A poem by the scholar-poet  Zava Damdin (b. 1976). Please refer to the Index of Mongolian Poetry and Articles for other works that may be of interest.

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EARTH’S CLOUDS, SKY’S MIST

(English Translation)

Earth’s clouds rise up to the sky, and turn into mist
A Phoenix’s melody creates smooth rain
A little boy’s mind travels to a heavenly realm
Mind becomes one with Guru’s heart, and comes back again

Powerful steppe winds brush aside my sadness
And fuel courageousness far into the future
My mind enters your heart, then simply melts away
Not yours nor mine, we live in the same air

One drop of dew on a blade of grass is a lake
So many tiny sentient beings happily enjoy living there
A great ocean is just one drop of water
Like a moistened eyelash of a great being

A small bush is a wish-fulfilling tree
Feeding so many sentient beings in the desert
A poor boy, as a heavenly realm’s son
Leads the true-hearted ones

A Rocky Mountain is a soft cushion
Caring for heroic beings like a mother
Externally tough in character, inner nature deeply soft
Traversing earlier stages, meditation’s clarity is like a rainbow

Dust and sand shimmer like gold
Normal desires naturally release
A simple life becomes happiness and emptiness
Here, the landscape is a Pure Land

Pure Land of Swoyambhu
Zava Damdin
20.06.2022

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Translated by Zava Damdin and C.Pleteshner.
English interpretation 20.02.2023 from the original Mongolian 20.06.2022

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ГАЗРЫН ҮҮЛС ХУРМАСТЫН МАНАН

(Original Mongolian)

Газрын үүлс хурмастын манан болж дэгдээд
Галбингын шуранхай сац хур болон буюу
Хөвүүний сэтгэл тэнгэрийн санаа болж одоод
Хөвчин их өвгөн богдын таалал болон ирьюү

Хээрийн салхи гунигийг арилган хурайлдаад
Хэтийн уудам зоригийг тэтгэн зонхилъюу
Миний сэтгэл чиний зүрхэнд орж хайлаад
Миниймхийлэх чиниймхийлэх бус нэгэн агаарт оршъюу

Өвсний шүүдэр нуур болон оршоод
Өчүүхэн төрөлхийтний амьдрал цэнгэл болъюу
Анвад далай нэгэн дусал лугаа болоод
Агуу төрөлхийтний аньсага чийгтэх төдий үзэгдьюү

Харгана бут хан галбарваасан болоод
Хахир говьд олон амьтныг тэжээюү
Ядуу хөвүүн хан хурмаст мэт саатаад
Ялгуун зүрхтнийг харлиг болгон удирдъюу

Хадат уул зөөлөн олбог лугаа болоод
Хатангат явдалтныг эх мэт асаръюу
Хатуу зан угтаа уярам болоод
Хатамжит бясалгал солонго мэт ургаюу

Элс шороо алт болон гялалзаад
Эглийн хүсэл хүлээс эрхгүй амирлаюу
Энгүүн байгаль амгалан хоосон болоод
Эгүүрдийн дээд ариун орон болъюу

Соёмбот Орон
Зава Дамдин
20.06.2022

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FURTHER READING

For another perspective on devotional language in translation, see Letters from Mongolia 10: Homage.

Readers interested in interiority beneath outward appearances may also enjoy Letter from Mongolia 04: Close to one’s chest.

For an ethnographic perspective on everyday significance in ordinary spaces, see Letter from Mongolia 02: The Kitchen-house.

For a social perspective on relationality through shared experience, see Letter from Mongolia 28: Friendship, Masculinity & Memory.

For a reflective perspective on accumulation across sustained ethnographic engagement, see Letter from Mongolia 22: Taking Stock.

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NOTES

Source: A Bilingual Collection of Zava Damdin (b.1976) Poetry. Vol. 1 (2021-2024). The Zava Damdin Sutra and Scripture Institute Library Archive, Manjushri Temple Soyombot Oron, Mongolia. Unpublished manuscript. pp10-11.

Translation is always an interpretation into another culture.

Excluding the preparatory training and clarity of narrative structure and ideation required, the journey of such compositions tends to move through three phases, starting with: (i) the creation of the original composition with the vertical Mongol Bichig Script; (ii) the subsequent transfer and rendering of this transcript into the Mongolian Cyrillic Script; and then on to, (iii) a (British) English language interpretation, such as you see here.

I bring to this interpretive exercise my own particular collection of English language narrative skills and their imagined audiences. From this perspective, a final English language version of a narrative emerges as a negotiated text.

End of transcript.