Hello,
I'd just like to put in another vote for <caesura/>. In our
extremely slow-going on-going edition of the Khaḍgaśataka, we've
been using caesuras like so:
<lg>
<l>
kalpātikrūrakālabhrukuṭikuṭilatākalpakalpāgramuṣṭiḥ
<caesura/>
krudhyatkālīkaṭākṣāṅkita iva kalayan kāntim ekāntakālīm |
</l>
<l>
krīḍaty asyākrameṇa krakacakṛtikṛtī
kumbhikumbhāgrakūṭa<caesura/>kroḍeṣūtkṛttakaṇṭhotthitarudhirakaṇākīrṇakoṇaḥ
kṛpāṇaḥ || 1 ||
</l>
</lg>
As you can see, we put some sort of space before/after the caesura
if it coincides with a word-break. It ends up being rendered like
this:
kalpātikrūrakālabhrukuṭikuṭilatākalpakalpāgramuṣṭiḥ
krudhyatkālīkaṭākṣāṅkita iva kalayan kāntim ekāntakālīm |
krīḍaty asyākrameṇa krakacakṛtikṛtī kumbhikumbhāgrakūṭa-
kroḍeṣūtkṛttakaṇṭhotthitarudhirakaṇākīrṇakoṇaḥ kṛpāṇaḥ || 1 ||
...with a hyphen automagically inserted when the caesura is within a
word. Here's the XSLT code we use for that:
<xsl:template match="caesura">
<xsl:variable name="pretext"
select="preceding::text()[1]"/>
<xsl:if
test="normalize-space(substring($pretext,string-length($pretext)))
!= ''">
<span class="hyphen">-</span>
</xsl:if>
<xsl:element name="br"></xsl:element>
</xsl:template>
It looks for some kind of space character (including tabs, line
breaks, etc.) preceding the caesura and hyphenates accordingly. The
hyphen is wrapped in a <span> element so that it can be styled
or disappeared as desired. You could also use a soft hyphen instead
of a hard hyphen.
With regards to there being no @type attribute for caesura -- maybe
you should just go ahead and use it anyway, and wait for the TEI
standard to catch up? I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be
there...
Have a great day,
Charles