Tuesday, April 15, 2014

'Blessed Sign' by Kunga

གཞས། རྟེན་འབྲེལ།། 

Song: Blessed Signs

ལེན་མཁན། ཀུན་དགའ།། 

Singer: Künga





ཨ་སྔོན་མཐོ་པོའི་མཐོ་པོའི་འོག་ན།
Ah ngön tho pö tho pö og na
གསེར་མདོག་ཉི་མ་ཉི་མ་ཤར་དུས།
Ser dok nyi ma nyi ma shar dü
མཛེས་སྡུག་གངས་རི་གངས་རི་ལྷག་པ་མཛས།
Dze duk kang ri kang ri lhak pa dzey
བདེ་སྐྱིད་དཔལ་ཡོན་ཤར་བའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་རེད།
De kyi pel yön shar way ten drel rey

Beneath the heights of the heavens,
As the golden-hued sun arises,
The beautiful snow mountains are unsurpassed in their resplendence.
It is the blessed sign that a joy so majestic is dawning.

རྩྭ་ཐང་ཡངས་པོ་ཡངས་པོ་སྟེང་ན།
Tsa thang yang po yang po teng na
འཇའ་འོད་ཀྱི་གུར་ཁང་གུར་ཁང་ཕུབ་དུས།
Ja ö kyi gur khang gur khang phab dü
དཀར་དམར་མེ་ཏོག་མེ་ཏོག་ལྷག་པ་མཛེས།
Kar mar me tok me tok lhak pa dzey
རྟ་ནོར་ལུག་གསུམ་འཕེལ་བའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་རེད།
Ta nor luk sum phel way ten drel rey

Upon the vast, wide-open grasslands
As a halo of rainbow light descends,
Flowers of white and red are unsurpassed in their resplendence.
It is the blessed sign that our horses, yaks, and sheep shall thrive.

ས་ལའི་སྨན་ལྗོངས་སྨན་ལྗོངས་འདི་ན།
Sa lay men jong men jong di na
སྦྲང་ཆར་ཟིལ་མ་ཟིལ་མ་འབབ་དུས།
Drang char sil ma sil ma bab dü
ཡ་གི་འདབས་མ་འདབས་མ་ལྷག་པ་མཛེས།
Ya gi dab ma dab ma lhak pa dzey
ཞིང་ལ་ལོ་ཏོག་འཕེལ་བའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་རེད།
Shing la lo tok phel way ten drel rey

Here in this healing land of Tibet,
As the splendor of the seasonal rains descends upon us,
The leaves above us are unsurpassed in their resplendence.
It is the blessed sign of the coming abundance of crops in the fields.

ཡ་གི་འདབས་མ་འདབས་མ་ལྷག་པ་མཛེས།
Ya gi dab ma dab ma lhak pa dzey
ཞིང་ལ་ལོ་ཏོག་འཕེལ་བའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་རེད།
Shing la lo tok phel way ten drel rey
ཞིང་ལ་ལོ་ཏོག་འཕེལ་བའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་རེད།
Shing la lo tok phel way ten drel rey
ཞིང་ལ་ལོ་ཏོག་འཕེལ་བའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་རེད།
Shing la lo tok phel way ten drel rey

The leaves above us are unsurpassed in their resplendence.
It is the blessed sign of the coming abundance of crops in the fields.
It is the blessed sign of the coming abundance of crops in the fields.
It is the blessed sign of the coming abundance of crops in the fields.


Note: One interesting decision I had to make for this song was how to translate the term རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ (ten drel), which in a dharmic context means "dependent origination"; in common parlance it refers to the coming together of auspicious or fortunate circumstances. Thus, such a phrase should be translated in a more nuanced fashion in this case so that it sounds more pleasing and less mechanical in English. I chose to go with "blessed sign" as the Tibetan term certainly connotes a spiritual context, due to blessings, positivity, or what have you, things are or will work out in a wonderful manner, which I think is appropriately conveyed with the term I am using in English. Other than that, there are also multiple instances in this song of words being repeated twice in succession, which I have not translated as such in English (with one exception). The repetitions seem to only serve the purpose of enhancing the rhythm and preserving the meter of the song; there is no significant meaning otherwise (as far as I can tell). I also had to make some corrections to the Tibetan lyrics where there seemed to be errors. All in all, this is a very enchanting song of the beauty and benevolence of nature--a common and charming theme found in many Tibetan songs.

-Sherab

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