'A Call for Altruism' by Kunga

གཞས། བསམ་བཟང་གི་འབོད་སྒྲ། 

Song: A Call For Altruism

ལེན་མཁན། ཀུན་དགའ།། 

Singer: Künga

རང་གིས་བདེ་བ་ཆེད་དུ་གཉེར།།
Rang gi de wa chey du nyer
སྡུག་བསྔལ་འབྱུང་ན་མི་འདོད་བཞིན།།
Dug ngal chung na mi dö shin
ཉམ་ཆུང་སེམས་ཅན་འདི་དག་ཀྱང།།
Nyam chung sem chen di dak kyang
འདྲ་མཚུངས་ཡིན་པས་སྲོག་མ་གཅོད།།
Dra tshung yin pey sok ma chö

You pursue your own happiness,
And you cannot bear any experience of suffering.
All of these helpless animals are the same,
And so we should not take their lives.

འགྲོ་བ་རིགས་དྲུག་གང་གིས་ཀྱང།།
Dro wa rig druk kang gi kyang
ཤིན་ཏུ་གཅེས་པ་སྲོག་ཡིན་པས།།
Shin tu chey pa sok yin pey
དེ་ལ་གནོད་འཚེ་བྱས་པ་ཡི།།
Dey la nö tshey chey pa yi
རྣམ་སྨིན་ཡང་ནི་རབ་ཏུ་ལྕི།།
Nam min yang ni rab tu chi

For any member of the six classes of sentient beings,
Their lives are so very dear to them.
Thus, to cause harm to any of them
Produces a karmic retribution that is so very heavy.

ཨོ་ཧོ་་་ཡ་རེ་ང།།
Oh ho ya rey nga
དེ་ལ་གནོད་འཚེ་བྱས་པ་ཡི།།
Dey la nö tshey chey pa yi
རྣམ་སྨིན་ཡང་ནི་རབ་ཏུ་ལྕི།།
Nam min yang ni rab tu chi

Oh ho! How awful!
To cause harm to any of them
Produces a karmic retribution that is so very heavy.

མནོག་ཆུང་ཁ་ཟས་ཙམ་གྱི་ཆེད།།
Nok chung khab sey tsam gyi chey
དོན་ཆེན་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཕྲོག་པ་འདི།།
Dön chen tshey sok throk pa di
འཇིག་རྟེན་གནམ་གྱི་འོག་འདི་ནས།།
Jig ten nam gyi og di ney
ཐ་ཆད་སྤྱོད་ངན་དང་པོ་ཡིན།།
Tha chey chö ngen dang po yin

The theft of such meaningful lives,
Just for the sake of petty food
Is the most vile and wicked action
Beneath the heavens of this world.

རང་གིས་ཐར་ལམ་དོན་མི་གཉེར།།
Rang gi thar lam dön mi nyer
གཞན་ལ་སྙིང་རྗེའི་བློ་མི་བསྐྱེད།།
Shen la nying jey lo mi kye
རང་གཞན་གཉིས་ཀ་འཕུང་བའི་ལས།།
Rang shen nyi ka phung way ley
སྤྱོད་ངན་འདི་ལ་ཡ་རེ་ང།།
Jö ngen di la ya rey nga

Not pursuing the path of liberation for oneself;
Not giving rise to a compassionate attitude for others;
Activities which harm both self and other,
Such wicked actions! How awful!

ཨོ་ཧོ་་་ཡིད་རེ་སྐྱོ།།
Oh ho yi rey kyo
ཨོ་ཧོ་་་ཡ་རེ་ང།།
Oh ho ya rey nga
རང་གཞན་གཉིས་ཀ་འཕུང་བའི་ལས།།
Rang shen nyi ka phung way ley
སྤྱོད་ངན་འདི་ལ་ཡ་རེ་ང།།
Jö ngen di la ya rey nga

Oh ho! How sad!
Oh ho! How awful!
Activities which harm both self and other,
Such wicked actions! How pitiful!

ཨོ་ཧོ་་་ཡིད་རེ་སྐྱོ།།
Oh hi yi rey kyo
ཨོ་ཧོ་་་ཡ་རེ་ང།།
Oh ho ya rey nga
རང་གཞན་གཉིས་ཀ་འཕུང་བའི་ལས།།
Rang shen nyi ka phung way ley
སྤྱོད་ངན་འདི་ལ་ཡ་རེ་ང།།
Jö ngen di la ya rey nga

Oh ho! How sad!
Oh ho! How awful!
Activities which harm both self and other,
Such wicked actions! How awful!

རང་གཞན་གཉིས་ཀ་འཕུང་བའི་ལས།།
Rang shen nyi ka phung way ley
སྤྱོད་ངན་འདི་ལ་ཡ་རེ་ང།།
Jö ngen di la ya rey nga

Activities which harm both self and other,
Such wicked actions! How awful!

Note: Please be aware that--in doing appropriate justice to the subject matter--the video contains some graphic content portraying animal slaughter. If you can stomach the violent and heart-wrenching images, you will find that the song is incredibly beautiful and moving. This being so, I have tried to render the translation appropriately to capture the grave and serious tone of the Tibetan lyrics. Due to the dharmic nature of this song, the actual lyrics were most certainly authored by a Lama (spiritual master), Khenpo (monastic abbot/professor), or a Rinpoche (high-ranking spiritual master belonging to a lineage of reincarnation)--the opening credits list the author as Trül Tashi Gönpo (which sounds like a name befitting one of the above categories to me). The Tibetan in this song is actually quite straight-forward and comprehensible for a novice translator like myself, and thus warrants no explanatory commentary on my part. However, just to clarify the first line of the second verse for those of you who are unfamiliar with Buddhist cosmology, the "six classes of sentient beings" refers to the six kinds of beings which the Buddha identified as inhabitants of the desire realm (our world system): hell-beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demi-gods, and gods. This song is quite rich with powerful and profound phrasings in Tibetan which I hope I was able to do justice for everyone in the translation. Künga's emphatic and soulful performance is also worth commending here--as always.

-Sherab