'White Flower Blossom' by Kunga

གཞས། མེ་ཏོག་དཀར་པོ།། 

Song: White Flower Blossom

ལེན་མཁན། ཀུན་དགའ་ཕུན་ཚོགས།། 

Singer: Künga Phüntshok

མེ་ཏོག་དཀར་པོ་འདབ་མ་སྟོང་ལྡན།།
Me tok kar po dab ma tong den
སྤང་ལྗོངས་རྒྱན་ལ་ཤར་རོགས་གནང་དང།།
Pang jong gyen la shar rok nang dang
རྩྭ་ཐང་དཀྱིལ་གྱི་གཡང་དཀར་ལུག་གུའི།།
Tsa thang kyil gyi yang kar luk gü
མེ་ཏོག་ཁྱེད་རང་སེམས་ལ་དྲན་ཡོད།།
Me tok khye rang sem la dren yö

Thousand petaled white flower blossom,
Please appear as the ornament of the meadows.
You're the blossom of the white lambs amidst the grassland.
I miss you in my heart.

མེ་ཏོག་སེར་པོ་འདབ་མ་སྟོང་ལྡན།།
Me tok ser po dab ma tong den
མཛེས་པའི་ལྡུམ་ར་འདི་ལ་ཤར་དང།།
Dzey pay dum ra di la shar dang
གཡུ་སྦྲང་བུང་བ་སྐད་བཟང་སྙན་པོའི།།
Yu trang bung wa key sang nyen pö
མེ་ཏོག་དྲི་བཟང་རེ་སྒུག་བྱེད་འདུག།
Me tok dri sang re gug chey duk

Thousand petaled yellow flower blossom,
Appear in this beautiful flower garden.
You're the blossom of the pleasant sounding turquoise honeybee,
And I've been awaiting your sweet fragrance.


མེ་ཏོག་དམར་པོ་འདབ་མ་སྟོང་ལྡན།།
Me tok mar po dab ma tong den
རང་སེམས་བཟང་བའི་རྒྱན་ལ་ཕེབས་དང།།
Rang sem sang way gyen la pheb dang
བརྩེ་དུང་ཡིད་ཀྱི་རླབས་འཕྲེང་འདི་ཡིས།།
Tsey dung yi kyi lab treng di yi
མེ་ཏོག་ཁྱེད་རང་སྙིང་ནས་དྲན་བྱུང།།
Me tok khye rang nying ney dren chung

Thousand petaled red flower blossom,
Come as an ornament of your own kindness.
With such a strong longing for your loving affection,
I miss you from the depths of my heart.

བརྩེ་དུང་ཡིད་ཀྱི་རླབས་འཕྲེང་འདི་ཡིས།།
Tsey dung yi kyi lab treng di yi
མེ་ཏོག་ཁྱེད་རང་སྙིང་ནས་དྲན་བྱུང།།
Me tok khye rang nying ney dren chung
མེ་ཏོག་ཁྱེད་རང་སྙིང་ནས་དྲན་བྱུང།།
Me tok khye rang nying ney dren chung

With such a strong longing for your loving affection,
I miss you from the depths of my heart.
I miss you from the depths of my heart.

Note: A while ago one Tibetan explained to me that this song is about H.H. the Dalai Lama (the white flower), H.H. the Panchen Lama (the yellow flower) and H.H. the Karmapa (the red flower), which makes a lot of sense considering the tone of the song, as well as some of the spiritual images flashed intermittently on the screen. There were a few changes I made to the Tibetan lyrics of the song which did not match up to what was being sung. The most peculiar one was written as སེམས་ལྷད་མེད་རྒྱན (sem lhey mey gyen) which means "ornament of a pure heart/mind"; but I hear something distinctly different which sounds much more like སེམས་བཟང་བའི་རྒྱན (sem sang way gyen) "ornament of kindness." You can hear it for yourself, at any rate the meaning of both is similar so it is not a huge issue. Additionally, I had some trouble understanding this line: བརྩེ་དུང་ཡིད་ཀྱི་རླབས་འཕྲེང་འདི་ཡིས།། which I translated as "With such a strong longing for your loving affection." The problem is that the two words རླབས་ (lab) and འཕྲེང་ (treng) both have a few different meanings. The first can mean a wave (as in, of the ocean), power or strength, or it could even be a contraction of the word for blessings. The second also has many meanings, such as a cord or a garland of something, to fasten, or a feeling of longing or sadness. After going through all the various combinations of meanings and phrasings, I came up with the above and it seems quite fitting so I am content with leaving it at that, though I cannot guarantee its full accuracy. At any rate, this is an incredibly moving and beautiful song and I am truly happy to translate it so that others can appreciate and enjoy it.

-Sherab