Negative Positive
Title: Excellent translation
Review: Books like this always have you wondering whether the translator has really done his/her job properly, but with this one you can rest assured that he has. I have read the original Chinese version from which the translation was done and backed it up with a comparison of the Japanese (which translates from Chinese much easier than the English) for meaning and there's little I can find to criticize. The English reads well and naturally. Nearly all the unusual vocabulary is in the glossary, but the occasional word (e.g. 'vajra') is missing. The introduction provides useful background, making the whole readable as a story. By way of criticism, the translation of the names of bodhisattvas into English seems a little overdone. A table showing the names in the original Sanskrit and Chinese versions might have been a useful addition. Overall, an extremely useful book for finding out what the Lotus Sutra is all about.
Is the review positive or negative? 