གཞས། ཤི་གསོན་བར་གྱི་སྐད་ཆ།།
Song: A Conversation Between Life and Death
ལེན་མཁན། སྟོབས་ལྡན།།
ཆུང་བེའུ་རྡང་སྒོར་མོའི་དཀྱིལ་གྱི།
Chung beu dang gor mö kyil gyi
ངའི་རྩེན་རོགས་བེའུ་བྲི་ཆུང།།
Ngay tsen rok beu dri chung
རི་མགོ་རྒོད་ཡར་ཞིག་གྲས་ཀྱི།
Ri go gö yar shik drey kyi
ངའི་མིག་འབེན་ཡར་དྭ་རྔོ་བོ།།
Ngay mir ben yar da ngo wo
The little calf in the
midst of the herd,
Is my playmate, the little
yak calf
It is the wild kind from
the mountain tops;
Dead and mangled above, it
catches my eye
ཕྱི་རྒྱ་སྡེའི་ཁྲོམ་ཆེན་དཀྱིལ་གྱི།
Chi gya dey throm chen kyil gyi
ངའི་ཞོན་པ་གཡག་སར་བྲི་ལི།།
Ngay shön yak sar dri li
དགྲ་ཕྱི་ཇག་རྐུན་མའི་ལག་གི།
Dra chi jak kün may lak gi
ངའི་ཚེ་ཟད་གཡག་རྒན་བྲི་ལོ།།
Ngay tshey sey yak gen dri lo
In the midst of a great
encampment,
Is my young riding yak,
By the hand of a wicked
bandit,
My dear old yak's life was
taken
ནངས་སྔ་མོའི་ཉི་རྩེ་ཤར་དུས།།
Nang nga mö nyi tsey shar dü
ཁྱོད་འུ་གཉིས་འགྲོ་ཕྱོགས་གཅིག་རུང།།
Khyö nyi dro chok chik rung
དུས་ཉིན་དཀྱིལ་སྡེར་ཁ་སྒྲིག་དུས།།
Dü nyin kyil der kha drik dü
ཁྱོད་འུ་གཉིས་ཅན་ཁ་མ་གཅིག།
Khyö u nyi chen kha ma chik
When the sun rises in the
morning,
Even though our
destination is the same,
Mid-day, when we prepare
the food,
What we eat is not the
same
དགོང་ཕྱི་དྲོའི་གྲིབ་ཆེན་གཡོགས་དུས།།
Gong chi drö drib chen yok dü
ཁྱོད་འུ་གཉིས་འཁོར་ཕྱོགས་གཅིག་རུང།།
Khyö u nyi khor chok chig rung
མལ་དྲོན་མོའི་ཉལ་སྟན་ཁུག་གི།
Mel drön mö nyel ten khuk gi
ཁྱོད་འུ་གཉིས་ཉལ་ས་མ་གཅིག།
Khyö u nyi nyel sa ma chik
When the darkness of
evening approaches,
Even though we go about
the same place,
As I lay on a warm bed,
Where we rest is not the
same
ཤི་དམྱལ་བའི་བར་རྡོའི་ཁ་ན།།
Sha nyel way bar dö kha na
ངས་བོས་པའི་སྐད་སྒྲ་ཨེ་འཁྱིལ།།
Ngey bö pay key dra eh khyil
གསོན་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྲང་ང་ཁམས་ན།།
Sön jig ten drang nga kham na
ང་སྐྱོ་བའི་མིག་ཆུ་ཨེ་མཐོང།།
Nga kyo way mig chu eh thong
As you die, at the gate of
the bardo[1] of the infernal realm,
Do the sounds of my cries
resound?
In the frigid world of the
living,
Can you see my tears of
sadness?
