Monday, April 7, 2014

'Waiting For My Mother' Kunga

གཞས། བུ་ངས་ཨ་མ་སྒུག་ཡོད།། 

Song: Waiting For My Mother


གདན་ཞུས་གླུ་བ། ཀུན་དགའ།། 



Singer: Künga





ནུས་མེད་ཉམ་ཆུང་ལུས་པོ།།
Nü mey nyam chung lü po
ཟང་ཟིང་འཚོ་བར་འཁྱམ་ཀྱང།།
Sang sing thso war khyam kyang
ལྷད་མེད་དུངས་བའི་སེམས་པ།།
Lhey me dung way sem pa
ཨ་མ་ཁྱེད་ལ་ཆགས་ཡོད།།
Ah ma khey la chag yö

Though the body, weak and drained,
Wanders about for sustenance,
A pure heart of love
I have for you mother.

འདུ་བྲལ་ལས་དབང་བཙན་པོས།།
Du drel ley wang tsen pö
མ་ཁྱེད་གམ་དུ་མེད་ཀྱང།།
Ma khye gam du mey kyang
ཨ་མས་གསུངས་བའི་བསླབ་བྱ།།
Ah mey sung way lab cha
སྙིང་ལ་རི་མོ་བརྐོས་ཡོད།།
Nying la ri mo kö yö

Due to the powerful fate of meeting and parting
Mother, we are not close.
Yet, the advice given by my mother
Has carved an image in my heart.

མ་ཁྱེད་བུ་ཕྲུག་དོན་དུ།།
Ma khye bu thruk dön du
བགྲེས་པའི་ཚུལ་དེ་མཐོང་དུས།།
Drey pay tshül de thong dü
ཁོག་ཏུ་ཞུགས་པའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ།།
Khog tu shug pay dug ngal
རི་རབ་ལས་ཀྱང་ལྕི་བ།།
Ri rab ley kyang chi wa

Mother, when I see how you've aged
For the sake of your son
The pain that I feel inside
Weighs more than a mountain.

སྐར་ཚོགས་རྣམ་པར་བཀྲ་བའི།།
Kar tshog nam par tra way
མཚན་གུང་མཁའ་ལ་བལྟ་དུས།།
Tshen gung kha la ta dü
ཟླ་བའི་ནང་གི་ལྷ་མོ།།
Da way nang gi lha mo
ཨ་མ་ཁྱེད་དང་ནོར་སོང།།
Ah ma khye dang nor song

Among multitudes of stars shining bright,
As I peer into the midnight sky,
I mistook you, my mother,
For the goddess in the moon.

དགའ་བའི་སེམས་ཀྱི་མྱོས་ནས།།
Ga way sem kyi nyö ney
དྲན་པའི་ཡུས་དང་བཅས་ཏེ།།
Dren pay yü dang chey te
ཨ་མ་ཨ་མ་འབོད་ཀྱང།།
Ah ma ah ma bö kyang
བསམ་པའི་རེ་བ་མ་འགྲུབས།།
Sam pay rey wa ma drub

Losing control in the joy of it all,
With the sorrow of your memory
I cry out "Mother! Mother!"
But my hope, my wish, is not fulfilled.

བརྩེ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་ཨ་མ།།
Tse wa chen gyi ah ma
ང་ལ་ལན་ཅིག་གནང་རོགས།།
Nga la len chig nang rok
གྲང་ངར་དགུན་གྱི་མཚན་མོར།།
Trang ngar gün gyi tshen mor
བུ་ངས་ཨ་མ་སྒུག་ཡོད།།
Bhu ngey ah ma gug yö

Oh loving mother!
Please give me an answer!
In the cold winter's night,
I, your son, await you mother.

བརྩེ་བ་ཅན་གྱི་ཨ་མ།།
Tse wa chen gyi ah ma
ང་ལ་ལན་ཅིག་གནང་རོགས།།
Nga la len chig nang rok
གྲང་ངར་དགུན་གྱི་མཚན་མོར།།
Trang ngar gün gyi tshen mor
བུ་ངས་ཨ་མ་སྒུག་ཡོད།།
Bhu ngey ah ma gug yö

Oh loving mother!
Please give me an answer!
In the cold winter's night,
I, your son, await you mother.

བུ་ངས་ཨ་མ་སྒུག་ཡོད།།
Bhu ngey ah ma gug yö
བུ་ངས་ཨ་མ་སྒུག་ཡོད།།
Bhu ngey ah ma gug yö

I, your son, await you mother.
I, your son, await you mother.


Note: This is one of my favorite Tibetan songs and one of the first I ever listened to, even before I started to study Tibetan. I always found it very touching even when I could not understand the meaning of it at all. Therefore, I have tried to translate this song more poetically in order to try and do justice the beauty of the original. I do want to point out one interesting phrase in particular:
འདུ་བྲལ་ལས་དབང་བཙན་པོས། "Du drel" here refers to one kind of impermanence discussed in Tibetan Buddhism: the fact that all meetings end in parting. Thus, through the "force/strength" ་བཙན་པོས of "destiny/fate" ལས་དབང་ (lit. "Power of karma"), their meeting has inevitably led to parting ways. Additionally, there is also the phrase བུ་ངས་ "bhu ngey" which appears in a few different ways in many Tibetan songs (and I have mentioned it in a note for another song). It's usually meant to be humilific, but here I take it more to be identifying the speaker to his mother, as her son. བུ་ངས་ is literally "Boy I" (with an agentive marker which generally indicates who the agent of the sentence is, but is here probably intended merely to emphasize the speaker himself--UNLESS it is a mispelling, which is common, and should actually be ངའི་ which means "my" and sounds pretty much exactly the same as what is written here, and therefore it would be something more like "I await my mother"), which I found acceptable to translate as "I, your son..." in the last verses. However, this phrase also appears in the title in the exact same way, but I have not translated because it does not sound as nice as a title.


-Sherab

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