妙法蓮華經玄贊 2.143

2.143

贊曰：梵云伽陀，此翻為頌，頌者美也歌也。頌中文句極美麗故、歌頌之故。訛略云偈。此祇焰頌，進詮體義劣於名句，退為所依不及聲文，故於百法不別建立。然以聲上屈曲為體，即名句文更無別性，不同小乘頌依於文及文士者，此乃室盧迦三十二字處中頌也。凡有六十二頌，分之為二：初五十四頌頌前瑞相，後八頌頌正興問。初中復三：初一頌頌前說因中放光能照，次三頌頌前威儀中雨華動地等，後五十頌頌說因中照境所見。此初也，先頌放光、後頌雨華，六不同中前後不同，隨文便故。

The Eulogy says: The Sanskrit says gāthā, translated here as song (song); song means beautiful, or singing. Because the sentences in the verses are extremely beautiful, and because they are sung, it is colloquially abbreviated as jie. This is a geya-verse: as for advancing to express intrinsic meaning, it is inferior to names and sentences; as for receding to become that which is relied upon, it does not match sound and letters; therefore, among the hundred dharmas it is not separately established. However, taking the modulation upon sound as its essence, it is simply names, sentences, and letters, having no separate nature—unlike the Hīnayāna, where verses rely upon letters and literati. This is a standard verse of thirty-two syllables, a śloka. In all there are sixty-two verses, divided into two: the first fifty-four verses versify the previous auspicious signs; the latter eight verses versify the actual raising of the question. The first part further has three: the first single verse versifies the light being able to illuminate in the previous cause of the teaching; the next three verses versify the raining of flowers, quaking of the earth, and so forth in the previous comportment; the latter fifty verses versify what is seen in the illuminated realm in the cause of the teaching. This is the first: first versifying the emitting of light, and later versifying the raining of flowers; among the six differences, it is the difference in earlier and later, following the convenience of the text.