Awanhala

In a rain that pours down with great force,
on a truly dark evening of life,
turned by the fingertips, the chapter of love unfolds,
in the book of my love stories

Drop by drop, falling upon us,
the dew of the frost-flowers,
below it, your fingers laced with mine,
the time we walked together,
softly coming into an embrace, and in secret
speaking our love,
my tale of love,
the story in the poplar’s shade

Bodies laced into each other in a strange, harsh cold,
on the evening we met so that you could leave me,
our love, written in the tears that streamed from your eyes,
my love of long ago,
in the half-dark tavern

A bittersweet, memory-soaked love song that reads its own past like a book. On a violently rainy day, a truly dark evening of life, the singer turns the pages with his fingertips and a chapter of love unfolds, the book of my love stories. The whole song is him re-reading one lost romance.

The remembered scenes are all small and tender: frost-dew falling on the two of them drop by drop, fingers laced together as they walked, coming softly into an embrace and whispering their love in secret, the story in the poplar’s shade. It is young love recalled in its gentlest, closest details.

The last verse turns to the ending. Bodies still laced together in a strange, harsh cold, they met one evening only so that she could leave him; and their whole love, he says, was written in the tears that streamed from her eyes that night. He names the place it all lived and died: the half-dark tavern of the title. Sung by Dimantha Weerakoon, composed by Tharindu Damsara to words by Navoda Rathnayake, it is a wistful song about re-reading a love that ended, remembered like a story told in a dim, rain-lit tavern.