Thursday, February 6, 2014

'Dawning Memories' by Dekyi Lhadze

དྲན་འཆར།

Dawning Memories

ཚིག       མཁན་ཆོས་དབྱིངས།
ལེན་མཁན།          བདེ་སྐྱིད་ལྷ་མཛེས།

Lyrics: Khencho Ying
Singer: Dekyi Lhadze





ཉིན་མོ་ཉི་མོ་ཤར་སོང་།
མཚན་མོ་ཟླ་བ་ཤར་སོང་།
སེམས་ཀྱི་ཉི་ཟླ་མེད་ན།
ནང་གི་མུན་ནག་མི་སེལ།

The daytime sun has dawned and
The midnight moon has risen.
Yet, without the sun and moon of the heart,
Inner darkness will not be dispelled.

མཁའ་ལམ་མཁའ་རུ་ཡིན་འདུག
གཞུང་ལམ་དྲ་བས་འབྲེལ་འདུག
རིག་གནས་ལམ་ཆེན་མེད་ན།
མ་འོངས་མདུན་ལམ་མི་རྙེད།

There are airplanes in the sky and
The web of highways connect us.
Yet, without the great path of culture,
Future prospects will not be found.

རྒྱ་སྐད་ཆུ་བོ་རྒྱུག་རྒྱུག
དབྱིན་སྐད་དག་དིག་ཤེས་ཀྱང་།
རང་སྐད་གཙང་མ་མེད་ན།
རིགས་ཀྱི་སྲོག་རྩ་མི་བརྟན།

Even if your Chinese is fluent and
You know English perfectly,
If your mother tongue isn't pure,
Then your ethnic vitality will not be stable.

དབྱུས་པ་མདོ་མཁམ་སྨད་འདུག
མདོ་ཁམས་དབུས་པར་སྡང་འདུག
ཆོལ་གསུམ་མཐུན་པ་མེད་ན།
ཕུགས་ཀྱི་འདུན་མ་མི་ལེགས།

Those from U, Amdo, and Kham criticize each other
There is hostility in Amdo, Kham, and U.
If there is no harmony between the three provinces,
Then our long-term aspirations will not come to perfection.

ལུས་བདེ་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་དགོས་འདུག
སེམས་བདེ་གུ་ཡངས་དགོས་འདུག
ལུས་སེམས་གཉིས་བདེ་མེད་ན།
བདེ་སྐྱིད་ངོ་མ་མ་ཡིན།

You need physical health and wealth.
You need to be mentally well and open-minded.
If health is lacking in body and mind,
Then that is not true happiness.

Notes:

It is my honor to share with you tonight a true gem of the Tibetan music world. This song by Dekyi Lhadze is filled with beauty and advice for all of us living in the modern world. I hope you enjoy it as much as it did.

As for the Tibetan, I needed to remind myself about the verb(s) སེལ. There are a few different derivatives of it with different spellings and two different meanings. For example, the སེལ here means ‘to clear away’ or ‘to dispel’ where as གསལ་བ means ‘to be clear’ or ‘to illuminate.’  The different might seem subtle but it is ultimately different. This was something I had to double check, and still have not got all the verb forms memorized. As for the second set of verses, if you look at the Tibetan you’ll see that the syllable ལམ is in everyline. It makes up the words airplane, highways, path, and (future) prospects. This is something that is near impossible to recreate in the English and just another one of the endless examples of things that are lost in translation. I hope this song brings you benefit and joy.

-Lobsang





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