Sunday, October 19, 2014

'Wonderful Dharma' by Yangkar Drölma

གཞས། ཆོས་ལ་བཟང་པོ།། 

Song: "Wonderful Dharma"

གཞས་མ། གཡང་སྐར་སྒྲོལ་མ།། 

Singer: Yangkar Drölma





རྒྱ་གར་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།།
Gya gar chö kyi gyel po
མེ་ཏོག་ནང་ནས་འཁྲུངས་སོང།།
Me tok nang ney trung song
འཁྲུངས་སོང་ལྷ་མོ་ཨོ།།
Trung song lha mo oh
ཆོས་ལ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་རོ་རོ།།
Chö la sang po la ro ro

The Dharma King from India,
Was born from a flower blossom
[So] was he born! Oh Goddess!
Such wonderful dharma!


རི་བོ་གསེར་གྱི་རྩེ་ལ་།།
Ri bo ser gyi tsey la
ཟླ་བ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་རོ་རོ།།
Da wa sang po la ro ro

At the peak of the golden mountain,
Such a wonderful moon!


མེ་ཏོག་བཞད་པའི་ས་ཆ།།
Me tok shey pay sa cha
བཀྲ་ལ་ཤིས་ལ་བྱུང་སོང།།
Ta la shi la chung song
བྱུང་སོང་ལྷ་མོ་ཨོ།།
Chung song lha mo oh
ཆོས་ལ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་རོ་རོ།།
Chö la sang po la ro ro

At the site where the flower blossomed
It was so auspicious
[So] it happened! Oh goddess!
Such a wonderful dharma!


རི་བོ་གསེར་གྱི་རྩེ་ལ་།།
Ri bo ser gyi tsey la
ཟླ་བ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་རོ་རོ།།
Da wa sang po la ro ro

At the peak of the golden mountain,
Such a wonderful moon!




ཞི་བ་སྡུམ་ར་བདེ་མོ།།
Shi wa dum ra de mo
བདེ་ལེགས་སོ་དྲ་སོ་ལ་ནས་སོ།།
De leg so dra so la ney so
སོ་སོ་ལྷ་མོ་ཨོ།།
So so lha mo oh
ཞི་ལ་བཟང་པོ་རོ་རོ།།
Shi la sang po ro ro

A peaceful and pleasant garden 
How delightful!
Oh goddess!
Such a wonderful peace!


རི་བོ་གསེར་གྱི་རྩེ་ལ་།།
Ri bo ser gyi tse la
ཟླ་བ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་རོ་རོ།།
Da wa sang po la ro ro
ཟླ་བ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་རོ་རོ།།
Da wa sang po la ro ro

At the peak of the golden mountain,
Such a wonderful moon!
Such a wonderful moon!


ཞི་བ་སྡུམ་ར་བདེ་མོ།།
Shi wa dum ra de mo
བདེ་ལེགས་སོ་དྲ་སོ་ལ་ནས་སོ།།
De leg so dra so la ney so
སོ་སོ་ལྷ་མོ་ཨོ།།
So so lha mo oh
ཞི་ལ་བཟང་པོ་རོ་རོ།།
Shi la sang po ro ro

A peaceful and pleasant garden 
How delightful!
Oh goddess!
Such a wonderful peace!


རི་བོ་གསེར་གྱི་རྩེ་ལ་།།
Ri bo ser gyi tsey la
ཟླ་བ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་རོ་རོ།།
Da wa sang po la ro ro
རི་བོ་གསེར་གྱི་རྩེ་ལ་།།
Ri bo ser gyi tsey la
ཟླ་བ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་རོ་རོ།།
Da wa sang po la ro ro

At the peak of the golden mountain,
Such a wonderful moon!
At the peak of the golden mountain,
Such a wonderful moon!





Note: This is perhaps a rough translation at best, due to some uncertainties. However, this is one of my absolute favorite songs, one of the very first (if not *the* first) Tibetan songs I got hooked on, in fact. I love Yangkar Dolma's voice, and it is particularly captivating in this song. Having just discovered a video available on youtube, I decided to translate it and make it available for everyone despite some issues with how the lyrics are presented here. The original version contains no lyrics, so it is likely that someone who does not know exactly what the lyrics are added them in here. That being said, it seems mostly accurate as far as I can tell, with only one major issue I have: in the video's lyrics it says གཞས་པ་ཁྲོམ་ར་བདེ་མོ།། (shey pa trom ra de mo), which not only does not make sense but also is clearly not what she is singing in the video (the three terms in this phrase mean, respectively, 'singer', 'market/crowd of people', and 'well/comfortable/pleasant,etc"--so the terms "singer" and "market" do not make any sense next to each other. Taking an educated guess, it sounds more like she is saying ཞི་བ་སྡུམ་ར་བདེ་མོ།། (shi wa dum ra de mo), which, if you take the term "shi wa" as an adjective, would mean peaceful, which is much more complementary for this phrase (I also changed other instances in this song based on my interpretation here); I also am using the term "dum ra" (garden) instead of "trom ra" (market) which literally refers to a "flower garden" and makes much more sense in this context considering the other verses--although it is hard for me to hear which term she is actually using.

 There is also an interesting usage of the term ལྷ་མོ་ (lha mo, ie. lit. "goddess/female divinity") that appears frequently, which seems to be a stand alone exclamation as far as I can tell. So I have rendered it just as it is, assuming its usage to be similar to using a term such as "hallelujah" as we might in the west. These are the main concerns of mine in this song, and so if anyone with some understanding has any suggestions for this, please do contact us. Otherwise, I hope my interpretation here helps others enjoy this truly incredible song.

*Please also note that, as far as my transliteration is concerned, I have only transliterated the text that appears in the video. There are plenty of instances where the singer is vocalizing something that I have left out of my transliteration--these instances do not add anything to meaning, but are used frequently in Tibetan songs (such as "so ya la" or "so la ney so")--and this song is full of such instances, which is common for Tibetan folk songs like this. Anyhow, the listener should be able to determine these by hearing them.

**Also, this is just a guess, but I have a hunch that the reference in the first couple of lines to an Indian Dharma King who was born out of a flower blossom, is probably referring to Padmasambhava, whose name literally means "The Lotus-Born" and is largely credited by Tibetans for introducing the dharma to Tibet.

~Translated by Sherab


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