སྤང་ཐང་ཡངས་པོ་གོས་ཀྱི་གདན་སྟེང་ནས།།
Pang thang yang po gö kyi den
teng ney
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོས་འབྲི་མོ་འཇོ་བཞིན་དུ།།
Phö pay phu mö dri mo jo shin du
From on high among the silken
platform of the vast plains,
Just like how Tibetan girls milk
the yaks,
ལས་ཀྱི་མཆོད་པ་འོ་མས་འཕེན་པ་འདི།།
Ley kyi chö pa oh mey phen pa di
སྲིད་གསུམ་དགེ་བའི་སྨོན་ལམ་ཐོག་མ་ཡིན།།
Si sum ge way mön lam thog ma yin
This physical offering given with
milk
Is the most significant
aspiration for the virtue of the three spheres.
རྣང་ཞིང་སྣུམ་པོ་གསེར་གྱི་ར་བ་ནས།།
Nang shing num po ser gyi ra wa
ney
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོས་སྙེ་མ་བརྔ་བཞིན་དུ།།
Phö pay phu mö nye ma nga shin du
Among golden enclosures of
pleasant fields,
Just like how Tibetan girls
gather the grain,
ངག་གི་མཆོད་པ་འབྲུ་ལྔས་འཕེན་པ་འདི།།
Ngag gi chö pa dru ngey phen pa
di
འགྲོ་དྲུག་བདེ་བའི་སྨོན་ལམ་ཐོག་མ་ཡིན།།
Dro druk de way mön lam thog ma
yin
This verbal offering given with
the five grains
Is the most significant
aspiration for the happiness of the six classes of beings.
སློབ་ཁང་གསལ་མོ་ཤེལ་གྱི་གུར་ཁང་ནས།།
Lob khang sel mo shel gyi gur
khang ney
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོས་དབྱངས་གསལ་ཀློག་བཞིན་དུ།།
Phö pay phu mö yang sel log shin
du
Among educational institutes of
shimmering crystal
Just like how Tibetan girls read
the vowels and consonants,
ཡིད་ཀྱི་མཆོད་པ་སྨྱུག་གུས་འཕེན་པ་འདི།།
Yi kyi chö pa nyug gü phen pa di
གངས་ལྗོངས་དར་བའི་སྨོན་ལམ་ཐོག་མ་ཡིན།།
Kang jong dar way mön lam thog ma
yin
This mental offering given with
their pens
Is the most significant
aspiration for the development of the snow land.
Note: This was an especially
interesting song to translate, with its powerful message of pride for Tibetan
women and the work that they do. I can only hope I did the song justice with my
rendering of it. There are many interesting phrases in this song, but for
brevity's sake I will only mention the most significant. That being so, I love
the title of this song, and it was challenging to decide how to render it in
English. བདེན་པའི་མཚོད་པ་རང་འགྲུབ་མ་; The first term བདེན་པ་
(den pa) is usually translated as "truth" or
"true", but here I feel like it means something more like
"genuine" which is of course very similar. མཚོད་པ་
(chö pa) is straightforward, meaning "offering". རང་འགྲུབ་
(rang drub) is where it gets difficult, meaning that something is
"naturally" or "spontaneously" produced (lit.
"self-made"); but since the syllable "rang" literally
refers to "self" or "own" I felt that the above translation
was most appropriate and natural in English, otherwise it may have sounded too
contrived. The syllable མ་ at the end makes it
feminine, thus I felt that "Women Making Their Own Genuine Offerings"
was the best way to render it, but there are perhaps better ways that I have
not thought of. I also thought about this term ཐོག་མ་
(thog ma) for a bit, it literally means "first",
"original", or sometimes "uppermost"; I feel like
"most significant" goes with the spirit of the term as it is being
used here, in accord with its senses of being something like
"primary/highest/uppermost" and also makes it sound more elegant in
English.
If you are curious as to what the
various enumerations in the song refer to, 1) the three spheres are: the realm
of the nagas, the realm of the humans, and the realm of the gods. 2) the six
classes of beings are: the hell-beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans,
demi-gods, and gods. 3) the five grains are: barley, rice, wheat, peas, and
millet.
- Sherab
