Question about a line from Saraha's Dohakosha

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Temicco
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Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2015 8:47 am

Question about a line from Saraha's Dohakosha

Post by Temicco »

The first half of the 2nd verse of Saraha's Dohakosha reads:

ji ltar rmongs pas bzlog nas bltas pa yis
mar me gcig nyid gnyis su snang ba ltar...


My literal translation:

Just as how by looking while misled by confusion
a single butter lamp appears as two...


By contrast, Michele Martin gives something like:

The ignorant look with their eyes rolled back
and see one lamp as two...


I want to focus on the first line.

These two readings differ mainly in how they treat the scope off the "nas". I read it as making the total phrase "rmongs pas bzlog" into a participal phrase subordinate to "bltas pa", whereas Martin seems to have taken it as modifying only "bzlog", with "rmongs pas" being a separate agent.

However, Martin's translation is based on Khenchen Thrangu's commentary, which discusses this as being about looking while your eyes are rolled back, or while you are pressing on them. Is using "bzlog" in this context a common Tibetan idiom that I'm not picking up on? Or is my reading also plausible?
"Deliberate upon that which does not deliberate."
-Yaoshan Weiyan (tr. chintokkong)

若覓真不動。動上有不動。
"Search for what it really is to be unmoving in what does not move amid movement."
-Huineng (tr. Mark Crosbie)

ཚེ་འདི་ལ་ཞེན་ན་ཆོས་པ་མིན། །
འཁོར་བ་ལ་ཞེན་ན་ངེས་འབྱུང་མིན། །
བདག་དོན་ལ་ཞེན་ན་བྱང་སེམས་མིན། །
འཛིན་པ་བྱུང་ན་ལྟ་བ་མིན། །
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