Do You Hear The People Sing

Getting in the last post of 2014. This is a piece I wrote about going to a Hong Kong protest in early October. I wrote it a while ago and it's been up for a couple of weeks on http://www.diretorio.net.br/?p=51

When I stepped out of the Times Square subway station on Wednesday, October 1^st, I couldn’t help sizing up the Chinese-looking people around me. That young couple cutting through the crowd, are they going to the demonstration? That middle-aged man with the mixed-looking child, is he? Some people had umbrellas on a clear night. They were easy to tell. Others were harder. Everyone walked intently, furious with purpose—but this was New York, they might just be going home to watch Modern Family. The tourists, of course, milled around like they were at the beach, creating small hurdles all over the sidewalk. I wove through, unmindful of them.

 As a Tibetan exile, I had heard too much from China-watchers about the bourgeois selfishness of the Chinese middle class, the Chinese youth. Now, hot on the heels of the Sunflower movement in Taiwan, the Umbrella revolution had sprung up in Hong Kong. For me, the night had an air of unreality. I was going to take part in the rally for Hong Kong, to stand in solidarity with the brave men and women of Hong Kong who were not afraid to say: we want real democracy. They spoke for Hong Kong but they knew that it was not just Zhongnanhai who was listening but all of China.

Once I arrived at the rally, which was about two hundred people strong, I could tell the people around me were new to protest. There were all kinds of people but the majority were young people in their twenties, mostly from Hong Kong, some from China. One guy spent ten minutes on the phone describing his location to a friend before giving up. My brother and friends were in the crowd too but I knew I wouldn’t find them until the rally was over. One of the organizers walked through the crowd, telling them that they were supposed to repeat the slogans. The slogans were mainly in Cantonese but sometimes in English. Hong Kong, Be Strong! Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong! Freedom, Freedom, Freedom! The crowd slowly picked up its cues, jelling together into a cohesive whole when we started singing Do You Hear The People Sing, one of the Umbrella Revolution’s theme songs:

 Do you hear the people sing?

Singing a song of angry men?

It is the music of a people

Who will not be slaves again!

Will you join in our crusade?

Who will be strong and stand with me?

Beyond the barricade

Is there a world you long to see?

Then join in the fight

That will give you the right to be free!

Now phrases from the speaker in the center were reaching us. Members of the crowd roared approval now and then. The girl next to me whispered to her boyfriend, “I am not comfortable saying it’s a revolution.” I understood what she was saying, and wondered when she would realize how wrong she was. As Yang Jianli, who was at Tiananmen in ’89 and lived through the massacre, said at a similar rally in DC, “I was in Tiananmen. And I experienced the massacre. I understand very well that the Chinese government still has the capacity and maybe the intention to violently resolve any dispute and suppress dissent.” For such a government, a government that rules without the will of the people, by force, any such public dissent is revolution. A rumble of snow rolling down a mountaintop may not have any grand designs, but sometimes it can turn into an avalanche.

I have a quote on my desk by the thirteenth century Tibetan scholar and politician Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen. He said, “All freedom is happiness, all oppression is suffering.” As someone born in a refugee community and brought up in exile, someone who grew up hearing about people with names like mine who were imprisoned or tortured for speaking up, a non-citizen of the world until I became a Tibetan American, I know this. I know this intimately. I put up this quote not to remind but to reassure myself. It was only a matter of time before the Chinese people asserted their right to live with freedom and dignity.

What will happen in Hong Kong? Who can say in the near future? In the long run though, we know. The battles will be fought out but the war was won long ago, in Athens, when the people got together and decided that representative democracy was the future of human government.

Translating 'The First Howl'

I thought I would write a small post about the process of translating the Wolf Band's song The First Howl. Yes I realize this will be interesting to exactly no one. Perhaps a year down the line, I'll look at this post again and be interested and that'll be something. Also if I was going to write a process-of-translation blog post, maybe it should have been about something else, a longer work that I wrestled with, like that poem by Ngarma which I think is my favorite piece of translation. But no, maybe this song/poem is better, because shorter is more manageable and because I made a few different choices that are perhaps illustrative.

