I Miss that Time. I Miss You

Dung Ati

(Translated from Tibetan by Pema Rigzin)

If that time is a river

I’m on the opposite side of the river

Just as the river merges with another river

that time has also blended with another time

The time is nearing dusk

The river runs continuously

Time also continues

Each passing hour

is like a step you take further away from me

I miss that time

I miss you

That time that I miss

is like me missing you

An unbearable agony binds all my senses

ངས་དུས་ཚོད་དྲན། ངས་ཁྱོད་རང་དྲན།

                      དུང་ཨ་ཏི།

དུས་ཚོད་ནི་གཙང་པོ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ན།

ང་རང་གཙང་པོ་དེའི་ལྡོག་ཕྱོགས་སུ་འདུག

གཙང་པོ་དེ་གཙང་པོ་ལ་འདྲེས་པ་ལྟར།

དུས་ཚོད་དེའང་དུས་ཚོད་ལ་འདྲེས།

ཉི་མ་ནུབ་ལ་ཉེ།

གཙང་པོ་དེ་མུ་མཐུད་དུ་རྒྱུག

དུས་ཚོད་དེའང་མུ་མཐུད་དུ་རྒྱུག

དུས་ཚོད་གཅིག་ཕར་ལ་འདས་པ་ནི།

ཁྱོད་རང་ང་ལས་གོམ་གང་གྱེས་པ་དང་མཚུངས།

ངས་དུས་ཚོད་དྲན།

ངས་ཁྱོད་རང་དྲན།

ངས་དུས་ཚོད་དྲན་པ་ནི།

ངས་ཁྱོད་རང་དྲན་པ་ལྟར།

དབང་པོ་ལྔ་བོ་སྐྱོ་གདུང་གིས་དམ་ལ་བཏགས།

2023.8.16

Dung Ati (Tib. དུང་ཨ་ཏི ) is a young Tibetan poet, born in a herding village of Rtse khog (Zeku) County, Rma lho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in 1995. Around twenty of his poems, poetic commentaries, and children’s stories have been published in both public and private literary journals, such as Gang rgya me tog, Rma lho tshags par, Gang rgyan na chung tshags par, Sha+w skya, and Gang kyi rol dbyang, etc. His first poetry book, The Untied Knot (mdud pa grol ba མདུད་པ་གྲོལ་བ།), was published in 2016. He has composed readable and melodious poems for kids, and published his first children’s poetry book, Talk to a Mosquito (Tib. A rgna tshi zhig l smras pa ཨ་ང་ཙི་ཞིག་ལ་སྨྲས་པ།), in 2019.

Pema Rigzin is an independent scholar born in a small herding community of eastern Reb gong in 1990 and graduated from the Foreign Language Department of Mtsho sgnon Nationalities of University in 2015. He translated a paper entitled “The Pyramid Schemes on Tibetan Plateau” (AHP:21) from English to Tibetan. His other translation, “The Royal Guests,” as published in the Tibetan version of National Literature (2020:01). In 2020, his first poetic commentary, “Analyzing the River of Rocks: A Poem of Ta ni chos grags” (ཏཱ་ནི་ཆོས་གྲགས་ཀྱི་སྙན་ངག་རྡོ་བའི་གཙང་བོ་ལ་དཔྱད་པ།) was published in The White Snow Mountain (གངས་དཀར་རི་བོ།). Since 2016, several of his papers and literature reviews have been published in Asian Highland Perspectives (AHP).