Sasara Pura Lyrics by Dasun Madushan

Fulfilling merits across saṃsāra to become yours,
the love we bound in secret from the world has come true today,
counting on my fingers the ways to make you mine,
becoming my queen, today you entwine your fingers in mine..

Dressed in all your beauty as a bride today,
as you walk, hanging on your husband’s arm,
unlike any other day, my heartbeat quickened,
and without my even knowing, my eyes grew wet with tears..

To set off and begin a life in a new world,
a moment before, you drew close to your loving mother,
how could I ever bear to take you away, my thoughts stopping still,
so I stand, hiding my tears behind a smile on my lips…

A tender wedding-day song in the voice of the groom, overwhelmed at marrying the woman he loves. He frames it in the language of saṃsāra: he fulfilled merits across countless lives to become hers, and the love they once kept secret from the world has, today, finally come true. The image of her entwining her fingers in his, becoming his queen, makes the union feel both intimate and destined.

The middle catches the pure emotion of the day. She is dressed in all her beauty as a bride, and as she walks in on her husband’s arm, his heart pounds as it never has before, and, without his even noticing, his eyes fill with tears. It is joy so large it spills over into weeping.

The last verse holds the bittersweet heart of every wedding. As they prepare to leave and begin a life in a new world, he watches her draw close, one last moment, to her loving mother, and is stopped cold by the tenderness of it: how can I bear to take you away? Unable to answer, he simply stands there, hiding his tears behind a smile. Sung by Dasun Madushan to words by Kasun Wickramasinghe, it is a warm, moving song about a groom’s overflowing love and the gentle ache of taking a bride from the family that raised her.