Heen Sare Nuba Awidin Lyrics by Dimanka Wellalage

Hidden behind the full moon
in the night sky, away from the whole world,
you brought light into my heart
and came to me so softly,
you came to me so softly…..

Lying among the clustered vines of stars,
stretched out along the cold wind,
giving fragrance to the wilderness of my heart,
you came to me so softly,
you came without even me knowing…..

Hidden behind the full moon……

Crossing over the bank of the rushing river,
driving away the forbidding fences,
opening the doors of my heart’s house,
you came to me so softly,
you came without even me knowing…..

Hidden behind the full moon……

A young man is describing the moment love slipped quietly into his life. He pictures the one he loves not arriving with any noise or fuss, but coming the way moonlight comes at night, softly, secretly, before he even notices. The whole song is built around that one gentle idea, “heen sare numba awidin,” you came to me so softly, and he says it over and over because that is exactly how it felt.

The imagery here is all borrowed from the night. He says she was hidden behind the full moon, in the night sky, away from the whole world. In Sinhala love songs the full moon is the standing image for a calm, glowing beauty, so placing her behind it makes her something gentle and luminous that lights up his heart from the inside. Then he turns to the stars and the cold night wind, picturing her resting among the clusters of stars and riding along on the breeze, carrying her scent into what he calls the wilderness of his heart. That fragrance on the wind is the feeling of love reaching a part of him that was empty and overgrown before, like a quiet forest suddenly filled with sweetness.

By the last verse the love is no longer just drifting in on the wind. Now she crosses a rushing river, pushes past the forbidding fences, and opens the doors of his heart’s house. Those barriers, the fast river, the fences, the locked doors, stand for all the things that usually keep two people apart, distance, rules, hesitation, the guard we put up around our own feelings. He is saying that love pushed through every one of them and walked right in.

What makes the song tender is that little phrase he keeps repeating, “matath hora numba awidin,” you came without even me knowing. He never saw it happening. There was no single moment he could point to. By the time he looked, his heart was already full of light, already opened, already changed. Anyone who has fallen for someone slowly, without meaning to, will recognise the feeling the song leaves you with.