'The Vow' by Lobsang Dawa

གཞས། དམ་བཅའ༎ 

Song: The Vow

ལེན་མཁན། བློ་བཟང་ཟླ་བ༎ 

Singer: Lobsang Dawa

མི་འཐུང་མི་འཐུང་ཨ་རག་ངས་མི་འཐུང༎
Mi thung mi thung ah rak ngey mi thung
མི་ཡི་མཐའ་མ་བསམ་པའི་འཁྱམ་པོ་ངས༎
Mi yi tha ma sam pay khyam po ngey
མི་འཐུང་མི་འཐུང་ཨ་རག་ངས་མི་འཐུང༎
Mi thung mi thung ah rak ngey mi thung
རྩ་བའི་བླ་མའི་མདུན་ནས་དམ་བཅའ་བཞག།
Tsa way la ma dün ney dam cha shak
མི་འཐུང་མི་འཐུང་ཨ་རག་ངས་མི་འཐུང༎
Mi thung mi thung ah rak ngey mi thung
རྩ་བའི་བླ་མའི་མདུན་ནས་དམ་བཅའ་བཞག།
Tsa way la ma dün ney dam cha shak

Won't drink, won't drink, no I won't drink alcohol.
I, the vagabond who has the worst intentions,
Won't drink, won't drink, no I won't drink alcohol.
I took a vow in the presence of my root lama.
Won't drink, won't drink, no I won't drink alcohol.
I took a vow in the presence of my root lama.


མི་འཐེན་མི་འཐེན་དུ་བ་ངས་མི་འཐེན༎
Mi then mi then du wa ngey mi then
མི་ཡི་མཐའ་མ་བསམ་པའི་འཁྱམ་པོ་ངས༎
Mi yi tha ma sam pay khyam po ngey
མི་འཐེན་མི་འཐེན་དུ་བ་ངས་མི་འཐེན༎
Mi then mi then du wa ngey mi then
རྩ་བའི་བླ་མའི་མདུན་ནས་དམ་བཅའ་བཞག།
Tsa way la ma dün ney dam cha shak
མི་འཐེན་མི་འཐེན་དུ་བ་ངས་མི་འཐེན༎
Mi then mi then du wa ngey mi then
རྩ་བའི་བླ་མའི་མདུན་ནས་དམ་བཅའ་བཞག།
Tsa way la ma dün ney dam cha shak

Won't smoke, won't smoke, no I won't smoke tobacco.
I, the vagabond who has the worst intentions,
Won't smoke, won't smoke, no I won't smoke tobacco.
I took a vow in the presence of my root lama.
Won't smoke, won't smoke, no I won't smoke tobacco.
I took a vow in the presence of my root lama.

མི་ལས་མི་ལས་ཤོ་བ་ངས་མི་ལས༎
Mi ley mi ley sho wa ngey mi ley
མི་ཡི་མཐའ་མ་བསམ་པའི་འཁྱམ་པོ་ངས༎
Mi yi tha ma sam pay khyam po ngey
མི་ལས་མི་ལས་ཤོ་བ་ངས་མི་ལས༎
Mi ley mi ley sho wa ngey mi ley
རྩ་བའི་བླ་མའི་མདུན་ནས་དམ་བཅའ་བཞག།
Tsa way la ma dün ney dam cha shak
མི་ལས་མི་ལས་ཤོ་བ་ངས་མི་ལས༎
Mi ley mi ley sho wa ngey mi ley
རྩ་བའི་བླ་མའི་མདུན་ནས་དམ་བཅའ་བཞག།
Tsa way la ma dün ney dam cha shak

Won't gamble, won't gamble, no I won't gamble.
I, the vagabond who has the worst intentions,
Won't gamble, won't gamble, no I won't gamble.
I took a vow in the presence of my root lama.
Won't gamble, won't gamble, no I won't gamble.
I took a vow in the presence of my root lama.

མི་ལས་མི་ལས་ཤོ་བ་ངས་མི་ལས༎
Mi ley mi ley sho wa ngey mi ley
རྩ་བའི་བླ་མའི་མདུན་ནས་དམ་བཅའ་བཞག།
Tsa way la ma dün ney dam cha shak

Won't gamble, won't gamble, no I won't gamble.
I took a vow in the presence of my root lama.

Note: This may be one of my favorite Tibetan songs of all time. Not only is the music energetic, lively, catchy, and well executed, but the content of the song and its overall euphoric tone impresses me every time. I would be very surprised to find a song in the West which is this celebratory of abstinence. Just watch the singer's performance, the smile on his face and just how into it he appears--it's a rare piece, to say the least. That being said, there is one line in here that I've never been quite sure how to translate: མི་ཡི་མཐའ་མ་བསམ་པའི་འཁྱམ་པོ་ངས༎ (mi yi tha ma sam pay khyam po ngey). I even had a Tibetan friend explain it to me a while ago, and even though I remember the gist of what he said I don't recall exactly how he phrased it. The latter half of the line is quite clear, where he says "I, the vagabond..."; it is the first half I find problematic. "Mi yi tha ma" means something like "the last person" or "the last of humanity" perhaps. I recall my friend telling me that this was a pejorative statement, and means something more like "the worst person". Combining this with the term "sam pa" which has a wide range of meanings--sometimes meaning "thought" or "thinking"--but here I am translating as "intention". Thus, I am going with the phrase "the one who has the worst intentions". I cannot say that is a precise translation, but it at least captures the meaning. Anyhow, it's very clear that this sentence is meant to be humilific and emphasize the speaker's own weakness, and therefore it should not be a cause of major concern. Just enjoy the song and try to imagine yourself being this ecstatic about giving up one of your vices--in front of your root lama that is! 

-Sherab