Calypso NonStop (Part 1) Lyrics by Calypso

Menike, in your smile
a stream of water flows past
the morning where buds have bloomed
your loving words
.
In your sweet wishes
this journey, this long road I have come
Please accept, with kindness,
me, your faithful loving creeper
Please accept, with kindness,
me, your faithful loving creeper
.
Menike, in your smile
a stream of water flows past
the morning where buds have bloomed
your loving words
.
In this mango grove,
the village song spreads out
when will it ever fall silent,
on that lovely face
.
is it some spell, this poison,
the way you smile like that?
.
A goddess of the earth
walking onto the floor,
how do you come walking,
in pale blue silk, with sparkling hair,
the way your two eyes sway…
.
In dream after dream you come to me
what is it you murmur, so softly?
.
Does the ache in my heart ever stop
in a moment you vanish again, out of sight
.
In this mango grove,
the village song spreads out
when will it ever fall silent,
on that lovely face
.
is it some spell, this poison,
the way you smile like that?
.
A goddess of the earth
walking onto the floor,
how do you come walking,
in pale blue silk, with sparkling hair,
the way your two eyes sway…
.
All through the world of love, I searched for you, my fair one
I wove a garland of flowers, tied it on to offer you
By your house, in the grove where flowers had bloomed,
I waited, and where did you slip away?
To take your hand, the sorrow I have suffered,
only I know how it feels
To take your hand, the sorrow I have suffered,
only I know how it feels
Without seeing you, I cannot go on
that is exactly why I come, searching for you
.
All through the world of love, I searched for you, my fair one
I wove a garland of flowers, tied it on to offer you

A young man is completely taken with a girl he calls Menike, which is less a name than a tender word for a precious girl, the way you might call someone your gem. From the very first line he reaches for the prettiest images he can find to describe her, and they all come from the village around him. Her smile is like a stream of water flowing past. Her loving words are like a morning when the first buds have opened. He is telling you that everything gentle and fresh in his world reminds him of her. The heart of his plea is simple and humble. He calls himself her loving creeper, a vine, and asks her to accept him with kindness. In Sinhala love poetry the vine clinging to a tree is a familiar picture of devotion, the one who has nothing of his own and only wants to hold on to the one he loves. So when he asks her to take him in, he is asking to be allowed to belong to her. Then the imagery lifts higher. He sets the scene in a mango grove with a village song drifting through it, and wonders aloud whether that lovely face will ever stop smiling at him. He teases that her smile must be some kind of spell, a sweet poison, because he cannot look away. He sees her almost as a goddess of the earth, walking in pale blue silk with her hair catching the light, her eyes moving in a way that undoes him. She visits him in dream after dream, murmuring something he cannot quite catch, and the moment he reaches for it she is gone again, leaving the ache in his chest with nowhere to go. By the last verse you feel the longing underneath all the sweetness. He has searched the whole world of love for her. He wove her a garland of flowers and waited by her house, in the grove where the flowers had opened, ready to offer it, and she slipped away before he could. The pain of wanting to take her hand is a pain only he knows, and that is the line that lands hardest. He cannot rest without seeing her, so he keeps coming back, searching, garland in hand. It is the old, sweet helplessness of someone who has given his whole heart and is still waiting to be allowed to give it.