Maa Dihaa Lyrics

She is nothing less than a flower of nectar
she made even my eyes fortunate
her offered smile cooled my heart
in this life, forever

Look at me, my beauty
do not cry, my lovely one, for my sake

When I saw her far away,
though our eyes met we did not speak, yet the heart was bound, little sister
though I had never once seen her before,
her lotus face somehow felt familiar to me
oh… little one…

With eyes long and full of longing, wings folded,
startled by a smile, she does not go
though unspoken, held quietly in the heart,
even just seeing you is enough for me
are those rose lips mine, or are they not?
I will wait, hoping, in my heart
what is this ache of sorrow? do you not feel it?
sit here, and I will pluck you (like a flower) to me

Look at me, my beauty
do not cry, my lovely one, for my sake

This is love at first sight, told with the giddy tenderness of someone who cannot quite believe his luck. From the first line the beloved is more than human: “a flower of nectar” who “made even my eyes fortunate” just by being seen, whose “offered smile cooled my heart.” The gentle refrain is the whole song in miniature, “look at me, my beauty; do not cry, my lovely one, for my sake.”

The magic of the song is the sense of instant, inexplicable recognition. He sees her “far away,” and though “our eyes met, we did not speak,” something binds his heart at once. The most beautiful touch is his wonder that “though I had never once seen her before, her lotus face somehow felt familiar,” muwa kamala, the lotus-face, the classic image of serene Sinhala beauty, carrying the quiet suggestion that they have met before, in some earlier life.

The rest is the sweet uncertainty of new love. He watches her, “eyes long and full of longing,” startled by her own smile yet unwilling to leave; he confesses that “even just seeing you is enough for me,” and then, half to himself, “are those rose lips mine, or are they not?” He decides simply to “wait, hoping,” and asks the one question every new lover wants answered, “do you not feel this ache too?” What the listener is left with is the warm rush of falling for someone in a single glance, tender, hopeful and lit by the feeling that this stranger was somehow always meant to be his.