གཞས།། གངས་རིའི་ལ་རྒྱ།།
Song: Prestige of the Snow Mountains
ལེན་མཁན།། སྐལ་བཟང་ཡོན་ཏན།།
Singer: Kelsang Yönten
གངས་རི་དཀར་པོའི་དབུ་རྩེ་མཐོ་ན་ཡང།།
Kang [so] ri kar pö u tse tho na yang
སེང་གཡུ་རལ་གངས་རིའི་ལ་རྒྱ་རེད།།
Seng [so] yu rel kang ri la gya rey
ཁྱེད་མ་བཞུགས་གངས་མཐའ་འཁྱམ་སོང་ན།།
Khye [so] ma shuk kang tha khyam song na
གངས་དཀར་པོའི་ལ་རྒྱ་སུ་ཡིས་འཛིན།།
Kang [so] kar pö la gya su yi dzin
Even high upon the peaks of the white snow mountains,
The lion's turquoise mane is the prestige of the snow
mountains.
If you do not remain and [instead] wander about the
borders of the snowland,
Who will maintain the prestige of the white snows?
གནས་དབུས་གཙང་ཆོས་སྲིད་རྒྱས་ན་ཡང།།
Ney [so] ü tsang chö si gye na yang
རྗེ་བླ་མ་བོད་མིའི་ལྷ་སྐལ་རེད།།
Jey [so] la ma phö mi lha kel yey
ཁྱེད་མ་བཞུགས་འཕགས་ཡུལ་བྱོན་སོང་ན།།
Khye [so] ma shuk phak yül jön song na
ངེད་སློབ་འབངས་བདེ་སྡུག་སུ་ལ་ཞུ།།
Ngey [so] lob bang dey duk su la shu
Even if the secular and spiritual affairs of Central
Tibet flourish,
The venerable guru is the destined deity of the Tibetan
people.
If you do not remain and [instead] depart to the noble
land [of India],
To whom will we, your disciples and servants, address our
joys and sorrows?
ནགས་གཡུ་ལོའི་སིལ་ཏོག་རྒྱས་ན་ཡང།།
Nag [so] yu lö sil tok gye na yang
བྱ་ལོ་ནགས་ཀྱི་རྒྱན་ཆ་རེད།།
Cha [so] lo nag kyi gyen cha rey
ཁྱེད་མ་བཞུགས་མོན་ལ་འཕུར་སོང་ན།།
Khye [so] ma shuk mön la phur song na
ནགས་གཡུ་ལོའི་རྒྱན་ཆ་སུ་ཡིས་བྱེད།།
Nag [so] yu lö gyen cha su yi chey
Even if the fruits of turquoise forests abound,
The feathers of a bird are the ornaments of the forests.
If you do not remain and [instead] fly off to southern
lands,
Who will be the ornament of the turquoise leafed forests?
སྡེ་ཚོ་དྲུག་བཙན་ཕྱུག་འཛོམ་ན་ཡང།།
Dey [so] tsho druk tsen chuk dzom na yang
སྟག་ཤ་ར་ལྷ་སྡེའི་སྙིང་ནོར་ཡིན།།
Tak [so] sha ra lha dey nying nor yin
ཁྱེད་མ་བཞུགས་ས་མཐར་འཁྱམ་སོང་ན།།
Khye [so] ma shuk san thar khyam song na
ནང་ཕུ་ནུའི་སྙིང་གཏམ་སུ་ལ་བཤད།།
Nang [so] phu nü nying tam su la shey
ནང་ཕུ་ནུའི་སྙིང་གཏམ་སུ་ལ་བཤད།།
Nang [so] phu nü nying tam su la shey
Even if the power and wealth of the six factions are
complete,
The tigers and deer are the beloved jewels of the
heavenly factions.
If you do not remain and [instead] wander off to the
border lands,
To whom will brothers young and old impart their deepest
feelings?
Note: This is one of my all-time favorites with its
infectious rhythm and Kelsang Yonten's original and magnanimous vocal style.
The lyrics are a bit enigmatic for me however, as there are a few parts where I
cannot even imagine what it is referring to; but perhaps that is the point.
There is a clear reference to H.H. the Dalai Lama in the second verse however,
so at least that is clear. For the rest, I tried to translate it as literally
as possible, but other than that, I cannot comment on the meaning and will only
leave it to the reader's interpretation. If there are any ideas, please let us
know. I also added in the syllable "so" in brackets after every first
syllable for each line, because--even though it is meaningless and is not
present in the Tibetan lyrics--it is clearly meant to hold the rhythm and so I
thought it would be important for English readers to be aware of, especially if
you feel the urge to sing along!
-Sherab
