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Phayul

ཕ་ཡུལ།

Fatherland

Achak Tsendep

ཨ་ཅག་ཚན་སྡེབ།

Autoplay

The word ‘pa-yul’ means ‘homeland’, the place where one is born and lives. The girls in this group are singing about the importance of their homeland, because they live in China; most of them grew up there and work there. Secondary school does not exist in Tibet and after they have finished primary school the children are sent to China so that they can learn Chinese language better and in this way they grow up understanding it well. And they do not study it only at secondary schools, but also at university.

These three girls, the Achak group, are very good and do many modern things and sing a lot of songs in Chinese, not about politics but more about nature. Many of the songs that they sing in Chinese have been composed by some Tibetan scholars and then arranged by them, and they sing them in order to describe the desires and conditions of Tibetans, what difficulties they have, etc. They are incredible, really very good, I am amazed how good they are.

They have become very famous singers and are now invited to many places. But only a few of the songs are in Tibetan, mainly they sing in Chinese, also foreign songs which have been translated into Chinese. For example, we have a Spanish song sung in Chinese by them. They are very good, very open and skillful, because they also want to introduce the feelings of the Tibetans to China. Now, thanks to their work, the majority of people have begun to understand the Tibetans’ feelings and what their situation is.

Perhaps many people are surprised, “But these are modern songs!” Why not? We are living in time, and where are the Tibetans living? They are also living in the present time. Many people do not understand this and say, “But these are not traditional!” Why should they need to be? Also Europe, the Western world has its traditions, but the majority of songs are modern. We are living in time and also the Tibetans are living in time, they are not in the last century, repeating only what they did then, closing their eyes and all their senses, it is not possible. Also the words that they have composed are really lovely. For example,  ‘bod-bai bu-mo‘ song is not traditional and at the beginning even I did not understand it very well, but afterward I wrote it all down and understood it. They have written another song which will not be easy for you to understand: it talks about their life, how they have had to leave Tibet to live in China, how they have had to grow up in that modern world, what they have wanted to do and how they have wanted to integrate. And then they say to the Tibetans, “Don’t think that we’re mixed up and mess everything up. This is the condition of our time. Don’t worry, don’t get angry if we do things that seem strange, because we are living in time.” They are really good and they really understand how to integrate in the condition.

We must also learn to do this. The Western world is so developed, it is superior, but actually there is not a feeling like that among the Tibetans. Western songs do not try to help people to understand, they just talk about love. They say things like “I’m dying for you” and everyone thinks it’s fantastic!

The meaning: they talk about how happy they are to be in their country. “My feelings and what concretely remains in my mind is my country”, they are kind of saying this. They are also singing in a very modern way because they are living in time and understand this.

བོད་~པ་ སེམས་~ཉིད་ གསོ་ ~ བ། །དགེ་~བ་ བྱེད་~ ས།
bǒd~ba sem~ñid sò ~ va gé~va jyěd~ sa
sem-ñid: in general it means nature of mind
sò: find the courage, to discover their dimension 
gé-va: virtue
jyěd-sa: What is he doing? To discover his dimension he does virtuous things.

སེམས་~སྐོའི་ རྒྱང་~མཇལ་ བྱེད་~དུས་~ སུ། །དགའ་~བོ་ བྱེད་~ ས།
sem~gyoi gyáŋ~jàl jyěd~dǔs~su gá~vo jyěd~ sa
sem-gyoi: being sad
gyáŋ-jàl : which one sees from far away
jyěd-dǔs su: when one does this
gá-vo jyěd-sa: someone who enjoys, makes friends, or also loves, all of these meanings
Someone who is in love is ‘gá-vo jyěd-sa’.

ཨེ་~ མ་~ ང་ ~ དགའ་ ~སའི་ ཕ་~ཡུལ།
e~ma ŋa ~ gá ~sai pa~ yul
e-ma: emaho
ŋa-gá: I like
I like my homeland.

ང་~རང་ སླེབས་~ས།
ŋa~raŋ lèb~sa
Where I arrive. Repeat.

