Autumn has arrived, and as I look out from my desk, through the library window towards the mountains, the landscape is beginning to turn into soft hues of green, yellow and red. It is so beautiful, and for me this season in particular seems to invite a little more time to study, a little more time to write, and a little more time to listen closely to what is being said. Here is another beautiful doha by the Mongolian scholar-poet Zava Damdin Rinpoche (b. 1976), with a few simple notes.

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THE FIVE STANZAS

(English Translation)

 

If you weep, then go somewhere alone, and sit and weep

There is no need to show weary tears before others

Let sorrow, sadness, and grievance all be dried by the wind of the open plain

The vast sky looks down from above and the grasses and earth support you from below

 

If you laugh, then let your laughter shine among the many

Share your smile and deep joy with others

Bow in trust, hope, and genuine love, and offer them to others sincerely

As though welcoming the future and seeing off the past were happening upon the present moment

 

If you grow angry, do not grow angry with the small and powerless

Raise an anger that gives the high-handed and overbearing pause

However fiercely the hot fire may blaze, with a restraint born of insight, kindle the fire of wisdom

Don’t clouds gather in the empty sky, break in rain and thunder, and then dissolve?

 

If you desire, then desire the rare jewel called the true heart

Even if ordinary greed arises, do not sit idly in another’s boat

Bring forth an uncommon desire, fashion your own boat, and set out on a far journey

If you can steer desire, it may carry you, going on and on, towards great peace

 

If you are proud, be proud before those stronger than you

There is also a skill in using your own pride to overcome your own pride

Take swelling pride as the sail of a vessel and steer with it

On the measureless sea, does not the strong wind one encounters shorten the way?

 

Zava Damdin Rinpoche

24.08.2024

Khan Mountain

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ТАВАН ИХ БАДАГ

(Original Mongolian)

 

Уйлваас гагцаар нэгэн газар одож суугаад л уйл

Уйтан нулимсыг ер бусад дор үзүүлэх хэрэггүй мэт

Уйтгар гуниг гомдол бүгдийг хээрийн салхин дор хатаалтай

Уудам тэнгэр дээрээс ширтэж ургамал хөрс доороос түшмүй 

 

Инээвээс олны дунд яралзтал сайхан инээ 

Инээмсэглэл болоод гүн баяр баяслаа бусдад түгээ 

Итгэл найдвар чин хайрыг сөгнөж бусдыг үнэнээсээ дайл

Ирээдүй цаг угтаж өнгөрсөн цаг үдэх нь одоо цаг дээр болж буй мэт

 

Хилэгнэвээс  өчүүхэн чадалгүй нугууд дор бүү хилэгнэ 

Хилэнц хүчтэй олонх лугаа хашраах хилэнг үүсгэ

Хэр хэчнээн урины гал асавч илбэ лүгээ санаж билгүүн галыг үүсгэ

Хоосон агаар дор үүлс хуралдаж аадар бууж аянга нижигнээд замхардаг бус уу

 

Шунаваас чин зүрх хэмээх ховор эрдэнэ дор шуна

Эглийн шунал ургасан ч бусдын завин дор үнэгүй бүү суу

Эгэлгүй шунал үүсгэж өөрийн завиа урлаад алсын аялал дор гар

Шуналыг залж чадваас яван явсаар их амгалан дор хүрэх увдис буй

 

Омогдвоос өөрөөсөө хүчтэй нүгүүд лүгээ омогд

Онцгойлж бас өөрийн омгоор өөрийнхөө омгийг дарах эрдэм буй

Омог бадрангуйг хөлгийн дарвуул болгон залуурд

Оломгүй далай дор учрах хүчит салхин зам товчилмуй яа

 

Зава Дамдин ринбүчи

24.08.2024

Хан Уул

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Translation is an interpretation into another culture. Any errors in this regard are entirely my own, and for these I humbly apologise.

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NOTES

If I were to risk saying what I think this doha is about, as one reader among others, I would say this:

At its centre, Zava Bagsh’s doha takes up five familiar movements of mind — sorrow, joy, anger, desire, and pride — and asks not that they be denied, but that they be turned and widened to something larger than the self. Each stanza begins with a recognisable feeling, then gently redirects it: toward solitude, generosity, courage, aspiration, or inner steadiness. In that sense, the “five” here are not simply emotions to be suffered or suppressed, but currents within our ordinary lives that may be worked with and turned towards something wider and more skilful.

In arriving at the above English interpretation, I found myself repeatedly choosing between closeness of wording and the inherent pressure of the line as it lives in Mongolian: хээрийн салхи (kheeriin salkhi) became “the wind of the open plain” rather than something narrower, while илбэ лүгээ санаж (ilbe lügee sanaj) led not to a technical Buddhist term but to the more open “with a restraint born of insight.” These are just a few examples of the kinds of choices made in the course of shaping the English line by line.

Also, from a Mongolian literary perspective, a noticeable formal feature of Rinpoche’s doha is again its use of head-alliteration (толгой холболт), that is, the repetition of the same opening sound across the lines of a stanza. In the first, second, third, and fifth stanzas, the pattern is fully sustained: У–У–У–У, И–И–И–И, Х–Х–Х–Х, and О–О–О–О. This is a recognisable Mongolian poetic technique, often described in English as head rhyme or alliterative linkage, and it helps bind a stanza together through sound as much as through meaning (Kara 2011; Hangin et al. 1985; cf. Kara 2001; Karlsson 2005).

The fourth stanza is the interesting exception: instead of a single repeated initial, it runs Ш–Э–Э–Ш. That difference could be read as a framed or enveloping variation within the larger alliterative design: the stanza opens and closes with ш (Шунаваас … / Шуналыг …), while the two middle lines pivot through э (Эглийн … / Эгэлгүй …). In literary terms, it is described not as a break with толгой холболт, but as a more patterned variation within it, and possibly a way of giving the stanza on desire a slightly more worked and inwardly turning shape than the others (cf. Kara 2001; Karlsson 2005).

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FURTHER READING

Hangin, John G., John R. Krueger, Robert G. Service, and William V. Rozycki. 1985. Mongolian Folklore: A Representative Collection from the Oral Literary Tradition. Part One. Mongolian Studies.

Kara, György. 2011. “Alliteration in Mongol Poetry.” In Alliteration in Culture, edited by Jonathan Roper. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kara, György. 2001. “Stave-Rhyme, Head-Rhyme, and End-Rhyme in Mongolian Poetry.” In Altaic Affinities: Proceedings of the 40th Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference.

Karlsson, Anastasia M. 2005. Rhythm and Intonation in Halh Mongolian.