ཤི་གཤིན་རྗེའི་མེ་ལོང་ནང་ན།།
Sha shin jey me long nang na
ང་ཐོན་འོངས་ཞེས་པ་ཨེ་འདུག།
Nga thön ong shey pa eh duk
དམའ་དཀྱས་རིང་དམྱལ་ཟངས་ཁ་ན།།
Ma kye ring nyel sang kha na
ང་བཙོ་སའི་ཟངས་ལྷག་ཨེ་འདུག།
Nga tso say sang lhak eh duk
In the mirror of the lord
of death,
Is my destiny being
foretold?
At the mouth of the
distant cauldron of hell below,
Do you see any remaining
cauldron there in which I may burn?
ཨྃ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧྰུྃ།། ཨྃ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧྰུྃ།། ཨྃ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧྰུྃ།།
Om mani Pedme Hung Om mani Pedme
Hung Om mani Pedme Hung
ཁྱོས་ཚེ་གཅིག་མི་དོན་བསྒྲུབས་པར།།
Khyö tshey chik mi dön drub par
ཤི་དམྱལ་བར་ངོ་སོ་ཨེ་འདུག།
Shi nyel war ngo so eh duk
བྱམས་སྙིང་རྗེས་ཚེ་མཐའ་འཁྱོལ་བར།།
Jam nying jey tshey tha khyöl war
ཁྱོས་བདེ་ཆེན་ལག་ཁྱེར་ཨེ་ཐོབ།།
Khyö de chen lag khyer eh thob
While accomplishing the
aims of a single human life,
Is there anything that
would result in [going to] the hell realm [after] death?
When you arrive at life's
end, through love and compassion
Would you obtain the
ticket for great bliss as a human?
ཁྱོད་རང་དབང་གདམས་ཀ་ཡོད་ན།།
Khyö rang wang dam ka yö na
ཕྱིར་འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡུལ་ཤོག་དང།།
Chir jig ten mi yul shok dang
ཁྱོས་དག་མའི་བོད་ཅིག་གྱིས་དང།།
Khyö dak may phö chik gyi dang
ནང་སེམས་ཀྱི་བདེ་སྐྱིད་འདིར་མྱོང།།
Nang sem kyi dey kyi dir nyong
If you have the freedom or
choice,
Come to the world of
humans in your next life
In the purity of Tibet
Here you will experience
mental well-being and happiness
ཁྱོས་དག་མའི་བོད་ཅིག་གྱིས་དང།།
Khyö dak may phö chik gyi dang
ནང་སེམས་ཀྱི་བདེ་སྐྱིད་འདིར་མྱོང།།
Nang sem kyi dey kyi dir nyong
In the purity of Tibet
Here you will experience
mental well-being and happiness
Note: This is simply an incredible song,
exceptionally composed, original, well-performed, and the video production
values are amazing as well, especially considering that it stars a young nomad
from Amdo. I have been working on this song for months (though not
consistently), and it is at best an imperfect translation or rather an
interpretation based on a lot of intuition and educated guesses. The reason for
this is that this song contains a lot of colloquial Amdo dialect, which is very
esoteric for someone like me who only speaks the Central Tibetan dialect, and a
lot of which cannot be found in any dictionary I have. After finally resolving
some uncertainties (based mostly on guesses) in a manner I am fairly satisfied
with, I have decided to release it now because it truly is an amazing piece of
music that I hope others can enjoy. Just the fact of feeling this much love for
a beast of burden, contemplating so deeply about its death steeped in spiritual
sentiments, and then composing something as poetic as this is so astounding and
deeply touching. I only hope that I have done the song justice with my
interpretation of the Tibetan.
[1] "Bardo" is a
Tibetan term which can be translated as the "In-between state"
(similar to the bar in the title which means "between", which could
also be a reference to the bardo state), which usually refers to the
life-after-death experience discuss in Tibetan Buddhist teachings. Here in this
song, a lot of imagery depicts the different frightening experiences that a
being might have seeing images of hell-realms and so forth. The song also demonstrates
the Tibetan Buddhist belief that those in the Bardo state can be directed
towards higher-rebirth, such as toward the ideal state of human as alluded to
in the last verses.
