Please Help Me Translate These Thai Texts.

[phrakid]

thank u. sawadee krap!

Edited March 3, 2011 by phrakid

[Rikker]

This is a traditional Thai medical text, containing recipes for concocting various medicines and directions for use. Perhaps dating from the 19th century, at least. Similar texts are found in temples all over Thailand.

Entire theses are written about such texts, and a detailed deciphering requires quite a bit of knowledge about archaic vocabulary, archaic orthography (there have been numerous changes in the writing), archaic spelling, and names of local flora.

[Rikker]

After taking a closer look, these are mostly recipes for medicine that cure imbalances in the 'fire element' เตโชธาตุ and the 'wind element' วาโยธาตุ. Imbalances in the four basic elements (earth, water, fire, wind) were believed to cause diseases. (You can read more about the 4 elements as taught in Buddhism here.) It also mentions curing, among other things, swelling, rashes, ริดสีดวง /rit-see-duang/ (formerly used to refer to a number of diseases, but now is used mostly to refer to hemorrhoids). The whole thing looks to be focused on treating children.

The last section on the back side is another person's barely legible scrawl, and is a medicine for curing types of ตาน, another name for a class of diseases that typically occured among children.

The recipes are mostly along the lines of take 1 of this, 1 of that, 1 of another thing, then mix them all and boil them in water/honey/milk/alcohol etc. The recipes are presented in a progression. Make medicine X, and if it doesn't work, make medicine Y, and if that doesn't work make medicine Z, etc.

Here are a few of the more easily deciphered ingredients, along with their modern Thai spellings and their Latin/common names.

ขมินออย = ขมิ้นอ้อย = Curcuma zedoaria (Zedoary)

วานนำ = ว่านน้ำ = Acorus calamus (Sweet Flag, Calamus)

สมอไทย = สมอไทย = Terminalia chebula

หวานเปราะ = ว่านเปราะ = Kaempferia galanga (ว่านเปราะหอม), Kaempferia roscoeana (ว่านเปราะป่า)

เปราะปา = เปราะป่า = Kaempferia pulchra (Peacock Ginger, Resurrection Lily)

จิงจอไญ = จิงจ้อใหญ่ = Merremia vitifolia (Grape-leaf Wood Rose)

ญารังกา = หญ้ารังกา = Cyperus diggitatus

หิงขุ, หิงงคุ, หิงคุ = มหาหิงคุ์ = Ferula assafoetida (Asafoetida)

I'd need a lot longer to give you any more detail than that, but if anyone wants to turn this into a course on old Thai writing, let me know.

[withnail]

Any more than that and you definitely need to charge Rikker.

[Rikker]

Any more than that and you definitely need to charge Rikker.

Heheh. A text like this is a fun challenge, and definitely not a typical question to get asked here.

I'm imagining the OP has purchased this and is curious to know what it says. No offense meant if my assumption is not true, but it is unfortunate that trade in traditional manuscripts has resulted in temples getting looted of old texts to make a buck from collectors (both Thai and foreign, but the real tragedy is selling them to foreign tourists who will at best put them on their mantle, and at worst never look at them again once the exotic novelty wears off).

There is a preservation and transcription project for traditional Thai medical texts at Kasetsart University, called the Thai Herbal Repository (ตำรับยา ตำราไทย). They have images of many medical texts, often with typed transcriptions and modern translations.

[Edit: Oh, I just noticed a similar text in their collection--"โรคที่เกิดขึ้นในเดือนต่างๆ ที่เกี่ยวข้องกับธาตุทั้ง ๔", but it looks to be of an older vintage.]

[phrakid]

yes Rikker, i bought these ancient manuscripts in a flea market in Thailand.

i was initially hoping u could tell me what exactly is written, perhaps it might be a story or legend.

anyway i also have such texts in pali script, most probably buddhist scriptures, i wonder if u could decipher them?

[Rikker]

I've already summarized everything that is written. Definitely no legends here. Just a medical text. I don't really have the time to decipher things in much more detail for you than that.

If you've got other texts you're curious about, you're welcome to post images here and I'll tell you what I can. I don't read most other regional scripts, however. "Pali script" doesn't really exist per se. Being a liturgical language, it's written in the scripts of many languages. Central Thais usually write it in Khmer script. There are regional scripts used for Pali in other parts of the country. We'd need to see it to know which script the Pali is actually written in. But even if I could read the script, I wouldn't understand the language much if it's in Pali.

In any case, happy to give it a go, insofar as I have time and find it interesting.

[Ajaan]

People study for YEARS to be able to translate between languages as different as English and Thai. And you're looking for freebies on this website?? Do you try to get plumbers to fix a toilet overflow in your bathroom for free?? 'Nuff said.