*****

ཨེ་ ~མ་ སེམས་~དབུས་~སུ་ ~གནས། །ཡ་~ཐོད་ མིག་~ཏུ མཛེས།
e-ma sem~wú~su ~nás ~ ya~tod mig~du zès
sem-wú-su: from the heart
ya-tod mig-du zès: what I see with my eyes is beautiful

ང་~རང་ གངས་རིའི་ ལོངས~ཆེན་ འདི་~ནི།
ŋa~raŋ gǎŋ~rii jóŋ~qen dì~ni
ŋa-raŋ: me myself
gǎŋ-rii jóŋ-qen dì-ni: this great dimension of snow, i.e. Tibet

ལྷ་~ཡུལ་ ལས་~ཀང་ ལྷག
lha~yul las~gyaŋ lhag
lha-yul: dimension of the devas
lhag: better, superior or more
i.e. more beautiful, better than the dimension of the divinities

ང་~རང་གང་~དུའང་ བསླེབས་~ཀང་ཟུར་~ཙམ་མ་~བསྐྱུར།
ŋa~raŋ gǎŋ~dǔaŋ lèb ~gyaŋ sǔr~zam ma ~gyur
gǎŋ-la: in whatever place
lèb: to arrive
gyaŋ: even if
Even if I arrive in whatever place... 
sǔr-zam: minimal, less
ma: negative
ma-gyur: is not left
When someone arrives in a nice place, they forget their country: this means that it is not like this.

གངས་~ལོངས་ ཕ་~ཡུལ་ སེམས་~ལ་ ཡོད་~ན་
gǎŋ~jóŋ pa~yul sem~la yod~na
The homeland of the snows in the mind 
yod-na: having

ཡིད་~སེམས་ སྐིད་~ འདུག
yid~sem gyid~ dùg
I feel happy in my mind.

ང་~ལ་ དྲན་~ཞིང་ འཇོག་ ~ས། ང་~ ཡི་~ ཕ་~ ཡུལ།
ŋa~la drǎn~xĭŋ jòg ~sa ŋa~ yi~ pa~ yul
ŋa-la: for me
drǎn-xĭŋ: to remember
jòg-sa: that holds this memory, for holding this memory of my country.

*****

ཨེ་ ~མ་  སེམས་~དབུས་~སུ།
e-ma sem~wú~su 
The meaning is the same as ‘e-ma sem-wú-su’.

སེམས་~རྒྱ་ བཀོད་~ས།
sem~gyá god~sa
What is in my mind?

ད་~བར་~དུ་~ཁྱེད་ འུ་ ~གཉིས་ མ་~བྱམས་ བུ་~ བརེ།
dǎ~bǎr~du~kyed hǔ ~ñis ma~jyǎm bǔ~ ze
dǎ bǎr: from now onward
kyed hǔ-ñis: the two of us, you and I, they are communicating with someone with whom they may have a relationship
ma-jyǎm bǔ-ze: is an example, like a kind mother to her son
bǔ: is a son who loves his mother, this is a relationship based on awareness.

Then everything is repeated.

སྐིད་~པའི་ རི་~མོ་ བཀོད་ ~ཅིང་།
gyid~bai ri~mo god ~jiŋ
gyid-bai: of joy, happiness
ri-mo god: to draw, design
Like a drawing of a happiness, like this condition,

ང་ལ་~ དྲན་~ཞིང་ འཇོག་~ས།
ŋa-la~ drǎn~xiŋ jòg~ sa
to remember, to keep the memory.
ཕ་ཡུལ།
pa-yul
Fatherland

                            ཨ་ཅག་ཚན་སྡེབ།

                                a-jag  can-déb *

བོད་~པ་ སེམས་~ཉིད་ གསོ་ ~ བ།

bŏd~ba sem~ñid   sò ~ va,

The place that consoles the minds of Tibetans,

            དགེ་~བ་ བྱེད་~ ས~ །

            gé~va jyěd~  sa~ ,

            The place to practice virtue.

                        དགེ་~བ་ བྱེད་~ ས~ །

                        gé~va jyěd~sa,

                        The place to practice virtue,

                                    དགེ་~བ་ བྱེད་~ས~།

                                    gé~va jyěd~sa,

                                    The place to practice virtue,

                                                དགེ་~བ་ བྱེད་~ས~།

                                                gé~va jyěd~  sa~.

                                                The place to practice virtue.

སེམས་~སྐྱོའི་ རྒྱང་~མཇལ་ བྱེད་~དུས་~ སུ །

sem~gyoi  gyáŋ~jàl  jyěd~dŭs~su ,

When feeling sad and looking from afar,

            དགའ་~བོ་ བྱེད་~ ས~ །

            gá~vo jyěd~ sa~ .

            It’s the place that makes me happy.

                        དགའ་~བོ་ བྱེད་~ས།

                        gá~vo   jyěd~  sa~,

                        The place that makes me happy,

                                    དགའ་~བོ་ བྱེད་ས།

                                    gá~vo   jyěd~  sa~,

                                    The place that makes me happy,

                                                    དགའ་~བོ་ བྱེད་~ ས~ །

                                                    gá~vo   jyěd~  sa~ .

                                                    The place that makes me happy.

            ཨེ་~ མ་~ ང་ ~  དགའ་ ~སའི་ ཕ་~ཡུལ~།

            e~ma ŋa ~  gá ~sai pa~yul.

