བློ་ལྡན་དྲན་སྐུལ་གྱི་གླུ།
The Encouragement
of the Wise
གཞས་ཚིག
གནམ་འབྲུག་རྒྱལ།
གཞས་པ།
ཤེར་བསྟན་དང་ཕུན་ལོ།
Words by: Namdruk Gyal
Sung by: Sherten and Punlo
སློབ་ཕྲུག་ལགས།
དང་པོ་ཐོས་པ་འཚོལ་དུས་སུ།
དཀའ་སྤྱད་བྲག་ལ་ཐུག་ས་ཡོད།
སྡུག་རུས་ཐང་ནས་ལུས་དུས་ཡོད།
གཙང་བོའི་རྒྱུན་གྱི་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་དགོས
སློབ་ཕྲུག་ལགས།
Students,
Firstly, at the time when you set out learning,
There will be places where hardships meet with rocky impasses.
There will be times where forbearance is lost on the empty plains.
One needs to strive diligently like a flowing river,
Dear students.
དགེ་རྒན་ལགས།
རིག་པའི་སྒོ་མོ་སྙེགས་དུས་འདིར།
དགེན་གྱི་བསླབ་བྱ་ལམ་སྟོན་ཡིན།
ཕ་མའི་རེ་བཞག་སྙིང་ནོར་ཡིན།
གོལ་འཛོལ་མེད་པའི་དམ་བཅའ་ཡོད།
དགེ་རྒན་ལགས།
Teacher,
When we arrive at the gates of the intellect,
The teacher's instructions will be our guidance.
The hope our parents have entrusted is a dear treasure -
We have an unmistaken promise,
Dear teacher.
སློབ་ཕྲུག་ལགས།
བར་དུ་སློབ་ཆེན་བརྒྱུད་དུས་སུ།
ཤེས་བྱ་ཧུབ་ཀྱིས་འཐུང་དགོས་ཡོད།
རྒྱུན་དུ་དྲན་ཤེས་བརྟེན་དགོས་ཡོད།
སྔོན་བྱོན་མཁས་པའི་སྙིང་སྟོབས་དགོས།
སློབ་ཕྲུག་ལགས།
Students,
Secondly, at the time you're passing through university,
You need to drink up knowledge, gulp by gulp.
You need to rely on your memory at all times.
You'll need the courageous spirit of the ancient masters!
Dear students.
དགེ་རྒན་ལགས།
མི་ཚེའི་ཐེམ་སྐས་འཛེགས་དུས་འདིར།
རྩེད་དགོད་རྣམ་གཡེང་མི་བྱེད་པར།
ལུགས་དང་མཐུན་པའི་སློབ་གཉེར་བྱེད།
རྒྱང་ལ་བསྲིངས་པའི་ཕུགས་བསམ་ཡོད།
དགེ་རྒན་ལགས།
Teacher,
When we climb up the steps of life,
Without being distracted or fooling around
We'll engage in studies in accordance with the tradition
We have far-reaching hopes for the future,
Dear teacher.
སློབ་ཕྲུག་ལགས།
ཐ་མ་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་འགྲིམ་དུས་སུ།
གནའ་དེང་ཟུང་གི་རྒྱུན་སྤེལ་དགོས།
གྲངས་མེད་སློབ་བུ་སྐྱོང་དགོས་ཡོད།
རང་གི་རིགས་ལ་སྲི་ཞུ་སྒྲུབས།
སློབ་ཕྲུག་ལགས།
Students,
Finally, when you enter into society,
You need to help both the ancient and modern to flourish .
You need to nurture countless other students;
Contributing back to your own kind,
Dear students.
དགེ་རྒན་ལགས།
ང་རང་བོད་ཀྱི་བུ་ཕྲུག་ཡིན།
སྐད་དང་ཡི་གེའི་གཤོག་ཟུང་ཡོད།
སློབ་གསོ་སྐྱོང་བའི་འོས་འགན་ཡོད།
དགེ་རྒན་ཐུགས་སེམས་བདེ་མོ་བྱོས།
དགེ་རྒན་ལགས།
དགེ་རྒན་ཐུགས་སེམས་བདེ་མོ་བྱོས།
དགེ་རྒན་ལགས།
Teacher,
I am a child of Tibet.
I have the wings of both language and writing
And the responsibility to foster education.
Teacher, please be well and don't worry.
Dear teacher.
Teacher, please be well and don't worry.
Dear teacher.
Notes: This chilled out song is comprised of an exchange between a teacher and his pupils. The teacher gives his threefold advice corresponding to the times when the students begin their education in their youth, when they are going through university in the middle of their life, and finally in the final stage of life when they can contribute back to their own culture and community. The teacher says there are two types difficulties that arise when starting one's studies. First you might reach dead ends which are like impenetrable boulders, which one cannot overcome. Secondly, at times studies might feel endless like when one wanders across the vast grasslands with no end in sight. For this reason students need to be like a ceaselessly flowing river and persevere. In contrast to the lower grades and endless years of study, when one enters university it is time to devour as much knowledge as possible. This is the time to move quickly and be unwavering since one's goal is in sight. Having reached one's goal it is then time to give back to the Tibetan cause, it's culture and people, by doing what the teacher is doing now - helping his students to grow and develop. The students, like any good Tibetan pupils, promise to follow the teacher's advice in order to fulfill and be unerring in light of their parents' hopes and expectations. They vow to take their studies seriously and as they progress seek fruition of their long-term goals. The students conclude by telling their teacher to rest assured because, as Tibetans empowered with knowledge of their mother tongue, they feel the need to help their culture to flourish.
Translation notes:
Even though ལགས་ is a term of respect more so than a term of endearment, I translated it when it comes at the end of a stanza as "dear" since they whole thing seems to be a heart to heart exchange. Perhaps the fact that Sherden is from Amdo, where I believe the usage of ལགས་ is minimal, makes this excusable. I wasn't sure whether to translate the སློབ་ཕྲུག་ལགས་ in the singular in plural. It could be an intimate discussion between teacher and student one-on-one or it could be a teacher talking to his classroom. The last stanza would support this since Sherden says "I" instead of "We." Even more so because he uses two syllables ང་རང་ which could just as easily ང་ཚོ་ so we know there was not constraint from the metre. In the end I translated it as plural except for the last stanza.
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