Here is a beautiful poem by the Mongolian scholar-poet Zava Damdin (b.1976) along with some interpreter notes.
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DO NOT PLUCK THE FLOWER!
(English Translation)
That one flower
bloomed years ago at the railway station
and graced the street and square.
Many flowers were swaying there,
yet it was that one flower alone
that drew the heart.
Since it would not have been right
to pluck it and take it away,
it was left there untouched.
That flower, however, remained in the heart without fading,
and even after all those years had passed by,
it was still just as it was.
What if, gripped by craving,
one had plucked it and carried it away!
Therefore, do not pluck the flower!
The songbird of the grass-clad mountain
17.02.2025
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ЦЭЦЭГ БҮҮ ТАСЛА!
(Original Mongolian)
Тэр нэгэн цэцэг
Тээр жил галт тэрэгний буудал дээр дэлбээлж
Тэндэх гудамж талбайг чимэж байсансан
Тэнд олон цэцэг найган ганхаж байсан авч
Тэр нэгэн цэцэг л сэтгэлийг булаасансан
Тэгтэл тэрхүү цэцгийг тасдаж авах зохисгүй тул
Тэр чигт нь үлдээгээд явсансан
Тэрхүү цэцэг харин сэтгэл дор хагдрах үгүй үлдээд
Тэртээх он жилүүдийг үдсэн ч яв янзаараа
Тэчияалд автаж тасалж авч явсан бол яанам!
Тиймийн тул цэцэг бүү тасла!
Зүлэгт уулын дуулалт шувуухай
17.02.2025
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Translation is never only linguistic; it is also an act of cultural interpretation. Any errors in this regard are entirely my own, and for these I humbly apologise.
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NOTES
The above outwardly simple doha by Zava Damdin Rinpoche draws our attention to the question of what it might mean to leave something beautiful, to which we are drawn, untouched. Read in a Buddhist way, it turns on a small but telling contrast between beauty and techiyaal (тэчияал) — craving or grasping desire. The flower is seen, admired, and remembered, yet it is not plucked.
I feel the poem’s quiet force lies in the suggestion that what is not seized or taken need not be lost.
That, at least, is one way of reading it. You may read it differently, of course, and perhaps that is part of the doha’s gift: to let you, in the first instance, enjoy reading it, and then, if you wish, to study it further and decide for yourself what meaning it carries for you.
* * *
Should you wish to look more closely, the poem’s formal shaping is also part of what gives it its quiet force. From a Mongolian literary perspective, one of the first things to notice in the original doha is its sustained use of head-alliteration (толгой холболт): each line begins with “Т”, creating a tightly patterned sonic thread* that gives the poem both formal unity and a kind of incantatory steadiness* in the Mongolian language.
In English we might simply call this an alliterative or head-rhyming technique, but in Mongolian verbal art it is more than ornament.
According to my reading of the literature, these kinds of repeated initial sound helps bind the lines together, guides the ear, and gives the poem a controlled musical pressure* even when the diction* itself remains plain. From what I can work out, that patterning suits this poem particularly well, because the doha turns on recurrence — the remembered flower, the years passing, the heart’s refusal to let an initial perception, and memory, of beauty fade — and the repeated “Т” seems to quietly reinforce that sense of return, continuity, and inward persistence (cf. Kara 2011; Hangin et al. 1985).
More broadly, this places Rinpoche’s doha within a much older Mongolian literary habit in which sound patterning*, repetition, and parallel movement are not secondary embellishments but structural features of poetic thought. Scholars of Mongolian literature have noted the importance of alliteration* and parallelism* across oral, epic, lyric, and didactic forms*, and this doha seems to draw lightly but recognisably on that inheritance (cf. Kara 2003; Wickham-Smith 2015).
What is especially notable here is the way Bagsh-aa* draws on that older technique with a light touch: the poem does not feel archaic or overworked, yet its formal discipline* gives it a literary poise that links contemporary doha back to deeper Mongolian habits of composition. In that sense, its style can be read as sitting comfortably within the longer history of Mongolian verbal art, while still remaining intimate, clear, and modern in feel.
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GLOSSARY
Sonic thread: A repeated sound or sound-pattern running through a poem that helps hold its lines together.
Incantatory steadiness: A calm, chant-like sense of repetition in a poem that gives the language a steady, lingering force.
Controlled musical pressure: The feeling that a poem’s sound and rhythm are being held in a steady, shaped way.
Diction: A poem’s choice of words: plain or elevated, intimate or formal, simple or ornate.
Sound patterning: The use of repeated or related sounds to give a poem texture, movement, and shape.
Alliteration: The repetition of the same sound, often at the beginning of words or lines.
Parallelism: The use of similarly shaped lines or phrases so that they echo or balance one another.
Oral form (in Mongolian poetry): A poetic form shaped for speaking, chanting, or reciting aloud, and often carried through memory, performance, and repeated telling rather than only through writing.
Epic form (in Mongolian poetry): A broader, more expansive poetic mode, often carrying heroic, historical, or legendary material.
Lyric form (in Mongolian poetry): A shorter, more inward poetic mode, often centred on feeling, image, or reflection.
Didactic form (in Mongolian poetry): A poetic mode that carries some element of teaching, guidance, or moral reflection.
Formal discipline (in Mongolian poetry): The care with which a poem holds to its chosen pattern of sound, phrasing, structure, or repetition.
Bagsh-aa (багшаа): literally means “teacher” or “my teacher” in direct address. The base word is багш (“teacher”), while багшаа is the form used when speaking directly to that person, often with a tone that can be warm, familiar, or respectful depending on context. I am taking the liberty of using it in that spirit here: not as a strict technical term, but as a small and recognisable Mongolian form of address that carries both closeness and regard.
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FURTHER READING
Hangin, John G., John R. Krueger, Robert G. Service, and William V. Rozycki. 1985. Mongolian Folklore: A Representative Collection from the Oral Literary Tradition. Part One. Mongolian Studies.
Kara, György. 2003. “An Anthology of Mongolian Traditional Literature.” Asia Major.
Kara, György. 2011. “Alliteration in Mongol Poetry.” In Alliteration in Culture, edited by Jonathan Roper. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wickham-Smith, Simon. 2015. “A Literary History of Buddhism in Mongolia.” In Buddhism in Mongolian History, Culture, and Society, edited by Vesna A. Wallace. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
End of transcript.
Please refer to the INDEX for other poems and articles that may be of interest.
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