Wednesday, July 2, 2014

'Chang Song' by Jampel

གཞས། ཆང་གཞས༎ 

Song: Chang Song

ལེན་མཁན༎ འཇམ་དཔལཐ༎ 

Singer: Jampel 



ལྷ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་ཆང་འབུལ་ལོ༎ 
Lha kön chog sum la chang phül lo 
ངའི་ཆང་འདི་དཀོན་མཆོག་མཆོད་པ་ཡིན༎ 
Ngay chang di kön chog chö pa yin 
ཆང་དང་པོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་འབུལ༎ 
Chang dang po kön chog sum la phül 
བོད་གངས་ཅན་བསམ་དོན་འགྲུབ་པར་ཤོག། 
Phö kang chen sam dön drub par shok 
བོད་གངས་ཅན་བསམ་དོན་འགྲུབ་པར་ཤོག། 
Phö kang chen sam dön drub par shok I offer chang to the gods and the Three Jewels. 

This chang of mine is an offering to the Three Jewels. 
The first [serving of] chang is offered to the Three Jewels. 
May the wishes of the snowy land of Tibet be fulfilled! 
May the wishes of the snowy land of Tibet be fulfilled! 

དྲིན་ཕ་མ་རྣམ་གཉིས་ཆང་བཞེས་དང༎ 
Drin pha ma nam nyi chan shey dang 
ངའི་ཆང་འདི་ཕ་མའི་བཞེས་ཆང་ཡིན༎ 
Ngay chang di pha may shey chang yin 
ཆང་གཉིས་པ་དྲིན་ཅན་ཕ་མར་འབུལ༎ 
Chang nyi pa drin chen pha mar phül 
སྐུ་མི་འགྱུར་ཡུན་རིང་བརྟན་པར་ཤོག། 
Ku min gyur yün ring ten par shok 
སྐུ་མི་འགྱུར་ཡུན་རིང་བརྟན་པར་ཤོག། 
Ku min gyur yün ying ten par shok 

Chang for both of my kind parents, 
This chang of mine is for my mother and father. 
The second [serving of] chang is offered to my kind parents. 
May your health be steady and your life be long and firm. 
May your health be steady and your life be long and firm. 

བོད་ཆོལ་གསུམ་སྤུན་ཟླའི་ཆང་བཞེས་དང༎ 
Phö chöl sum pün tay chang shey dang 
ངའི་ཆང་འདི་སྤུན་ཟླའི་བཞེས་ཆང་ཡིན༎ 
Ngey chang di pün tai shey chang yin 
ཆང་གསུམ་པ་ཆོལ་གསུམ་སྤུན་ལ་འབུལ༎ 
Chang sum pa chöl pün la phül 
སྤུན་ནང་མཐུན་ཡོང་བའི་རྟན་འབྲེལ་ཞུ༎ 
Pün nang thün yong way ten drel shu 
སྤུན་ནང་མཐུན་ཡོང་བའི་རྟན་འབྲེལ་ཞུ༎ 
Pün nang thün yong way ten drel shu 

Chang for my Tibetan family of the three provinces, 
This chang of mine is for my [Tibetan] family. 
The third [serving of] chang is offered to the family of the three provinces. 
I celebrate the coming harmony for my [Tibetan] family! 
I celebrate the coming harmony for my [Tibetan] family! 

སྤུན་ནང་མཐུན་ཡོང་བའི་རྟན་འབྲེལ་ཞུ༎ 
Pün nang thün yong way ten drel shu 
སྤུན་ནང་མཐུན་ཡོང་བའི་རྟན་འབྲེལ་ཞུ༎ 
Pün nang thün yong way ten drel shu 

I celebrate the coming harmony for my [Tibetan] family! 
I celebrate the coming harmony for my [Tibetan] family! 


Note: I left the Tibetan word ཆང་ (chang) untranslated, as it often does not sound as pleasant to translate it into something comparable in the English language, such as "beer" or "liquor"; especially when, as the Tibetans tend to do, there is a religious tone to what is being said. Thus, leaving it entitled as "Chang Song" feels much more appropriate to me than to render it as "Beer Song" or "Liquor Song" which sounds much less quaint in English. The ཆང་གཞས་ (chang shey) is a very common and very popular song in Tibet, with several different, but usually similar, versions. This is a simple and succinct, yet very pleasant version of the chang shey, and I really like the performance and demeanor of this singer as well. Additionally, I have added a new feature to this translation for anyone interested in Tibetan music who cannot read the Tibetan script. Therefore, I felt it would be nice to add in some transliteration of what is being sung, to make it easier to follow along with the song (and perhaps sing along if you feel so inclined!). Just two notes about this for clarification: I have not transliterated the lyrics into Wylie because that would be making it far too complex for our purposes and likely unreadable for most non-Tibetan speakers. Therefore, I have transliterated it as close to how it actually is spoken as I can, in a simple and comprehensible style. Though a second caveat is necessary here, because I have transliterated it into the Central Tibetan dialect, rather than the Amdo or Kham style (which I am much less acquainted with)--even though most of the singers are from either Amdo or Kham! However, I feel for the most part such dialectical differences will be unnoticable to the untrained ear, or at least not so different as to create a dissonant resonation while singing/speaking along with the song. Some examples of the differences in pronunciation between the three provinces: The word for 'Tibet' is བོད་ which is pronounced as "Phö" (Note: the Ph sound means that the "P" is aspirated, i.e. spoken with the breath; it does *not* mean it is pronounced like the standard English "f" sound) in Central Tibet, but in Amdo they usually pronounce it as "Wö". In Central Tibet, the word for 'you' is ཁྱེད་རང་ which is prounounced as "Khye rang", yet in Amdo or Kham it would be pronounced as "Chye rang" (not withstanding the fact that the Amdowas and Khampas tend to use the less honorofic form ཁྱོད་ "Chyö", which is usually considered quite rude in Central Tibet. In short, for the sake of consistency and convenience, I will be transliterating in a Central Tibetan style, sans-Wylie


-Sherab

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