Mal Gomu Gumu Gumu Lyrics by Amaradeva

She who makes the flower-groves hum and buzz,
she who fills the honeycombs with honey,
she who delights the ears with the notes of birds,
she who turns the whole world into a garden

She who wraps the jambu tree in red,
she who paints the bak-mee tree yellow,
she who smears the young mango-shoots with tender red,
she who soothes the eye wherever it turns

She who shines with the erabadu’s colour,
she who binds all with the na-tree’s fragrance,
she who makes the lotus flowers of the lake unfold,
she who adorns the woman of the world with wonder

A radiant classic in praise of spring, personified throughout as a woman, she who… brings the season to life. She makes the flower-groves hum and buzz with bees, fills the honeycombs with honey, delights the ears with birdsong, and, in the line that gathers it all up, turns the whole world into a garden. Spring is imagined as a giver who dresses the earth in beauty.

The middle is pure colour. She wraps the jambu tree in red, paints the bak-mee tree yellow, smears young mango-shoots with tender red, an artist working across the trees of the Sri Lankan countryside, and everywhere the eye turns, she soothes it. It is a catalogue of the season’s specific, local hues.

The close deepens into scent and bloom. She shines with the fiery colour of the erabadu, binds the air with the fragrance of the na (ironwood) tree, opens the lotus flowers on the lake, and finally adorns the woman of the world with wonder, the whole earth, personified as a woman, made beautiful by her. Sung by the maestro W. D. Amaradeva to words by Arisen Ahubudu, it is a luminous, painterly classic that celebrates spring as a life-giving artist who turns the entire world into a blossoming garden.