Madhyamaka Ka^(-)rika^(-) is composed of S'lokas. S'loka is a kind of Sanskrit verse form. If a Sanskrit poem is to be a S'loka, it should satisfy several formal requirements. S'loka consists of 16 syllables and some syllables must have regular verse rhythm. So it is not so easy to insert profound philosophical thought into such a formal S'lokas. But Na^(-)ga^(-)rjuna expressed his Madhyamaka philosophy by S'lokas. In composing S'lokas of Madhyamaka Ka^(-)rika^(-), Na^(-)ga^(-)rjuna inverted the location of some words to rearrange the phonetic length of each syllables and he changed some technical terms with new words of different syllables and added prefixes to some terms and inserted some expletives like `hi', `ca', 'va^(-)' and `tu' to increase syllables. The examples are as follows. While composing Eight Negations Na^(-)ga^(-)rjuna changed the traditional sequence of `anutpa^(-)dam-anirodham' to `anirodham-anutpa^(-)dam' to accommodate the verse rhythms to the phonetic rules of S'loka. Vijn^(-)a^(-)na is replaced by two-syllables word citta in verse 4-7. The word 'samvidyate' found in 'MK., 1-14' is an example of adding prefix to increase syllables. In verses 18-10, 19-1, 20-14, 1-11, 6-7, 17-19, some expletives are inserted. So when we translate Madhyamaka Ka^(-)rika^(-), we should keep in minds these transformations and try to restore the original intention of Na^(-)ga^(-)rjuna. Among old translators Kumarajiva showed a fine example of this trial.
