Sitha Sanasuma Windemi Oba Hinda Lyrics by Chandralekha Perera

I find peace of mind because of you

A flower-soft smile lingers on your lips
Your love is sweet and tender
This is a pure, untouched love; I saw it in your eyes
I took shelter in your shade, and felt the whole world was mine

You are the one sight that comforts my eyes in this life
Forever I offer up the pure love bound deep in my heart //
Binding my mind, tasting its sweetness…
Feeling such comfort… because of you…

Could the wonder that made our two hearts one ever be in vain
Hand in hand, let’s walk the flowery path filled with fragrance //
Binding my mind, tasting its sweetness…
Feeling such comfort… because of you…

This is a love song sung from a place of deep contentment, the voice of someone who has found her person and feels the whole of her life settle because of them. There is no heartbreak here, no longing for someone far away. The very first line says it plainly: I find peace of mind because of you. That calm runs through everything that follows.

She looks at the one she loves and sees a soft smile resting on his lips, a love that is sweet and gentle. She calls it a “noindul” love, an untouched, unspoiled love, the kind that is still pure and whole, and she says she could read it in his eyes the moment she saw it. The image of taking shelter in his shade is a tender one in Sinhala. A “sewana” is the cool shade of a tree, the place you rest from the heat, so to say she took shelter in his shade means she found safety and rest in him, and once she did, the whole world felt like it belonged to her.

The middle of the song turns into something close to a vow. He is the one sight that soothes her eyes, and she promises to keep offering up the love tied into her heart, again and again, forever. The short broken phrases in the refrain, binding the mind, tasting the sweetness, feeling the comfort, all of it because of you, read like someone almost too full to finish a sentence, naming one small joy after another.

By the end she reaches a quiet certainty. The wonder that joined their two hearts into one cannot, she feels, ever come to nothing. So she asks him to take her hand and walk together down a path lined with fragrant flowers. That flowery path is the road of a shared life ahead, sweet-smelling and bright, and the song leaves you with the warmth of two people who have decided to walk it side by side.