ངུ་སྐད་ཐེངས་དང་པོ། 

ཟླ་བ་ཡང་མར་ལ་འགྲིབ། 

དགུན་དུས་མཚན་ལྗོངས་འཁྱག་རླུང་འུར་འུར། 

སྙིང་རེ་རྗེ། 

བཀྲེས་སྐོམ་གྱིས་མནར་བའི་ང་རང་ཚོ། 

གང་ལ་འགྲོ། གང་ལ་འགྲོ། 

ཨ་མ་ཡིས་སྔ་མོ་སྔ་མོ་ཞིག་ལ། 

ཨ་སྔོན་དབྱིངས་ནས་འབྲུ་དྲུག་བབས་མྱོང་ཟེར། 

བདེན་ན་ཐང་། 

གནམ་ལ་སྐྱབས་བཅོལ་བའི་ང་རང་ཚོ། 

གང་ལ་འགྲོ གང་ལ་འགྲོ 

ཟས་གོས་ཀྱི་བྲན་གཡོག་ང་ཚོ་སྙིང་རེ་རྗེ།

ཁ་བ་བཞིན་ཞུ་ལ་ཉེ། 

པོ་ཏ་ལའི་གསེར་ཏོག་གི་ཁ་མདོག་འགྱུར་ལ་ཉེ། 

གསལ་བཤད་ཀྱི་འབྲི་ཀློག་དང་། 

སྤྱང་ཀིའི་ང་རོ་ཁྲོད་། 
ང་ཚོ་ལངས་ནས་འགྲོ མཆོངས་ནས་འགྲོ 

The following is an earlier draft. It's still pretty finished.

The First Howl (earlier draft)

Even the moon wanes and dims

The wind blows over this winter landscape of night

Such a pity

We who are tortured by hunger and thirst

Where do we go where do we go

A long time ago Mother said

Grains fell down from the sky

Maybe so

We who take refuge in the sky

Where do we go where do we go

We who are slaves to food and clothes

The snow is about to melt

The golden spire atop the Potala is about change colors

With the sounds of the letters

And the cries of the wolves

Let us rise let us pounce

The First Howl (final draft)

Even the moon wanes and dims

The wind blows and howls over this winter's landscape of night

What a pity

We who are tortured by hunger and thirst

Where do we go

Where shall we go

A long time ago Mother said

Grains fell down from the sky

Maybe it was so

We who take refuge in the sky

Where do we go

Where shall we go

We who are slaves to food and clothes

Soon to dissolve like snow

The golden spire atop the Potala is about switch colors

With the sounds of the letters

And the cries of the wolves

Let us rise

Let us pounce

I had punctuation at first but it started to look a little rigid. There are some lines that run on, blend into each other: We who take refuge in the sky/ Where do we go where do we go/ We who are slaves to food and clothes. But it's a song and you could say all the lines run into each other, the entire section repeats itself and Tibetan punctuates differently anyway. So I removed the punctuation and freed the lines, so to speak.

The wind blows and howls to get close to the onomatopoeia of the wind roaring in Tibetan (འཁྱག་རླུང་འུར་འུར།) over this wintry landscape of night or winter landscape of night or rather, winter's landscape of night. Such a pity. What a pity. A pity. It's a pity. Tis a pity. (I know. Awful!) I finally decided 'what a pity' has a slightly more sardonic quality. Does it really? I have no idea. I liked the hard consonantal 'ta' of the what.

Where do we go? གང་ལ་འགྲོ གང་ལ་འགྲོ 

Where do we go? Or. Where shall we go? Why not either? It felt like a cheater's move because usually repetition is clearly meant to be so by the author and so you have to be faithful. But I felt like this was a liberty I could take- because the Tibetan could be 'do' as well as 'shall' and now the English refrain- it's still a refrain- carries the double meaning as well.

Now here I made a deeply embarrassing mistake and published it on Tibet Web Digest. ཁ་བ་བཞིན་ཞུ་ལ་ཉེ།  I literally didn't see the བཞིན་ and translated this as 'The snow is about to melt' instead of 'soon to melt/dissolve like snow'. A rookie mistake! Ugh.

པོ་ཏ་ལའི་གསེར་ཏོག་གི་ཁ་མདོག་འགྱུར་ལ་ཉེ། 

Hmm I was tempted to leave the 'sertok' in there, since 'spire' seems very steeply or churchy but then I figured maybe it's close enough. Changing colors felt too indefinite—change is an all-encompassing word. Switching colors, that's not much better honestly. About to-also ugly. And then I had to deal with གསལ་བཤད་ཀྱི་འབྲི་ཀློག་ - the reading and writing of the alphabet. Ugh. I suppose I took enormous liberty here, but 'the reading and writing of the alphabet' threatened to unbalance the poem. How to shape into poetry and still retain the meaning? The sounds and shapes of the alphabet? The sounding and shaping of the letters? I went with just 'the sounds of the letters' because you can hear that 'with the cries of the wolves', whereas the writing and shaping of the letters confused me a little. Ok, I was unfaithful.

Finally, I suppose technically, the wording goes: Let us rise and go, let us leap/jump/whatever gravity defying word of your choice/ and go. But for me, the doubling in English somehow dilutes the action rather than intensifying it, and anyway the act of going, of movement, is imminent (is pregnant hah) in rising and pouncing. ང་ཚོ་ལངས་ནས་འགྲོ མཆོངས་ནས་འགྲོ carries action in a way that 'rise and go' and 'pounce and go' doesn't. And I thought each line should have its own space. Let us rise. Let us pounce. As Lhadruk Tsering foresaw, a beautiful moment to leave the poem, at the moment the energy is just about to turn from potential to kinetic.

