Nidukin Inumana Lyrics

May you live free of pain, longer than I do, taking my life with you
May you live happily, taking my happiness, for as long as life lasts
The sorrow I am carrying, never give it to anyone else again
May the sorrow that came to me somewhere in saṃsāra (the cycle of rebirth) never come to you

Even if you never come close again one day
and never come looking for me
I loved you always
with all my heart…..//

You were the only one I had to fight with and make up with
When I see those eyes turning away, the loneliness I feel has no end
I have tried to walk out of the old memories, but I truly cannot
Tears have sat in my eyes all this time, and this is a place I cannot stay in

Even if you never come close again one day
and never come looking for me
I loved you always
with all my heart ………….

You were right beside me, and now that you have gone, the sorrow I feel is as wide as the sky
I cannot hide it any longer, this heart that belongs to you is helpless
We could have been so happy, and still we were the ones who could not stay
You are the one, my love, who handed me this much hurt……

May you live free of pain, longer than I do, taking my life with you
May you live happily, taking my happiness, for as long as life lasts
The sorrow I am carrying, never give it to anyone else again
May the sorrow that came to me somewhere in saṃsāra (the cycle of rebirth) never come to you

Even if you never come close again one day
and never come looking for me
I loved you always
with all my heart…..//

A young man is watching the girl he loves walk out of his life, and instead of turning bitter, he blesses her. That is the whole surprise of this song. The first thing out of his mouth is not “how could you,” it is a wish that she lives without pain, that she lives longer than he does, and that she takes his share of happiness with her when she goes.

The phrasing he uses for that wish, inu mana, is soft and almost formal, the kind of blessing you give someone rather than a demand you make of them. Then he reaches for saṃsāra, the Buddhist cycle of birth and rebirth, and asks that whatever he did somewhere back in that long chain to earn this pain should never land on her. For a Sri Lankan listener that is about as far as a wish can go. He is not just saying “be happy now,” he is saying he will carry this across lifetimes so she never has to.

The chorus is where he stops pretending he expects anything back. She may never come near him again, may never come looking for him, and he says it plainly, then answers it with the only thing he still owns: he loved her every single day, in every corner of his heart. Past tense, and it hurts more because of it.

The second verse pulls the whole thing down to something small and ordinary. She was the one person he could fight with and then make up with, and it is that everyday rhythm of a close relationship, not any grand romance, that he misses most. He has tried to put the old memories away and cannot. The tears have simply settled in his eyes and stayed there. By the last verse the grief has grown to the size of the sky, and he admits the heart that still belongs to her is helpless. His final line is the sharpest one in the song: he calls her raththarang, the tender word you use for someone precious to you, in the same breath as telling her she is the one who gave him all this pain. He never takes the love back, even while naming who broke him. That is what makes it stay with you.