Saturday, February 1, 2014

'Auspiciousness' by Sherten and Lhakyi

བཀྲ་ཤིས།
Auspiciousness 

ཚིག བསྟན་པས་སྐྱབས
དབྱངས།  དམངས་ཁྲོད།
ལེན་མཁན། ཤེར་བསྟན་དང་ལྷ་སྐྱིད།

Lyrics: Denbey Gyab
Melody: Traditional

Singer: Sherden and Lhagyi



དེ་རིང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཉི་མ་ཀླད་ནས་ཤར།
དོན་འགྲུབ་དུང་གི་ཟླ་བ་ཐད་ནས་ཚེས།
དོན་འགྲུབ་དུང་གི་ཟླ་བ་ཐད་ནས་ཚེས།

Today an auspicious sun rises from above and
Overhead a conch-white moon of great benefit dawns .
Overhead a conch-white moon of great benefit dawns .

དེ་རིང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཉི་མ་ཀླད་ནས་ཤར།
དོན་འགྲུབ་དུང་གི་ཟླ་བ་ཐད་ནས་ཚེས།
དོན་འགྲུབ་དུང་གི་ཟླ་བ་ཐད་ནས་ཚེས།

Today an auspicious sun rises from above and
Overhead a conch-white moon of great benefit dawns.
Overhead a conch-white moon of great benefit dawns.

ཕ་ཁུ་དང་རྒན་རབས་འཛོམས།
སྟག་ཤར་མ་སྲུ་འཛོམས།  
མཛེས་སྡུག་གི་བྲོ་གར་འཁྲོབ།
སྙན་འཇེབས་ཀྱི་གླུ་ཆུང་ལེན།

Fathers, uncles, and the elder generation convene.
Young men, mothers, and aunts gather round.
Let's perform dances of exquisite beauty,
While singing little songs, pleasant and melodious.

ང་ཚོས་མཉམ་དུ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་གླུ་གར་རྩེ།
ང་ཚོས་མཉམ་དུ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་གླུ་གར་རྩེ།

Together we amuse ourselves with auspicious song and dance.
Together we amuse ourselves with auspicious song and dance.

དེ་རིང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཉི་མ་ཀླད་ནས་ཤར།
དོན་འགྲུབ་དུང་གི་ཟླ་བ་ཐད་ནས་ཚེས།
དོན་འགྲུབ་དུང་གི་ཟླ་བ་ཐད་ནས་ཚེས།

Today an auspicious sun rises from above and
Overhead a conch-white moon of great benefit dawns.
Overhead a conch-white moon of great benefit dawns.

དེ་རིང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཉི་མ་ཀླད་ནས་ཤར།
དོན་འགྲུབ་དུང་གི་ཟླ་བ་ཐད་ནས་ཚེས།
དོན་འགྲུབ་དུང་གི་ཟླ་བ་ཐད་ནས་ཚེས།

Today an auspicious sun rises from above and
Overhead a conch-white moon of great benefit dawns.
Overhead a conch-white moon of great benefit dawns.

མེ་ཏོག་ཁྲ་ལམ་ལམ།
ལས་སྨོན་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཡོད།
 སྒེག་ཉམས་བྲོ་གར་འཁྲོབ།
སྙན་འཇེབས་ཀྱི་པི་ཝང་དཀྲོལ།

There are dazzling multicolored flowers,
Karma, aspirations, and synchronicity.
Let's perform attractive and charming dances
Strumming the lute, pleasant and melodious.

ང་ཚོས་མཉམ་དུ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་གླུ་གར་རྩེ།
ང་ཚོས་མཉམ་དུ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་གླུ་གར་རྩེ།

Together we amuse ourselves with auspicious song and dance.

Together we amuse ourselves with auspicious song and dance.


Notes: This song is relatively straightforward and, with lots of repetitions, there is not all that much to translate. The main problem (which is of course a constantly reoccurring problem in translating Tibetan) I experienced was in regards how to translate things like དུང་གི་ཟླ་བ and དོན་འགྲུབ་. These expressions are high-frequency in Tibetan but often sound awkward when left translated by just a few words in English. My understanding is that དུང་གི་ཟླ་བ simply means a moon which is as white as a conch shell (i.e., extremely white). However the general lack of conchs in most English speaker's daily lives makes for a strange expression. In The Task of the Translator, Walter Benjamin asks us whether we should be making the source-language more like the target-language or the target-language more like the source. That is, should we anglicize the Tibetan with our own idioms or "Tibetanize" our English translation with terms such as 'conch-white moon'? Although Benjamin argues for the latter, we can see that there are indeed merits to both sides. Looking back towards history we can see that both approaches have been implemented in translating Buddhist literature. While it is quite a gross generalization of long and involved processes of translation, it seems that for the most part the Chinese Buddhist transmission involved translation which sought to "naturalize" the texts into Chinese whereas, in Tibet, the great Lotsawas tried to follow the source-language (usually Sanskrit) very closely. Translation is certainly a process and great works of literature often go through new translation (although its hard to ever imagine 'updating' something as enormous as the Tibetan canon). Hopefully time and experience will guide us in knowing which camp to side with when circumstances call for it. 

No comments:

Post a Comment