Hame Kya Chahiye? What Do We Want?

This is a piece published last year in Seminar Magazine (Delhi) http://www.india-seminar.com/2013/644.htm and republished in Apogee Journal (NY) http://www.apogeejournal.org/issue-two/ that I thought I would share here. First I was going to put up my thoughts on Dhoom 3 (oh yes) but then I figured maybe the first post of 2014 should be something slightly less...that. So. 

Hame Kya Chahiye? What Do We Want?

Hame kya chahiye? Azar chahiye! What do we want? We want chilli paste!

That was not how the chant actually went, of course. The chant was: What do we want? We want freedom! Except the Hindi word for freedom, azad, was very similar to ‘azar’, a sweet and sour chilli paste that flavoured our daily school lunch of rice and dal. So when the person leading the chants yelled, what do we want, we whispered back, we want chilli paste, and collapsed in a heap of laughter.

The entire Tibetan population of Dharamshala turned out for the march, and the grownups who noticed us pursed their lips, narrowed their eyes. For them, March 10, the Tibetan National Uprising Day, was a sacred political ritual of pain and purification, of remembering, renewing and reclaiming.

For us, teenagers at a Tibetan boarding school, it was a day out of class, a day out in the bazaar. From upper Dharamshala, through Kotwali bazaar to Kachari, the Indian town at the base of the mountain, we marched in long unending lines, with flags and banners. Members of the Tibetan Youth Congress wore headbands saying ‘Rangzen’ and led the chants with bullhorns, and women from the Tibetan Women’s Association wore their signature green chupas and tried to keep order among the people.

Many of our slogans followed in the Indian tradition of sloganeering. We said, Dalai Lama, zindabaad! Jiang Zemin, murdabaad! Long live Dalai Lama. Down with Jiang Zemin. We were all sorry when Li Peng was replaced with Zhu Rongji. Li Peng kutta, maro juta was such a fun slogan; throwing shoes at that dog Zhu Rongji did not scan so well.

There was also, Alu poori tel me, Chini neta jail me! Potatoes and poori in the oil, Chinese leaders in the jail! Did our elders really expect us to shout that slogan with a straight face?

There were others that were more serious, more portentous. Marching through Kotwali bazaar, we shouted, Chini Hindi Bhai Bhai, Yahin Chin ka dhoka hai! Chinese Indian brotherhood, this is China’s betrayal. This was followed with Yaad karo, yaad karo! San unis so basath ko yaad karo! Remember, Remember, Remember the year 1962! When Mao Zedong punctured Nehru’s dreams of a Sino-Indian socialist brotherhood by launching a brief surprise war that ended in a humiliating defeat for India.

The Indians who were our audience – the shopkeepers, tailors, orthodontists, fruit-sellers along the bazaar – did not want to remember. They looked up, distracted, bored, irritated, and then went back to their business. Most people ignored us but some smiled and others scoffed. We glared fiercely at those who scoffed, feeling instantly protective of the adults around us, feeling that the gravity of their pain and sorrow must be acknowledged, if not respected.

Even then, even as we cracked jokes, we understood that it wasn’t comic but tragicomic. We understood that although this ritual could not be undertaken without spectators, its primary audience was not them but ourselves. Looking at the grownups around us – the monks and nuns from their institutions, the shopkeepers and sweater-sellers, the restaurateurs and the travel agents, the activists and the artists – was to see them making vows, affirming to themselves and each other that Yahi hamara naarah hai, Tibbet desh hamara hai! This is our demand, the country of Tibet is ours! Jaan be denge, khoon be denge, Desh ki mitti kabhi na denge! We’ll give our lives, we’ll give our blood, but we’ll never give our land!

How do you not give up something that was already taken? But as I grew up, first in India and then in the United States, I thought I began to see. Edward Said said that exile was the unhealable rift forced between the human being and a native place, between the self and its true home. For an exile, even as this rift can never be bridged, the only possibility of healing remains in trying, always trying to get closer to one’s true home.

One’s true home. My true home. For all the slogans we learned, for all the terms that were handed down to us by our parents’ generation, they were careful to deal in abstractions and not discrete practicalities lest the fracture in our souls gape so wide that we shatter.

But for me, one way of reaching across this rift was precisely to fill in the blanks. Hame kya chahiye? What do we want? What do I want? I want to eat at this shabby little restaurant in Lhasa that only sells alu khatsa; I want His Holiness to be able to rest because he can; I want to go on an ancestral pilgrimage with my parents from Lithang in the East to Kyirong in the West; I want English to actually be my second language; I want to hang out with my brother in the Barkhor bazaar watching people pray or flirt or bargain, and then I want to take a walk along the Kyichu river and write the beginning of a poem.