见与不见 See Me or Not

This video is the ending song of the Chinese series “Jade Palace Lock Heart”, which was popular in China among teenagers about half a year ago. I’m not going to talk about this series because I didn't watch it at all. I’m going to talk about the lyrics of this song.

The lyrics is originally a poem. Some people believe the author is Tsangyang Gyatso (1 March 1683 – 15 November 1706), who was the sixth Dalai Lama. This statement was very popular because of the poem. The first time that people take notice of this poem was 8 months ago when a movie, If You are the One II, was shown in China. The most touching scene in this movie was a girl reading this poem at the pseudo-funeral of Xiangshan Li (He was diagnosed with cancer and he held a farewell party for him and his best friends before his death in the movie). This poem was very popular at that time and people believed it was written for love and life.

Vadjra Guru Peme

Later, netizens of China found out that this poem was not a work of Tsangyang Gyatso, but a current woman, Xiaojing Tan (her net name is Zha Xi La Mu·Duo Duo) , who is a very sincere Buddhist. She wrote it in 2007 and declared later that this poem has nothing to do with romantic but the faith of a master in his/her disciples, which was inspired by a saying of Vadjra Guru Peme (莲花生大士); he once said “I will never turn my back on people who believe me, or even do not believe me, although they cannot see me, my children, I will guide you all with my mercy forever and ever. ”

In my opinion, it does not matter what was the poem for originally, what matters is that different people learn different things from it. It is beautiful no matter it is expressing belief or love. There are several editions of its translation online; I’m going to give my edition, which is based on other’s work.

The name of the original poem is “The Silence of Vadjra Guru Peme” (“班扎古鲁白玛的沉默”). The netizens who love this poem gave it another name, “See me or not” (“见或不见”), because they believe it was for love. I’m going to use the original name in my translation below and the title of this blog is the new name.

The original piece:

班扎古鲁白玛的沉默

作者：扎西拉姆·多多

My verstion of its translation:

The Silence of Vadjra Guru Pema

It doesn't matter if you see me or not 

I am right there 

Without joy or tear. 

It doesn't matter if you miss me or not 

Feeling is right there 

Despite the change of year. 

It doesn't matter if you love me or not 

love is right there 

And won’t my heart sear. 

It doesn't matter if you are with me or not 

My hand is in your hand 

And I am not going to let go. 

Let me embrace you 

Or 

Let me live in your heart to eternity. 　 

Silence Love 

Halcyon Joy