Dahas Gananak

Abhi – Past thousands of faces,
come as though you were the very first..
stay close beside me until evening,
and leave only at the very end..

Bimal – Passing thousands of faces,
I come, arriving late..
my heart already full of a secret sorrow, I leave
before the evening falls..

Abhi – Come in your very best shirt, as if going to a wedding house
Bimal – It is tousled hair that is lovely,
so let it float on the wind..

Bimal – When my tousled hair floats on the wind, I smile, bearing the ache..
Abhi – Some other day, hand in hand,
let us go to a wedding house

Abhi – While I bow to kiss your head, I will not say “I love you”..
Bimal – Stepping backward, and backward,
I will fade away like a dot..
I will fade away like a dot..

Abhi – Like a dot..?

This is a tender, aching duet-dialogue between two named voices, Abhi and Bimal, tracing a love that keeps meeting and slipping away. Abhi asks for the impossible-sweet thing lovers always want: past thousands of other faces, come as if you were the first; stay beside me until evening and leave only at the very end. Bimal answers from a sadder place: passing those thousands of faces, I come late, my heart already full of a secret sorrow, and I leave before evening even falls. One wants to hold on; the other is always half-gone.

The middle is gentle, ordinary tenderness. Come in your best shirt, as if to a wedding, Abhi says; no, Bimal replies, it is tousled hair that is beautiful, let it float in the wind, and admits that when it does, the smile is hiding an ache. Abhi keeps reaching for a future, some other day, hand in hand, let us go to a wedding house together, the small domestic dream of two people who may never quite get there.

The ending is quietly devastating. Bowing to kiss Bimal’s head, Abhi says, I will not say I love you, the love too large or too fragile to speak. And Bimal’s answer is to step backward, and backward, until fading away like a dot, shrinking to a speck on the horizon. Abhi can only echo it as a question, like a dot..?, unable to accept the vanishing. Written and sung by Abhisheka Wimalaweera, it is a delicate two-voice song about a love where one keeps arriving and the other keeps leaving, and the tenderest things stay forever unsaid.