Help understanding song titled 天嫁

Question

天嫁 | Marriage of the sky

流星划过天幕 | A shooting star streaks the canopy of the sky
长长的慧尾 | A long comet
冰雪溶化汇成 | Snow melts and becomes
千年的泪 | The tears of a thousand years
亲人捎来的龙达 | The dragon brought by close relatives reaches
光耀苍穹 | The dazzling blue dome of heavens
阿妈告诉孩儿 | Mother, tell your child
故事的凄美 | The sadness and beauty of history

那是天上的桌玛 | This is the 桌玛 of the sky
骑着白驹要远嫁 | Riding a white horse wants to marry a wife from far away
离愁有多痛痛有多浓 | The grief of parting is too painful and the pain is too dense
那里的小草绿吗 | Is the grass there green?
那里的天蓝云白吗 | Is the sky there blue? Are the clouds there white?
那里的你 还像从前一样美吗 | Are you, there, still beautiful as you used to be?

嗡嘛哩嘛哩班咩哄
嗡嘛哩嘛哩班咩哄
嗡嘛哩嘛哩班咩哄
嗡嘛哩嘛哩班咩哄

So here are my questions:

1. What is the correct spelling of 慧尾? The captions of this Youtube video have 慧尾, but I found a Baidu Baike article which has 彗尾…
2. What is this 亲人捎来的龙 (dragon that close relatives bring in)?
3. What does 桌玛 mean? Is it one word or two?
4. The translation of the line 离愁有多痛痛有多浓 sounds just horrible, so what does it mean and how do I better translate it?
5. If I take it right, "to marry" is 嫁 for women and another verb for men, so why is the sky taken as female, with verb 嫁? (This question probably only arises from the fact that Italian and many other languages have "sky" as masculine gender)

Note: the last 4 lines are the mantra "Om mani padme hum" repeated 4 times, with "mani" repeated twice each time (om mani mani padme hum).

Answer 1

'彗尾' is short for '彗星尾巴'. It means comet tail

'卓玛' should be the name of a girl, because the next line 骑着白驹要远嫁 (Riding a white horse, about to marry to far away place) indicated so.

Edit:

Dan wrote: '卓玛' in Tibetan is like 'goddess'.

Therefore:

那是天上的卓玛, 骑着白驹要远嫁 - That is a goddess in the sky, riding a white horse, about to get married away to somewhere far far away.

离愁有多痛? 痛有多浓? - How painful is the grief of parting? And how deep is that pain?

那里的小草绿吗 - Will the grass there green?

那里的天蓝云白吗 - Will the sky there blue? Will the clouds there white?

那里的你 还像从前一样美吗 - The you who will be there, will she still be as beautiful as before?

Edit 2:

Jacob wrote: 龙达 is a series of flag for prayer

Therefore:

亲人捎来的龙达光耀苍穹 - The banners that the relatives bough along brilliantly lighten up the sky.

It is a description of a gathering of clan members from different parts of the land. Each party carry its own shiny prayer banners.

离愁有多痛痛有多浓 should be '离愁有多痛? 痛有多浓?'(How painful is the parting sorrow? And how deep is this pain?)

In Chinese, a man marrying a woman is to 娶 a woman. A woman marrying a man is to 嫁 a man. 娶 and 嫁 are verbs

• '嫁' in '天嫁' is a noun for 'bride'

• '花嫁' in Japanese means 'bride'

Judging from the context in the lyrics, I think the title '天嫁' might has borrowed the Japanese term '花嫁'(bride) and simplified it to '嫁' and added '天' to make up a new term '天嫁'(天空的花嫁- the bride in the sky)

• 流星 and 彗星 (meteor and comet) are two different things, the author got them confused

• In the tale, a goddess in the sky is about to marry to a far away place.

天嫁 | The bride in the sky

流星划过天幕 | Shooting stars streak across the canopy of the sky

长长的慧尾 冰雪溶化汇成千年的泪 | The long long comet tail, is ice and snow melted into a thousand years of tears.

亲人捎来的龙达光耀苍穹 | The banners that the relatives bough along brilliantly lighten up the sky

阿妈告诉孩儿故事的凄美 | Mothers tell their children the sadness and beauty of a story

(the following is the story itself)

那是天上的卓玛 骑着白驹要远嫁 | There is a goddess in the sky riding a white horse, about to be married off to a far away place

离愁有多痛? 痛有多浓? | "How painful is the grief of parting? And how deep is that pain?"

那里的小草绿吗 | "Will the grass there green?"

那里的天蓝云白吗 | "Will the sky there blue and clouds white?"

那里的你 还像从前一样美吗 | "The you who will be there, will she still be as beautiful as before?"

(imagining a conversation with the goddess)

Finally, I think the mothers were telling a folk tale to their children about the comet-- It is a bride in the sky

Answer 2

My take to this is different.

'桌玛' in Tibetan is like 'goddess'.

We can seize the meaning of '天嫁' from this two lines, 那是天上的桌玛, 骑着白驹要远嫁. It means the goddess from haven will go to a marriage （on the earth）faraway from her home(haven) by riding a white horse.

So, '天嫁' means the marriage of the goddess from the heaven. It seems that she suffered lots of hardship from there according to the song.

Answer 3

You have to figure out the backgroud of a song first when you try to understand each of the lines of any lyrics.

This is a Tibetan song.

• 卓玛 is just a heroine name in Tibetan.
• 龙达 is a series of flag for prayer.
• 阿妈 is mother in Tibetan.

No surprise: any song involving a girl will be a love song.

嗡嘛哩嘛哩班咩哄 is a Sanskrit mantra for prayer. In Mandarin, it is called "六字真言" and is usually spelt 唵嘛呢叭咪吽.