'My Hometown Wido' by Lumo Tso

ཕ་ཡུལ་བིས་མདོ།

My Homeland Wido

བཞས་ཚིག        ནོར་བྷ

བཞས་མ།      ཀླུ་མོ་མཚོ།

Lyrics: Norbha

Singer: Lumo Tso

ང་གངས་དཀར་སྷ་མོའི་སྲས་མོ་ཡིན།
ངའི་བླ་རི་གངས་དཀར་ལྷུན་པོ་ཡིན།
ངའི་ཕ་ཡུལ་གངས་ལྗོངས་ཕྱུག་མོ་ཡིན།
གངས་འདི་ཡི་ངོ་སོ་གླུ་ཡིས་སྟོད།

I am the noble daughter of the white snow goddess -
My soul-mountain is the snowy white Meru.
My homeland is the rich land of snows -
The recognition this snow deserves is praised with song.

ང་སྟོང་རི་ལྷ་མཚོའི་སྲས་མོ་ཡིན། 
ངའི་སྐྱེས་ལྷ་ཨ་མྱེ་གོ་རྫོང་ཡིན།
ངའི་ཕ་ཡུལ་བིས་མདོ་ཕྱུག་མོ་ཡིན།
ཡུལ་འདི་ཡི་ངོ་སོ་གླུ་ཡིས་སྟོད།
ངའི་ཕ་ཡུལ་བིས་མདོ་ཕྱུག་མོ་ཡིན།
ཡུལ་འདི་ཡི་ངོ་སོ་གླུ་ཡིས་སྟོད།

I am the daughter of a thousand mountains and divine lakes -
My birth-god is Amye Kodzong.
My homeland, Wido, is filled with riches -
The recognition this land deserves is praised with song.
My homeland Wido is filled with riches -
The recognition this land deserves is praised with song

ང་ཕ་བཟང་ཚང་གི་སྲས་མོ་ཡིན།
ང་ཞང་བཟང་ཚང་གི་ཚ་མོ་ཡིན།
ང་སྦྲ་ནག་ཚང་གི་བདག་མོ་ཡིན།
ཁྱིམ་འདི་ཡི་ངོ་སོ་ཡར་ལ་སྟོད།

I am the noble daughter from the house of a great father.
I am the neice from the house of a great uncle.
I am the lady in charge of the nomad's black tent.
The recognition this household deserves is praised up.

ང་སྟོང་རི་ལྷ་མཚོའི་སྲས་མོ་ཡིན།
ངའི་སྐྱེས་ལྷ་ཨ་མྱེ་གོ་རྫོང་ཡིན།
ངའི་ཕ་ཡུལ་བིས་མདོ་ཕྱུག་མོ་ཡིན།
ཡུལ་འདི་ཡི་ངོ་སོ་གླུ་ཡིས་སྟོད།
ངའི་ཕ་ཡུལ་བིས་མདོ་ཕྱུག་མོ་ཡིན།
ཡུལ་འདི་ཡི་ངོ་སོ་གླུ་ཡིས་སྟོད།
ངའི་ཕ་ཡུལ་བིས་མདོ་ཕྱུག་མོ་ཡིན།
ཡུལ་འདི་ཡི་ངོ་སོ་གླུ་ཡིས་སྟོད།

I am a daughter of a thousand mountains and divine lakes -
My birth-god is Amye Kodzong.
My homeland, Wido, is filled with riches -
The recognition this land deserves is praised with song.
My homeland Wido is filled with riches -
The recognition this land deserves is praised with song.
My homeland Wido is filled with riches -

The recognition this land deserves is praised with song.

Notes:

Here is a nice modern Amdo song by Lumo Tso about her hometown, Wido. Wido is actually the Amdo pronunciation (it would other wise be Pido in central and Khampa dialects) and I left the transliteration as such. The most difficult part to translate was ངོ་སོ་ To be honest I am still not entirely sure of this term's meaning and usage. My understanding is that it means something to the effect of appreciation. In the context of this song I understood her to be saying that she is trying to pay back everything her hometown has given her, something which she appreciates, and is doing so with song and praise. If anyone has more information on this term and usage please let me know!  Other interesting terms to translate were བླ་རི་ ("soul-mountain") and སྐྱེས་ལྷ་ ("birth god"). Again I am not terribly familiar with these words, however, I just calqued it into English.  བླ means one's vital energy/life force and, in a Bon context, seems to resemble something like a soul. In Tibetan culture the day one is born and the surrounding astrological qualities are important. I think this is just an extension of that with each person having their own personal mountain and birth-god with whom they are connected just as with protector deities, yidams, etc. Like many songs and poems, the audience does not necessarily have the full context. Therefore an expression like སྟོང་རི་ could mean "a thousand mountains," "empty mountains," or simply the name of a local mountain in Wido. My guess is for a thousand mountains which may also be the name of a local mountain. On the topic of mountains, ལྷུན་པོ means "mighty" and is usually an epithet for Mt Meru. I'm not certain how often it can mean just any enormous mountain or Mt Meru. Of course, the difference in meaning would not be such a terribly large difference. Anyways, please enjoy this nice Tibetan pop song!

- Lobsang