lanka and this is nearly accurate. Like a well-formed rock, the monk who loses his lust does not shake like a rock. Here mohaya means not lust. It's illusion or delusion.
    – XPD
    May 28, 2020 at 15:38
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As a mountain of rock is unwavering, well-settled, so a monk whose delusion is ended doesn't quiver — just like a mountain.

ශෛලපර්වතය තෙම යම් සේ අචල ද මොනවට පිහිටියේ වේ ද එපරිද්දෙන් මොහක්ෂය හෙතුකොටගෙන පර්වතයක් මෙන් (අචල) වූ මහණ තෙම නො සැලේ.

This is the correct sinhala translation for the quote that you originally mentioned in your question. I picked that from the second link where you found the sinhala version. Unfortunately, google translation not works for both sides. The above sentences also a little bit different when translating, but the meaning is perfectly correct.

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  • Can we remove the stuff in the parentheses? Because they didn't have parentheses back then.
    – Lance
    May 28, 2020 at 17:25
  • Yes. we can remove the stuff in parentheses. meaning for අචල is 'not moving' or 'steady'. it is a further explanation for behaviour of rock.
    – semira
    Jun 1, 2020 at 15:22

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