Sukumala Banda Nelawa Lyrics by Chitral Somapala

Swaying her soft, delicate waist,
the little bells on her feet jingling,
a face glowing white like milk, like the disc of the moon,
O dancing celestial maiden.

Like a lotus flower shaken loose in the dance,
drifting upon the water,
this is how they speak
of your graceful little steps,
ah, how lovely, O maiden.

Hair combed out and dressed with flowers,
a string of pearls around her neck,
moving like a golden swan,
her bosom and breast,
ah, how lovely, O maiden.

This is a song of pure praise for a dancer, the kind of celebration of a beautiful performing woman that Sinhala lyric loves. The singer is watching a young woman dance and calling her a “sura niliye”, a celestial nymph, one of the divine dancing maidens of myth. Every line is a fresh attempt to capture how graceful she is, from her swaying waist to the soft jingle of the little bells (kinkini) tied at her ankles, the small brass bells dancers wear so that every step keeps time with sound.

Her beauty is built up image by image, and each image is one a Sri Lankan listener recognises at once. Her face glowing white “like milk” and likened to the disc of the full moon is the classic comparison for a serene, radiant beauty, light that soothes rather than dazzles. When she turns and dips, the lyric sees a lotus flower that has come loose in the dance and is floating on water, an image of something delicate and lovely set adrift, soft and unhurried. And as she moves, she carries herself like a “rana hasa”, a golden swan, the bird that in Sinhala and Sanskrit poetry stands for the most refined, gliding grace there is.

The small details fill in the picture of a dancer dressed for performance: her hair combed out and tucked with flowers, a string of pearls at her throat. The recurring line, “ha kadimai niliye”, is the watcher’s plain burst of admiration, something close to “ah, she is splendid”, returning each time the way a delighted onlooker keeps saying it again.

What the listener is left with is not heartbreak or longing but simple, warm wonder. It is a song that does one thing and does it gladly, holding up a graceful dancing woman and comparing her to the moon, a lotus, and a golden swan until she feels less like an ordinary person and more like one of the heavenly dancers the singer names her after.