Continuing with the High Peaks Pure Earth weekly music video series, today’s translation of “Your Happiness and My Suffering” by Khoten was kindly submitted by Tenzin Dickyi and Dhondup Tashi Rekjong. The music video of this live performance first started appearing online around February 2011.
Khoten, whose real name is Tenpa, was born in Khotse in Labrang, Amdo and he is a very well known singer in Tibet. He studied computer science at the Northwest Nationalities University and has designed many Tibetan newspapers and magazines. Khoten has made two short films called “Blood in the Grassland” and “Golden Lamp”.
Below are the subtitled music video and translated lyrics of “Your Happiness and My Suffering” by Khoten. A big thank you to Tenzin Dickyi and Dhondup Tashi Rekjong, be sure to check out their translation project Tibet Web Digest.
“Your Happiness and My Suffering” By Khoten from HPeaks on Vimeo
“Your Happiness and My Suffering”
Singer, Lyrics, Melody: Khoten
The snow that falls from the sky is not white
The flower that grows from the earth is not red
The story of the sky melding with the earth is not real
The love and loyalty under the sky is not true
Oh, even if you have no need of my spirit
For me, I have my own aspirations
My Ka Kha are not your toys
My soul is not your merchandise
My youth is not your money
My universe is not your factory
Oh, even if you have no need of my soul
For me, it has its own value
Do not cut my heart’s artery
Do not destroy my parents’ spirit
Even if you possess my physical body
You don’t know my heart’s conceptions
Oh, even if you have no need of my youth
For me, it has its own beauty
Oh, even if you have no need of my youth
For me, it has its own beauty
[Translation: Tenzin Dickyi and Dhondup Tashi Rekjong]
For those unable to view the videos on Vimeo, there is also a High Peaks Pure Earth YouTube channel here with our music videos: http://www.youtube.com/highpeakspureearth
A friend (Amdo Ngawang UK) explained the first three lines of the song, something like this; “གནམ་ནས་བབས་པའི་ཁ་བ་དཀར་པོ་མ་རེད།” “The snow that falls from the sky is not white” That the Land of Snow (Tibet) has always been there, i.e. that the Land of Snow is not like the white (new) snow or something new that fell from sky.
“ས་ནས་སྐྱེས་པའི་མེ་ཏོག་དམར་པོ་མ་རེད།” “The flower that grows from the earth is not red”. That the red flower (communist party) is not native to this land (Tibet), it did not grow in Tibet.
“ས་གནམ་འདྲེས་པའི་གཏམ་རྒྱུད་ངོ་མ་རེད།” “The story of the sky melding with the earth is not real”. When Tibetan say the difference is Heaven (sky) and Earth, it is something not comparable. Therefore the sky (Tibet, line 1) and earth (Communist party, line 2) the difference are massive and the story of them merging is not true.
Thank you for this interesting analysis!
Pingback: High Peaks Pure Earth – “Tibetan Soul” by Tsewang Lhamo and “Potala” by Kadrak Trayang
Pingback: A Song by Khoten: “Your Happiness and My Suffering” | Tibetan Blog Station