            How wonderful! Fatherland, the place I love!

                        ཨེ་~ མ་~ ང་ ~ དགའ་ ~སའི་ ཕ་~ཡུལ~།

                        e~ma ŋa ~  gá ~sai   pa~  yul~,

                        How wonderful! Fatherland, the place I love!

            ང་~རང་ སླེབས་~ས།             ང་~ སླེབས་~ས།

            ŋa~raŋ   lèb~sa,   ŋa~  lèb~sa,

            The place I want to reach, to reach,

                        ང་~ ཡི་~ ཕ་~ ཡུལ~།

                        ŋa~  yi~   pa~  yul~.

                        My fatherland.

                                    ང་~རང་ སླེབས་~ས།         ང་~ སླེབས་~ས།

                                    ŋa~raŋ   lèb~sa,   ŋa~  lèb~sa,

                                    The place I want to reach, to reach,

                                                ང་~ ཡི་~ ཕ་~ ཡུལ~།

                                                ŋa~  yi~   pa~  yul~.

                                                My fatherland.

ཨེ་ ~མ་  སེམས་~དབུས་~སུ་ ~གནས།

e-ma sem~wú~su  ~nás

How wonderful! It dwells at the center of my heart,

            ཡ་~ཐོད་ མིག་~ཏུ་ མཛེས~ །

            ya~tod   mig~du   zès~ .

            So beautiful in my eyes.

                        ང་~རང་ གངས་རིའི་ ལྗོངས~ཆེན་ འདི་~ནི།

                        ŋa~raŋ găŋ~rii jóŋ~qen dì~ni,

                        This great land of snow mountains of mine

                                    ལྷ་~ཡུལ་ ལས་~ཀྱང་ ལྷག~

                                    lha~yul   las~gyaŋ   lhag~.

                                    Is even better than the realm of the gods.

ང་~རང་ གང་~དུའང་ བསླེབས་ ~ཀྱང་

ŋa~raŋ   găŋ~dŭaŋ   lèb ~gyaŋ,

Wherever I go,

            ཟུར་~ཙམ་ མ་~ བསྐྱུར~།

            sŭr~zam   ma ~gyur.

            I won’t abandon it in the least.

                        གངས་~ལྗོངས་ ཕ་~ཡུལ་ སེམས་~ལ་ ཡོད་~ན་

                        găŋ~jóŋ pa~yul sem~la yod~na,

                        When my fatherland, the Land of Snow, is in my mind,

                                    ཡིད་~སེམས་ སྐྱིད་~ འདུག~

                                    yid~sem gyid~  dùg~.

                                    I feel happy.

            ཨེ་~ མ་~ ང་ ~ དགའ་ ~ སའི་ ཕ་~  ཡུལ~།

            e~ma ŋa ~  gá ~sai   pa~yul,

            How wonderful! Fatherland, the place I love!

                        ཨེ་~ མ་~ ང་ ~ དགའ་ ~ སའི་ ཕ~  ཡུལ~།

                        e~ma ŋa ~  gá ~sai pa~yul,

                        How wonderful! Fatherland, the place I love!

ང་~ལ་ དྲན་~ཞིང་ འཇོག་ ~ས།            ང་~  ཡི་~  ཕ་~  ཡུལ~།

ŋa~la drăn~xĭŋ jòg ~sa ŋa~  yi~  pa~  yul~.

The place I always remember, my fatherland.

            ང་~ལ་ དྲན་~ཞིང་ འཇོག་ ~ས།            ང་~  ཡི་~  ཕ་~  ཡུལ~།

            ŋa~la drăn~xĭŋ jòg ~sa ŋa~  yi~  pa~  yul~.

            The place I always remember, my fatherland.

ཨེ་ ~མ་ སྙིང་~དབུས་~སུ~ །     སེམས་~རྒྱ་ བཀོད་~ ས~།

e~ma ñìŋ~wú~su~ , sem~gyá   god~  sa~ .

How wonderful! In the center of my heart is the place I truly wish for.

            སེམས་~རྒྱ་ བཀོད་~ས།

            sem~gyá god~sa,

            The place I truly wish for,

                        སེམས་~རྒྱ་ བཀོད་~ས།

                        sem~gyá god~sa,

                        The place I truly wish for,

                                    སེམས་~རྒྱ་ བཀོད་~ ས~།

                                    sem~gyá god~  sa~.

                                    The place I truly wish for.

ད་~བར་~དུ་~ཁྱེད་ འུ་ ~གཉིས་

dă~băr~dŭ~kyed   hŭ ~ñís,

Until now you and I

            མ་~བྱམས་ བུ་~ བརྩེ~ །

            ma~jyăm bŭ~  ze~.

            Have been like a loving mother and a caring son.

