Zhonpai Sempa

གཞོན་པའི་སེམས་པ།

The Thoughts of the Young

Achak Tsendep

ཨ་ཅག་ཚན་སྡེབ།

Autoplay

The girls in the Achak group sing and make us understand that it is very important to integrate one’s mindset with the times. Since they are doing something new, some elderly people are annoyed. Therefore, they apologize and say that it is necessary to go with the times: “We want to compare ourselves with other cultures and knowledge in the world, so if we have done something wrong, please do not think that we are doing bad things.” Because they live in this era, in this situation, they have to deal with that situation, not remaining only in the traditional way. They try to make people understand why it is necessary. Somebody does not have this idea and when they hear a Tibetan song says, “Oh, it doesn’t seem Tibetan, it’s modern!” Why not? Tibet is in these times, not in the ancient times of five hundred years ago. It is in this era, this time. When people do not know how to work with the times, it means that they are underdeveloped. This song helps us to understand how this condition, this feeling is. The Achak speak through their experience.

སྐིད་~དང་ འཕད་~ན་ དགའ་~ སོང་།
gyid~dǎŋ tràd~na gá~ soŋ
When there is something nice and happy, we enjoy it.

སྡུག་~དང་ འཕད་~ན་ སྡུག་ ~ སོང་།
dúg~dǎŋ tràd~na dúg~ so
When there is something difficult, we are very sad. This type of feeling that they have is normal.

གཞོན་~པ་ ང་~ཚོ་ བསྟན་~གཤིག་ ཚ་~པོ་ ཡོད་~ཀང་།
xón~ba ŋa~co dan~xíg ca~bo yod~gyaŋ
Young people do things that do not correspond to the ideas of those who live with old ideas. So, when a young person does something strange, they say that “He/she is ‘dan-xíg ca-bo’”.
Here it says: “We are ‘dan-xíg ca-bo’ but

དགོངས་~པ་ མ་~ འཚམ།
góŋ~pa ma ~càm
please do not worry, do not get angry!

ཨ་ ~མའི་ ལས་~དབང་ བསམ་~ ན།
a~mai las~wáŋ sàm~ na
When I think of the karmic condition of my mother,

བརེ་~གདུང་ རང་~གིས་ འཚོལ་~ ཡོད།
ze~dúŋ raŋ~gĭs còl~yod
I always keep the same love that my mother has had for my life.

ཨ་~ཕའི་ སྐོ་~བ་ མཐོང་~ན།
a~pai gyo~va tòŋ~na
When I see how sad the condition of my father is,

རང་~ཡུལ་ རང་~ཡུལ་ བཞག་~ནས་ འགོ་~ འདོད།
raŋ~yul raŋ~yul xág~nas drò~dòd
I want to go away and leave my country.”
It means that it is very sad that we cannot do anything.

དལྷམ་~ལ་ རོག་~པ་ མེད་~ ཀང་།
dǎlham~la dóg~ba med~ gyaŋ
Even though I do not have good shoes,

སེམས་~པ་ འཛམ་~བུ་ གིང་~ལ་ འཁོར་~ཡོད།
sem~ba zàm~bǔ líŋ~la kòr~ yod
my mind wanders all over the world.
Because the world is not only my home and the place where my father lives.

This is repeated several times with some of the words slightly changed, such as:

མེས་~པོའི་ རྣམ་~ཤེས་ ཕ་~ མོ~ རང་~གི་ ནང་~ལ་ ཟུག་~ ཡོད།
mes~boi nám~xes tra~mo~ gaŋ~gĭ naŋ~la sǔg~yod
My ancestors, my blood, and everything are Tibetan.
For example, I live in Europe, but I feel Tibetan because I have not only feelings but my blood and everything is Tibetan,

དུས་~ཀི་ ཉི་~མའི་ འོད་~སྣང་། རྫི་~མའི་ རེ་~ལ་ ཕོག་~ ཡོད།
dǔs~gyi ñi~mai hǒd~nàŋ zí~mai ze~la pog~ yod
and seeing how the situation and condition are,

ད་ལག་~རེས་ ཆེན་~པོ་ མེད་~ ཀང་།
dǎlag~jés qen~bo med~ gyaŋ
even though I cannot do much,

བརེ་~སེམས་ ཁ་~བ་ ཅན་~ལ་ བཅོལ་~ཡོད།
zé~sem ka~va jan~la jol~yod
I always keep the love of my country and my people. 

