'Please Don't Forget' by Sodop and Rinchen Tso

མ་བརྗེད་རོགས།།

Please Don't Forget

ལེན་མཁན།། བསོད་སྟོབས་དང། རིན་ཆེན་མཚོ།།

Singers: Sodop and Rinchen Tso

ཡེ་་་རང་སྐད་ཕྱི་སྐད་འདྲ་མ་འདྲེས།།
མི་སྙན་རྣ་བའི་འཛེར་རུ་རེད།།
ལ་རྒྱ་ཅན་གྱི་ཕོ་གསར་ཚོ།།
བོད་སྐད་དག་མ་གསུང་རོགས་གནོང།།

Don't mix up your own language with the language of others.
It sounds coarse and unpleasant.
Loyal young men,
Please speak pure Tibetan.

ཡེ་་་རང་གོས་ཕྱི་གོས་ལྷབ་མ་ལྷུབ།
མ་མཛེས་མིག་གིས་སྤྱོད་ངན་རེད།།
ངོ་ཚ་ཅན་གྱི་མོ་གསར་ཚོ།།
བོད་ལ་འཕྱུ་པ་མནབས་རོགས་གནོང།།

Don't dress mixing your own clothing with the clothing of others.
It is unbecoming and an awful practice.
Modest young women,
Please wear Tibetan gowns in Tibet.

ཡེ་་་མི་ལ་ཕ་མ་ལོས་ཡོད།།
ཕ་མ་སུ་ཡིན་ཤེས་དགོས།།
ཕ་བཟང་བུ་ལོ་ཡིན་ན།།
ཕ་མའི་སྲོལ་རྒྱུན་འཛིན་རོགས།།

A person must know how many parents they have,
And who they are.
If you are the child of good family,
Please carry on the ways of your parents.

ཡེ་་་མི་ལ་རིགས་རྒྱུད་ཡོད་ཀྱང།།
རིགས་རྒྱུད་གང་ཡིན་རྟོགས་དགོས།།
བཙན་པོའི་གདུང་རྒྱུད་ཡིན་ན།།
བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག་སྤྱོད་དགོས།།

Even if a person has a lineage,
They must understand what that lineage is.
If you are the descendant of the Tibetan kings,
You must use Tibetan language.

ཡེ་་་མི་ལ་མི་ཡི་ནུས་པ།།
རྒྱུད་ལ་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་དགོས།།
ལྟོ་བ་ཁོ་ནར་གཉེར་བ།།
ཕྱུགས་དང་དབྱེ་འབྱེད་མི་འདུག།

A person's human potential
Must be actualized in their mind.
Seeking out food alone,
Makes you no different than cattle.

ཡེ་་་མི་ལ་རྒྱུ་ནོར་དགོས་ཀྱང།།
རྒྱུ་ལ་རང་ཚོད་ཟིན་དགོས།།
ཡ་མ་ཟུང་གི་རྒྱུད་པ།།
རང་ཚུགས་མེད་པའི་མི་ཡིན།།

Even though a person needs wealth,
They must be content with what they have.
A disproportionate people,
Are a people without independence.

ཡེ་་་མི་ལ་ལ་རྒྱ་ཡོད་དགོས།།
ལ་རྒྱ་གང་ཡིན་ཤེས་དགོས།།
ཆོལ་གསུམ་མཐུན་སྒྲིལ་བྱས་ན།།
ང་ཚོའི་བོད་མའི་ལ་རྒྱ་ཡིན།།
ཆོལ་གསུམ་མཐུན་སྒྲིལ་བྱས་ན།།
ང་ཚོའི་བོད་མིའི་ལ་རྒྱ་ཡིན།།

A person needs loyalty.
They must know what loyalty is.
If the Three Tibetan Provinces unite,
That is loyalty to our Tibetan people.
If the Three Tibetan Provinces unite,
That is loyalty to our Tibetan people.


Note: This song represents something that I really appreciate about modern Tibetan artists, because it is an honest plea to their own people--especially the youth--not to lose sight of the importance of their culture and heritage. On top of that, the two singers are great and so is the music. As far as the translation is concerned, this song is pretty straight-forward and easy to understand. One of the interesting phrases I came across was རྒྱུད་ལ་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་དགོས།། "rgyud la lhun gyis grub dgos" which literally means "It must be spontaneously accomplished in the mind", but I translated it as " [It] Must be actualized in their mind". I feel the latter captures the former's meaning and sounds much more appropriate in English. This is intimately connected, of course, with the former phrase མི་ཡི་ནུས་པ་ "mi yi nus pa" which could be translated in several ways: human energy, human power, human ability, etc. I chose "human potential" because I thought it sounded most eloquent in English, but obviously the sense of it being a "power" or "energy" is meant to be considered when it is mentioned that the best way to tap into this nus pa is from within oneself, and not just from food. Another very interesting phrase is ཡ་མ་ཟུང་གི་རྒྱུད་པ།། "ya ma zung gi rgyud pa" which I translated as "A disproportionate people." According to my dictionary, ya ma zung can mean incompatible, contrary, dissimilar, without proportion etc., and rgyud pa is here simply referring to a lineage, race, or family. When you combine this phrase with the rest of the verse, it seems to be calling for some kind of an egalitarian society, where no one is excessively wealthier than others. It even goes so far as to suggest that excess "disproportion" could threaten the very independence that Tibetans are seeking. This is the first time I have noticed a phrasing like this in a Tibetan song, so it is quite thought-provoking. འདུལ་བཞག

-Sherab