Translation of Akkosa Sutta: Insult - ."He who repays an angry man in kind Is worse than the angry man" Listed below are three translations of Akkosa Sutta provided in access to in access to insight
Which translation has the correct meaning?
The third translation is not far from the common ethics i.e., the virtue of temperance found in most major religions of the world, but what is presented in the first two translations goes beyond that.
Accommodating an angry man sheepishly, I mean responding to him/her kindly to calm them, does no good to the angry man because they will think that they were in the right when they are angry. The short story leading to the sutta's stanza does indicate that too.
As I understand it Bhikkhu Thanissaro's translation is missing the key part which is present in the two other translations &quot;He who repays an angry man in kind Is worse than the angry man&quot;...But I may be wrong.

Acharya Buddharakkhita translation
He who repays an angry man in kind Is worse
than the angry man; Who does not repay anger in kind, He alone wins
the battle hard to win.

......

Maurice O'Connell Walshe translations
If a man's abused and answers back, Of the
two he shows himself the worse. He who does not answer back in kind,
Celebrates a double victory.

......

Thanissaro Bhikkhu translations
You make things worse when you flare up at someone who's angry.
Whoever doesn't flare up at someone who's angry   wins a battle   hard
to win.
The Sujato translation is:

When you get angry at an angry person
Tasseva tena pāpiyo,
you just make things worse for yourself.
yo kuddhaṃ paṭikujjhati;
When you don’t get angry at an angry person
Kuddhaṃ appaṭikujjhanto,
you win a battle hard to win.
saṅgāmaṃ jeti dujjayaṃ.

I have zero competence in translating Pali but my mere guess is:

Tasseva (3rd person pronoun in genitive case; genitive means having possession) tena (because of) pāpiyo (sinful)
One has a sin/sinful because of
yo (one who) kuddhaṃ (accusative case is object of the verb; is provoked; is angered) paṭikujjhati (verb; is angry in return; pati + kudh + ya);
one (yo) getting angry/provoked in return (paṭikujjhati; verb) towards anger/provocation (kuddhaṃ; object of the verb)
Kuddhaṃ appaṭikujjhanto,
When one (yo) is not angry/provoked in return (appaṭikujjhanto) towards anger/provocation (kuddhaṃ)
saṅgāmaṃ jeti dujjayaṃ
one wins a battle hard to win.

Note: for Sujato, possibly &quot;tasseva&quot; is in dative case, which implies &quot;giving&quot; or &quot;making&quot;; rather than genitive case, which implies &quot;possessing&quot;.
While i cannot definitively translate the verse, my guess is the translation revolves around the 1st sentence: &quot;Tasseva tena pāpiyo&quot; and particularly who is the owner or maker of the &quot;pāpiyo&quot; (&quot;sinful&quot;).
My guess is the person getting angry in return possesses the &quot;pāpiyo&quot; because it appears the &quot;pāpiyo&quot; (&quot;sinful&quot;), together with the &quot;jeti&quot; (&quot;victory&quot;), are the main subjects or outcomes of the entire verse.
Therefore, I merely guess the Acharya Buddharakkhita &amp; Maurice O'Connell Walshe translations are the most accurate because the &quot;pāpiyo&quot; (&quot;sinful&quot;) is possessed by &quot;the person&quot; (&quot;tasseva&quot;) rather than possessed by Thanissaro's generalization of &quot;things&quot;. But I could be wrong.
Often, our Soviet &amp; European moderators are fluent with grammar and can assist, here.