This is repeated several times.

At the end it says:

ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།
ka~po~ qe~soŋ qe~soŋ ma~sùŋ
ka-po-qe: some say “I do this, I do that”, always talking a lot. In Tibetan, there is a proverb for this. Some say, “I’ll go to the mountain to bring it home to you”. It is impossible. But some people say this kind of thing; it’s just empty talk. I have a lot of experience of this kind, many people say to me, “I want to do this for you, that for you” but in the end, they do not do anything. This is the meaning of ‘ka-po-qe’, someone who talks too much. Please do not tell me that I am ‘ka-po-qe’ because it says that that even if we do not have shoes, our mind wanders all over the world.

འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།
jòn-taŋ quŋ~soŋ quŋ~soŋ ma~sùŋ
jòn-taŋ quŋ: and neither that I cannot do anything, that I don’t have the capacity
Please do not say this either. And this is repeated many times.

In general we have this attitude: if somebody does something, we think “Fantastic!” If they do not manage it, “Oh, they don’t know how to do it, they are not qualified, they don’t have the capacity”.

This is more or less the meaning of the song. It is wonderful, really nice and interesting.
གཞོན་པའི་སེམས་པ
xón-bai sem-ba
The thoughts of the young

                            ཨ་ཅག་ཚན་སྡེབ།

                                a-jag can-déb

སྐྱིད་~དང་ འཕྲད་~ན་ དགའ་ ~ སོང་~།

gyid~dăŋ    tràd~na    gá  ~  soŋ~,

When we meet nice situations we feel joy,

    སྡུག་~དང་ འཕྲད་~ན་ སྡུག་ ~ སོང་~།

    dúg~dăŋ   tràd~na    dúg  ~  soŋ~.

    When we meet unpleasant situations we feel sad.

        གཞོན་~པ་ ང་~ཚོ་ བསྟན་~གཤིག་ ཚ་~པོ་ ཡོད་~ཀྱང་།

        xón~ba    ŋa~co    dan~xíg    ca~bo   yod~gyaŋ,

                                        དགོངས་~པ་ མ་~ འཚམ~།

                                                    góŋ~pa ma  ~ càm.

        Even if we young people seem strange, please don’t be angry.

    ཨ་ ~མའི་ ལས་~དབང་ བསམ་~ ན~།

    a~mai   las~wáŋ   sàm  ~  na~,

    When we think of the karma of our mothers,

        བརྩེ་~གདུང་ རང་~གིས་ འཚོལ་~  ཡོད~།

        ze~dúŋ   raŋ~gĭs    còl  ~  yod~.

        We feel love and affection.

            ཨ་~ཕའི་ སྐྱོ་~བ་ མཐོང་~ན།

           a~pai    gyo~va    tòŋ ~  na,

            When we see the sufferings of our fathers,

                རང་~ཡུལ་ རང་~ཡུལ་ བཞག་~ནས་  འགྲོ་~ འདོད~།

                raŋ~yul   raŋ~yul   xág~nas   drò  ~  dòd~.

                We feel like leaving the country.

    ད་་ལྷམ་~ལ་ རྡོག་~པ་ མེད་ ~  ཀྱང་~།

    lham~la   dóg~ba    med  ~  gyaŋ~,

    Even if our shoes are without soles,

        སེམས་~པ་ འཛམ་~བུ་ གླིང་~ལ་ འཁོར་ ~ ཡོད།

        sem~ba zàm~bŭ líŋ~la kòr  ~  yod~.

        Our minds travel around the world.

            ད་་ལྷམ་~ལ་ རྡོག་~པ་ མེད་~ ཀྱང་~།

            lham~la    dóg~ba    med  ~  gyaŋ~,

            Even if our shoes are without soles,

                སེམས་~པ་ འཛམ་~བུ་ གླིང་~ལ་ འཁོར་~ཡོད། ཨོ~~~

                sem~ba zàm~bŭ líŋ~la kòr  ~  yod.  o ~~~

                Our minds travel around the world.

