རེ་སྒུག
Awaiting Hope
ཤེར་བསྟན་དང་རྡོ་རྗེ།
Sherten and Dorje
གངས་དཀར་ལྷུན་པོ་ཡི་འདབས་ནས།
གངས་མ་ཆར་ཆུ་ཡི་གསེབ་ན།
གངས་ལྷ་མེ་ཏོག་གི་རེ་བ།
གངས་སེང་དཀར་མོ་ཁྱོད་སྒུག་ཡོད།
གངས་ལྷ་མེ་ཏོག་གི་རེ་བ།
གངས་སེང་དཀར་མོ་ཁྱོད་སྒུག་ཡོད།
From the foothills of mighty snow mountains
Amidst a mix of icy rain and snow
The hope of the flower-like snow deities
Awaits you, the snow-lioness.
The hope of the flower-like snow deities
Awaits you, the snow-lioness.
ཚང་ཚིང་ནགས་ཚལ་གྱི་གསེབ་ནས།
ལྗོན་ཤིང་གཡུ་ལོ་ཡི་རྩེ་ན།
བྱེའུ་ཆུང་འཇོལ་མོ་ཡི་རེ་བ།
ལྷ་བྱ་ཁུ་ལོ་ཁྱོད་སྒུག་ཡོད།
བྱེའུ་ཆུང་འཇོལ་མོ་ཡི་རེ་བ།
ལྷ་བྱ་ཁུ་ལོ་ཁྱོད་སྒུག་ཡོད།
From within thickly forested groves
On the tips of turquiose tree leaves
The hope of the tiny nightingales
Awaits you, the divine cuckoo bird.
གཡོ་ཅན་སྲིན་པོ་ཡི་ངོགས་ནས།
སྡུག་བསྔལ་མུན་ནག་གི་གླིང་ན།
གདོང་དམར་བོད་པ་ཡི་རེ་བ།
བཅོ་ལྔའི་དུང་ཟླ་ཁྱོད་སྒུག་ཡོད།
གདོང་དམར་བོད་པ་ཡི་རེ་བ།
བཅོ་ལྔའི་དུང་ཟླ་ཁྱོད་སྒུག་ཡོད།
From the shores of crafty flesh-eating daemons
On the island of suffering and darkness
The hope of the red-faced Tibetans
Awaits you, the conch-white full moon.
སྤང་ལྗོངས་ནེའུ་གསེང་གི་སྟེང་ནས།
རྩྭ་དང་རྩི་ཏོག་གི་གསེབ་ནས།
སྣ་ཚོགས་མེ་ཏོག་གི་རེ་བ།
སེར་ཆེན་མེ་ཏོག་ཁྱོད་སྒུག་ཡོད།
སྣ་ཚོགས་མེ་ཏོག་གི་རེ་བ།
སེར་ཆེན་མེ་ཏོག་ཁྱོད་སྒུག་ཡོད
Upon the rolling green grasslands,
Amongst grasses, flowers, and buds,
The hope of various multicolored flowers
Awaits you, the great golden kusuma flower.
Notes: Like the majority of Tibetan songs, the trick to translating them always lies in cracking the main pattern that runs throughout the lyrics. In "Awaiting Hope" it it was the last two lines of each verse. Once I figured out the relationship between all the parts of these last two lines, who is waiting on whom and how the hope figures in, it became quiet simple. I have to give thanks for several teachers for their explanations. Please let me know if you can get a different reading out of it. I think it's pretty close to what it should be though. Another thing that was hard to render was all the Tibetan particularities such as "snow lionesses," "turquoise tree leaves," "divine cuckoo birds," and so on. But what can one expect except for a Tibetan song to sound Tibetan!
"Awaiting Hope" is mostly metaphor. Of course many different meanings could fit the different metaphors. Longing for a lover, waiting for family to return home from exile, and so forth. But the one I personally thought most fitting is waiting for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The examples seem to make metaphors based around nature and mythology for the Tibetan people's their hope awaiting a dear object of longing. Also one example is made, I suspect at least, of the Chinese government. To me, being an Inji after all, all these examples did not come across immediately as clear. But if you look at it is quite obvious. I hope in the translation the same potential is present.
One thing I learned is that I need to study more about birds and flowers in Tibet! I'm not sure if the first bird, the བྱེའུ་ཆུང་འཇོལ་མོ , is a nightingale exactly (according to the dictionary it is) but it is a singing bird for sure and I believe nightingales sing. The second one, the ཁུ་ལོ , is certainly a cuckoo though. As I understand, in the last line the སེར་ཆེན་མེ་ཏོག doesn't just mean a big yellow flower but a specific flower. I suspect it might be marigolds but I'm not sure. The dictionary gave the sanskirt "kusuma" for flower. I thought to opt for this translation as it seems more fitting than marigolds or a great yellow flower, especially if were are talking about His Holiness. If anyone has some good sources on plants and animals in Tibetan I would be very grateful to take a look at them!
-Lobsang
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