                        མ་~བྱམས་ བུ་~བརྩེ ~།

                        ma~jyăm bŭ~ze,

                        A loving mother and a caring son,

                                    མ་~བྱམས་ བུ་~བརྩེ ~།

                                    ma~jyăm bŭ~ze,

                                    A loving mother and a caring son,

                                                མ་~བྱམས་ བུ་~ བརྩེ~ །

                                                ma~jyăm bŭ~  ze~.

                                                A loving mother and a caring son.

            ཨེ་~མ་ ང་ ~  དགའ་ ~སའི་ ཕ་~  ཡུལ~།

            e~ma ŋa ~  gá ~sai   pa~ yul~,

            How wonderful! Fatherland, the place I love!

                        ཨེ་~མ་ ང་ ~  དགའ་ ~སའི་ ཕ་~  ཡུལ~།

                        e~ma ŋa ~  gá ~sai   pa~ yul~,

                        How wonderful! Fatherland, the place I love!

ང་~ལ་ དྲན་~ཞིང་ འཇོག་ ~ས།

ŋa~la drăn~xĭŋ jòg  ~sa,

The place I always remember,

            ང་~ཡི ཕ་~  ཡུལ~།

            ŋa~  yi~  pa~  yul~.

            My fatherland.

                        ང་~ལ་ དྲན་ཞིང་ འཇོག་ ~ས།

                        ŋa~la   drăn~xĭŋ   jòg  ~sa,

                         The place I always remember,

                                    ང་~ཡི ཕ་~  ཡུལ~།

                                    ŋa~  yi~  pa~  yul~.

                                    My fatherland.

ཨེ་~མ་ ང་~  ཡི་~  སྙིང་ ~གི་ དབུས་~  སུ~།

e~ma ŋa~  yi~  ñìŋ  ~gi   wú~  su~,

How wonderful! At the center of my heart.

            ཨེ་~མ་ ང་~  ཡི་~  སྙིང་ ~གི་ དབུས་~  སུ~།

            e~ma ŋa~  yi~  ñìŋ  ~gi wú~  su~,

            How wonderful! At the center of my heart.

སྐྱིད་~པའི་ རི་~མོ་ བཀོད་ ~ཅིང་།

gyid~bai ri~mo god  ~jiŋ,

Like a picture of happiness,

            ང་ལ་~ དྲན་~ཞིང་ འཇོག་~ས~།

            ŋa-la~  drăn~xiŋ jòg~ sa~.

            The place I always remember.

                        སྐྱིད་~པའི་ རི་~མོ་ བཀོད་ ~ཅིང་།

                        gyid~bai ri~mo god  ~jiŋ,

                        A picture of happiness,

                                    ང་~  ཡི་~  ཕ་~  ཡུལ~།

                                    ŋa~yi   pa~  yul~.

                                    My fatherland.

ང་~རང་ སླེབས་~ས། ང་~ སླེབས་~ས།

ŋa~raŋ   lèb~sa,      ŋa~  lèb~sa,

The place I want to reach, to reach,

            ང་~ ཡི་~ ཕ་~ ཡུལ~།

            ŋa~  yi~   pa~  yul~.

            My fatherland.

                        ང་~རང་ སླེབས་~ས། ང་~ སླེབས་~ས།

                        ŋa~raŋ lèb~sa,    ŋa~  lèb~sa,

                        The place I want to reach, to reach,

                                    ང་~ ཡི་~ ཕ་~ ཡུལ~།

                                    ŋa~  yi~   pa~  yul~.

                                    My fatherland.

            ཨེ་~མ་ ང་ ~  དགའ་ ~སའི་ ཕ་~  ཡུལ~།

            e~ma ŋa ~  gá ~sai pa~yul,

            How wonderful! Fatherland, the place I love!

                        ཨེ་~མ་  ང་ ~  དགའ་ ~སའི་ ཕ་~  ཡུལ~།

                        e~ma ŋa ~  gá ~sai pa~yul,

                        How wonderful! Fatherland, the place I love!

ང་~རང་ སླེབས་~ས། ང་~ སླེབས་~ས།

ŋa~raŋ lèb~sa,    ŋa~  lèb~sa,

The place I want to reach, to reach,

            ང་~ ཡི་~ ཕ་~ ཡུལ~།

            ŋa~  yi~   pa~  yul~.

            My fatherland.

                        ང་~རང་ སླེབས་~ས། ང་~ སླེབས་~ས།

                        ŋa~raŋ lèb~sa,    ŋa~  lèb~sa,

                        The place I want to reach, to reach,

                                    ང་~ ཡི་~ ཕ་~ ཡུལ~།

                                    ŋa~  yi~   pa~  yul~.

                                    My fatherland.

* can-déb means group or band.

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