'Unpoken Aspirations' by Tsomo

གཏམ་གྱི་འདུན་མ།

Unspoken Aspirations

མཚོ་མོ།

 Tsomo

ཤྭ་བ་ཡུ་མོ།།
ཡུ་མོ་གཉིས་ཀ།
ཡུ་མོ་གཉིས་ཀ།
སྤང་ལྗོངས་མེ་ཏོག་ཐང་ལ།
རྩྭ་ཆུ་མཉམ་ཟ་མཉམ་འཐུང་།
གཏམ་གྱི་འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།
འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།

A deer and doe -      
Deer and doe both,
Oh, both doe and deer!
In the flower clearings and the meadows
Grass and water - together they eat, together they drink.
Unspoken aspirations are one.
Aspirations are one.

སོ་ཡ་ལ།    ཡ་ལ་སོ།།
So ya la!
Ya la so!

གཏམ་གྱི་འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།
འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།
Unspoken aspirations are one.
Aspirations are one.

མཚོ་ཆུང་གཡུ་ཡི།
གཡུ་ཡི་མེ་ལོང་།
གཡུ་ཡི་མེ་ལོང་།
མཚོ་བྱ་ངང་ཆུང་དཀར་མོ།
ལས་དང་བསོད་ནམས་གཅིག་རེད།
གཏམ་གྱི་འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།
འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།

A small turquoise lake -
Mirror of turquoise,
Oh, turquoise mirror!
On the lake - small white swans -
Karma and merits are one.
Unspoken aspirations are one
Aspirations are one.

སོ་ཡ་ལ།    ཡ་ལ་སོ།།
So ya la!
Ya la so!

གཏམ་གྱི་འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།
འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།
Unspoken aspirations are one.
Aspirations are one.

ཆུང་འདྲིས་བྱམས་པ།
བྱམས་པ་ངེད་གཉིས།
བྱམས་པ་ངེད་གཉིས།
རྕེད་རྭ་གཅིག་ལ་འཛོམས་ཡོད།
བརྩེ་སེམས་འོ་ཆུ་འདྲེས་སོང་།
གཏམ་གྱི་འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།
འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།

The affection between childhood friends -
The two of us and affection,
Oh, affection and the two of us!
We gathered together on the playground,
Our affection blending like milk and water.
Unspoken aspirations were one.
Aspirations were one.

སོ་ཡ་ལ།    ཡ་ལ་སོ།།
So ya la!
Ya la so!

གཏམ་གྱི་འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།
འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།
གཏམ་གྱི་འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།
འདུན་མ་གཅིག་རེད།

Unspoken aspirations are one.
Aspirations are one.
Unspoken aspirations are one.

Aspirations are one.

Notes: I certainly won't say I had an easy time to translate this one (and in fact I'm still not entirely satisfied with it) however, I cannot deny that did I thoroughly enjoy the process of getting to know this incredibly beautiful song more intimately. Many parts when translated literally did not do justice to the beauty of the song, so I translated these more freely and poetically with the hopes of retaining the overall feeling of the song. You can see this in the first three lines of each verse if you compare it with the Tibetan. I switched the order around to make it sound "nice" and avoid repetition. I added 'Oh!' to the start of the third line since Tsomo belts it out with that powerful voice of hers. 

I must say the most difficult part to translate was the phrase from the title and the chorus: གཏམ་གྱི་འདུན་མ. I spent lots of time reflecting on how to best render this in English. There are many Tibetan words with གཏམ (which means spoken, to be expressed, as well as story, conversation, or news) prefixing them. For example, གཏམ་གྱི་གསང་བ means a secret which is shared (e.g., among two close friends). It seems this is quite common in Tibetan, but of course in English we don't have anything that parallels it exactly. Our word 'secret' can mean both something which is unknown to anyone besides oneself self (གསང་བ) and a secret which a few people are in on (གཏམ་གྱི་གསང་བ) depending on context. With this in mind, my understanding is that the phrase གཏམ་གྱི་འདུན་མ has the sense of the wish to survive and prosper, that is, our aspirations to be happy and well - something everyone (including deer and does, swans which live on lakes, young children, etc.) shares. In the end, to capture this sense, I did something rather counter-intuitive. I finally translated it as 'unspoken aspirations' even though it seems like this is the opposite of what it literally should be: spoken aspirations. There are two reasons for this: First, even though deer, swans, and small children cannot speak in the way we do, they do express their desires in other ways. Therefore 'unspoken' hints at them expressing it through body language, facial expression, and so on. Secondly, 'unspoken' does not necessarily preclude the fact it will never be spoken as would words like 'ineffable' or 'inexpressible.' Therefore, since the desire and possibly for vocalization is still there, I do not see a terrible contradiction in choosing this term. 

In conclusion, I have to thank the many native Tibetan speakers I consulted on the meaning of these lyrics and their explanations, for without them, my understanding would still be very much mistaken. As always any comments and criticism on this translation is more than welcome. I hope this helps to better our understanding of the Tibetan language and the process of translating from it. 

-Lobsang