སྐྱིད་~དང་ འཕྲད་~ན་ དགའ་ ~ སོང་།

gyid~dăŋ    tràd~na    gá  ~  soŋ~,

When we meet nice situations we feel joy,

     སྡུག་~དང་ འཕྲད་~ན་ སྡུག་ ~ སོང་།

    dúg~dăŋ   tràd~na    dúg  ~  soŋ~.

    When we meet unpleasant situations we feel sad.

        གཞོན་~པ་ ང་~ཚོ་ བསྟན་~གཤིག་ ཚ་~པོ་ ཡོད་~ཀྱང་།

        xón~ba    ŋa~co    dan~xíg    ca~bo   yod~gyaŋ,

                                        དགོངས་~པ་ མ་~ འཚམ~།

                                                    góŋ~pa ma  ~ càm.

        Even if we young people seem strange, please don’t be angry.

    ཨ་ ~མའི་ ལས་~དབང་ བསམ་ ~ ན~།

    a~mai   las~wáŋ   sàm  ~  na~,

    When we think of the karma of our mothers,

        བརྩེ་~གདུང་ རང་~གིས་ འཚོལ་.~ ཡོད།

        ze~dúŋ   raŋ~gĭs    còl  ~  yod~.

        We feel love and affection.

            ཨ་~ཕའི་ སྐྱོ་~བ་ མཐོང་~ན།

            a~pai    gyo~va    tòŋ ~  na,

            When we see the sufferings of our fathers,

                རང་~ཡུལ་ རང་~ཡུལ་ བཞག་~ནས་ འགྲོ་ ~ འདོད~།

                raŋ~yul   raŋ~yul   xág~nas   drò  ~  dòd~.

                We feel like leaving the country.

    ད་་ལྷམ་~ལ་ རྡོག་~པ་ མེད་~  ཀྱང་~།

    lham~la   dóg~ba    med  ~  gyaŋ~,

    Even if our shoes are without soles,

        སེམས་~པ་ འཛམ་~བུ་ གླིང་~ལ་ འཁོར་ ~ཡོད།

        sem~ba zàm~bŭ líŋ~la kòr  ~  yod~.

        Our minds travel around the world.

             ད་ལྷམ་~ལ་ རྡོག་~པ་ མེད་ ~ ཀྱང་།

            lham~la    dóg~ba    med  ~  gyaŋ~,

            Even if our shoes are without soles,

                སེམས་~པ་ འཛམ་~བུ་ གླིང་~ལ་ འཁོར་~ཡོད།  ཨོ~~~

                sem~ba zàm~bŭ líŋ~la kòr  ~  yod.  o ~~~

                Our minds travel around the world.

ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

Don’t say we are braggarts!

    འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

    jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

    Don’t say we are good for nothing!

        ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

        ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

        Don’t say we are braggarts!

            འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

            jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

            Don’t say we are good for nothing!

                ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                Don’t say we are braggarts!

                    འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                    jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                    Don’t say we are good for nothing!

                        ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                        ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                        Don’t say we are braggarts!

                            འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                        jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                            Don’t say we are good for nothing!

        ལང་~ཚོ་ འདིའི་~  རྒྱབ་~ན།

        laŋ~co   dìi~   gyáb~na

        Our youth is nourished

            རང་~གི་ གླུ་~གཞས་ དེ་~  རང་~གིས་ འཚོས་~ཡོད ~  །

            raŋ~gi    lú~xás   dě~   raŋ~gĭs   còs~yod~  .

           By our very songs.

སྐྱིད་~དང་ འཕྲད་~ན་ དགའ་~ སོང་།

gyid~dăŋ    tràd~na    gá  ~  soŋ~,

When we meet nice situations we feel joy,

    སྡུག་~དང་ འཕྲད་~ན་ སྡུག་ ~ སོང་།

    dúg~dăŋ   tràd~na    dúg  ~  soŋ~.

    When we meet unpleasant situations we feel sad.

