An English translation of an affirming poem by the Mongolian scholar-poet Zava Damdin (b. 1976).
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LONGING
(English Translation)
To long for someone dear to you,
to miss them until the heart itself aches —
is this suffering, or a kind of happiness
If there is no one to long for,
no one who makes the inner chest ache,
what would there be
To become absorbed in thought,
to sit with difficult reflection,
and walk the path one has chosen —
is this suffering, or a kind of happiness
If even reflection is absent,
nothing to think about or remember,
not even a path one has chosen,
how would that be
To dream,
to awaken great diligence
for a goal one deeply longs for and desires —
is this suffering, or a kind of happiness
If there is no dream,
no yearning, no aspiration,
if one merely sits listless, without labouring,
what, then, would there be
To struggle,
to meditate day and night
while contending with one’s own inner hindrances —
is this suffering, or a kind of happiness
If there is no struggle,
if one does not even struggle with a single fault of one’s own,
but remains idle, letting life pass,
how would that be 1 The repeated structure of this doha may be interpreted as a poetic echo of Buddhist scholastic reasoning. Rather than simply opposing suffering and happiness, it lets each human difficulty be considered twice: first as an ache or effort, and then through the question of what life would be without it. In this sense, the poem seems to draw on an accessible, softened form of the analytic patterning valued in Mongolian Gelugpa teaching and learning, where questioning, contrast, and consequence are used to clarify experience and loosen fixed assumptions (cf. Ujeed 2009). 2The rhetorical structure of Zava Rinpoche’s affirming poem invites practitioners of meditation, those within the Gelug tradition, and more broadly anyone attentive to how they live, to recognise the answers to these questions for themselves. 3The original Mongolian transcript of the poem moves in a continuous flow, however I have arranged the English translation into short sense-units, or stanzaic clusters. This interpretive segmentation follows the poem’s unfolding movement — longing, reflection, dream and struggle. The aim is not to impose a new structure on Zava Bagsh’s doha, but to make its inner movement more visible in English (cf. Gorji 2023). 4Translated by C.Pleteshner. English interpretation 16.07.2026 from the original Mongolian 09.02.2025. Translation is always an interpretation into another language and culture. Any errors in this regard are entirely my own, and for these I humbly apologise.
The Hermit of Rocky Mountain
09.02.2025
Delgertsogt Mountain
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ҮГҮЙЛЭЛ
(Original Mongolian)
Үгүйлэн, бүр өр өвдөн санах эрхэмхэн төрөлхийтэн буй ану зовлон буюу, жаргал буюу
Үгүйлэх, бүр өрцийг хөндүүрлүүлж чадах нэгэн үгүй болбаас харин юун буй
Бодол болон, бүр бэрх бодрол дор оршин өөрийн сонгосон зам дор явах ану зовлон буюу, жаргал буюу
Бодрол бүү хэл, бодох санах зүйл үгүй, бүр өөрийн сонгосон зам мөр үгүй бол харин яанам буй
Мөрөөдөн, бүр эгээрэн хүсэх зорилго дор нөр их хичээнгүйг үүсгэн явах ану зовлон буюу, жаргал буюу
Мөрөөдөл үгүй, эгээрэл горил үгүй, хөдөлмөрлөх үгүй үлбийж суух аваас харин юун буй
Тэмцэж, бүр өөрийнхөө дотоод түйтгэр лүгээ өдөр, шөнө тэмцэлдэж бясалгах ану зовлон буюу, жаргал буюу
Тэмцэл үгүй, бүр өөрийн нэгэн гэмтэйгээ ч тэмцэлдэх үгүй алхайн хэвтэж амьдралыг барваас харин яанам буй
Хадат уулын дияанч
09.02.2025
Дэлгэрцогт Уул
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NOTES
- 1The repeated structure of this doha may be interpreted as a poetic echo of Buddhist scholastic reasoning. Rather than simply opposing suffering and happiness, it lets each human difficulty be considered twice: first as an ache or effort, and then through the question of what life would be without it. In this sense, the poem seems to draw on an accessible, softened form of the analytic patterning valued in Mongolian Gelugpa teaching and learning, where questioning, contrast, and consequence are used to clarify experience and loosen fixed assumptions (cf. Ujeed 2009).
- 2The rhetorical structure of Zava Rinpoche’s affirming poem invites practitioners of meditation, those within the Gelug tradition, and more broadly anyone attentive to how they live, to recognise the answers to these questions for themselves.
- 3The original Mongolian transcript of the poem moves in a continuous flow, however I have arranged the English translation into short sense-units, or stanzaic clusters. This interpretive segmentation follows the poem’s unfolding movement — longing, reflection, dream and struggle. The aim is not to impose a new structure on Zava Bagsh’s doha, but to make its inner movement more visible in English (cf. Gorji 2023).
- 4Translated by C.Pleteshner. English interpretation 16.07.2026 from the original Mongolian 09.02.2025. Translation is always an interpretation into another language and culture. Any errors in this regard are entirely my own, and for these I humbly apologise.
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FURTHER READING
Gorji, Mina. 2023. ‘Listening at the Edge of the Line’. English: Journal of the English Association 72 (276–277): 14–21. Oxford University Press.
Ujeed, Uranchimeg Borjigin. 2009. Indigenous Efforts and Dimensions of Mongolian Buddhism Exemplified by the Mergen Tradition. PhD thesis, SOAS University of London.
End of transcript.
Please refer to the INDEX for other poems and articles that may be of interest.
© 2013-2026. CP in Mongolia. “Mongolian Poetry 60: Longing” is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Posted: 23 July 2026. Last updated: 23 July 2026.