Awith Gihin

An angel came, and went away,
took my love, came, and went away,
life’s sorrowful, aching sighs,
now I will have to suffer them all again

Love, an angel,
faded gently out of the story,
rose in an instant on the wind,
and deluded me, deceived me,
in a way never seen before

Beyond the row of stars
there is a world, angel,
a whole galaxy,
heart scorched and broken by me,
carrying the untold tales in your heart,
even if you have gone there, tell them,
my darling

Will I have to drown in mead?
will I have to wrap a flower and breathe it in?
will I have to think it all through?
I do not know

A wistful, dazed song of lost love, built on the image of the beloved as an angel who simply came and vanished. An angel came, and went away, the singer says, and took his love with her; now all he has left are life’s sorrowful, aching sighs, which he must go back to suffering all over again. Love arrived and left in a single motion.

The middle tries to make sense of how fast it happened. His angel faded gently out of the story, then rose in an instant on the wind and was gone, having deluded him in a way he had never known. It has the unreality of a spell, a love so brief it feels like he was tricked by something not quite of this world.

The close reaches out across the cosmos. Beyond the stars, he imagines, there is a whole galaxy, a world she may have gone to; and he asks her, even there, to carry and one day tell the untold tales his scorched, broken heart never got to say. Then the lost, drifting questions of the grieving: will I have to drown in mead, wrap a flower and breathe it in, think it all through? I do not know. Sung by Dinusha Jayasinghe to words by Nimesh Sukumala, composed by Tharindu Damsara, it is a dreamy, aching song about a love that appeared and disappeared like an angel, leaving only unanswered questions behind.