    གཞོན་~པ་ ང་~ཚོ་ བསྟན་~གཤིག་ ཚ་~པོ་ ཡོད་~ཀྱང་།

        xón~ba    ŋa~co    dan~xíg    ca~bo   yod~gyaŋ,

                                        དགོངས་~པ་ མ་~ འཚམ།

                                                    góŋ~pa ma  ~ càm.

        Even if we young people seem strange, please don’t be angry.

    མེས་~པོའི་ རྣམ་~ཤེས་ ཕྲ་~ མོ།

    mes~boi   nám~xes   tra~mo~

    The collective consciousness of our ancestors

        རྐང་~གི་ ནང་~ལ་ ཟུག་ ~ ཡོད།

        gaŋ~gĭ   naŋ~la    sŭg~yod~.

        Has penetrated our bones to the marrow.

            དུས་~ཀྱི་ ཉི་~མའི་ འོད་~སྣང་།

            dŭs~gyi   ñi~mai   hŏd~nàŋ~

            The light of the sun of time

                རྫི་~མའི་ རྩེ་~ལ་ ཕོག་~ ཡོད །

                zí~mai   ze~la   pog~   yod~.

                Has hit the tips of our eyelashes.

    ད་་ལག་~རྗེས་ ཆེན་~པོ་ མེད་ ~ ཀྱང་།

    lag~jés   qen~bo  med~ gyaŋ~,

    Even if we cannot attain great results,

        བརྩེ་~ སེམས་ ཁ་~བ་ ཅན་~ལ་ བཅོལ་~ཡོད།

        zé~ sem ka~va jan~la jol~yod.

        Our love is for the Land of Snow.

            ད་་ལག་~རྗེས་ ཆེན་~པོ་ མེད་ ~ ཀྱང་།

            lag~jés qen~bo  med~ gyaŋ~,

            Even if we cannot attain great results,

                བརྩེ་~ སེམས་ ཁ་~བ་ ཅན་~ལ བཅོལ་~ཡོད། ཨོ~~~

                zé~ sem    ka~va    jan~la  jol~yod.  o ~~~.

               Our love is for the Land of Snow.

ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

Don’t say we are braggarts!

    འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

    jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

    Don’t say we are good for nothing!

        ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

        ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

        Don’t say we are braggarts!

            འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

            jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

            Don’t say we are good for nothing!

                ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                Don’t say we are braggarts!

                    འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                    jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                    Don’t say we are good for nothing!

                        ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                        ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                        Don’t say we are braggarts!

                            འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                            jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                            Don’t say we are good for nothing!

        ལང་~ཚོ་ འདིའི་~  རྒྱབ་~ན།

        laŋ~co   dìi~   gyáb~na

         Our youth is nourished

             རང་~གི་ གླུ་~གཞས་ དེ་~  རང་~གིས་ འཚོས་~ཡོད ~  །

             raŋ~gi    lú~xás   dě~   raŋ~gĭs   còs~yod~  .

            By our very songs.

ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

Don’t say we are braggarts!

    འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

    jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

    Don’t say we are good for nothing!

        ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

        ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

        Don’t say we are braggarts!

            འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

            jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

            Don’t say we are good for nothing!

                ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                Don’t say we are braggarts!

                    འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                    jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                    Don’t say we are good for nothing!

                        ཁ་ཕོ་ ཆེ་~སོང་ ཆེ་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                        ka-po   qe~soŋ    qe~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                        Don’t say we are braggarts!

                            འཇོན་ཐང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ ཆུང་~སོང་ མ་~གསུང་།

                            jòn-taŋ    quŋ~soŋ    quŋ~soŋ    ma~sùŋ!

                            Don’t say we are good for nothing!

        ལང་~ཚོ་ འདིའི་~  རྒྱབ་~ན།

        laŋ~co   dìi~   gyáb~na

        Our youth is nourished

            རང་~གི་ གླུ་~གཞས་ དེ་~  རང་~གིས་ འཚོས་~ཡོད ~  །

            raŋ~gi    lú~xás   dě~   raŋ~gĭs   còs~yod~  .

            By our very songs.