Once I had a home
A paradise called Sun City Lhasa
Once I knew a peaceful moon and blue sky
My home likes an ocean of peace in her eyes
Once I had a home

My home is the tears
for the torn tents of the red ravage
Now, the yak boys, butter milk, fled.
Plucked from their land like green corn
Are golden flames of fury.
They have become the dispossessed
lost not nomads.
They tramp listless
Fruitless farmers.

Sunrise and sunset
Year after year
The fields of green turn yellow to green again

But! My home is brooding, blood red,
the tears of Yarlung River
My home a mother’s mourning, Oh! Potala!
My home is her love from across the frontier.

My home is prison and a death sentence.
My home is jail.

What did I know of rights and freedom?
I don’t want to know
Just one thing look
give me back my life again please.
One lifetime to live as I please
Whether in old age or disease
in a peaceful world