PY 40.1

mehīh

In PY 40.1a mehīh ‘ greatness’ translates mazdąmcā. According to Hintze (2007a: 348), here mazdąmcā is an acc.sg. of the feminine substantive mazdā- ‘wisdom’, a hapax legomenon. Although both mazdā- f. ‘wisdom’ and mazdā- m. ‘the wise one’ form their acc.sg. as mazdąm, the translators do not confuse the forms here. But they seem to analyse mazdąmcā as a derivative from another OAv. hapax legomenon, namely mazan- ntr. ‘greatness’ which occurs in PY 37.2, translated mehīh. Elsewhere, cognates of OAv. mazan such as YAv. masan- are translated mehīh as well: mazibīš in Y 32.11, masatā in PY 54.1 and masānascā in PY 58.4.

man

The 1sg.pers.pron. 〈L〉 man ‘ I, me’ in PY 40.1a does not translate an Av. pronoun and is only attested as a superscript addition in Pt4. F2 follows Pt4, but T6 and E7 have incorporated man into the main text. It is missing in Mf4 R413, K5 J2 M1. It stands at an awkward position within the clause, but could be translated ‘When in those existences they thus bestow upon you, O Ohrmazd, greatness and completeness by means of my actions.’ Although I have accepted the addition of man in Pt4, I have left the pronoun untranslated, as it is a later addition and at odds with the content of the line.

PY 40.1b

In the manuscripts, PY 40.1b, rād hom ō ēd ī tō xrad pānagīh ō dēn ī tō az ān ka-m abar kū-m nēkīh az ān, corresponds asymmetrically to kərəšuuā rāitī tōi xrapaitī ahmat̰hiiat̰aibī, as kərəšuuā, here translated pad kardārīh, belongs to the previous clause. The main constituent parts of this line are rād hom ō ēd ī tō xrad and az ān ka-m abar, for they correspond to rāitī tōi xrapaitī and ahmat̰hiiat̰aibī, respectively. Therefore, I have interpreted pānagīh ō dēn ī tō as an extension of the preceding clause, rād hom ō ēd ī tō xrad, translating PY 40.1b ‘I am generous towards this your wisdom (and offer) protection for your religion, for it is higher than me, that is, my goodness is from that.’