Balma Corona

Keep my love at a meter’s distance,
give me a kiss through a face mask,
the messengers of our love are WhatsApp and Viber,
is there Wifi in that lonely house’s room?

Orona marona, your gaze is corona,
holona nalona, your TikTok pictures so lovely.. //

Princess I met in quarantine,
shall we settle down in peace, in love?
you are the very virus of this love,
and you are also the first aid for this disease

Orona marona, your gaze is corona,
holona nalona, your TikTok pictures so lovely.. //

We set off by word of mouth on a trip to Nuwara, to Meemure,
and it fizzled out, drip by drip, in self-quarantine,
I found this “chassis number” of a cutie on Facebook,
and friend, I never noticed the second week slipping by..

Orona marona, your gaze is corona,
holona nalona, your TikTok pictures so lovely.. //

This is a witty lockdown love song from the comedy act Funky Dirt, and its whole charm is turning pandemic life into flirtation. Keep my love a meter away, he sings, give me a kiss through a face mask, and let WhatsApp and Viber be the messengers between us; he even asks whether there is Wifi in the lonely quarantine room. Every romantic gesture gets filtered through COVID rules.

The wordplay is the point. Orona marona, he chants, your gaze is corona, you have caught me the way the virus caught everyone. Then comes the cleverest line of all: you are the virus of this love and also its first aid, the sickness and the cure at once. He met his princess in quarantine and wonders whether the two of them should settle down together in peace.

The last verse keeps the joke rolling with very of-the-moment slang. A trip to Nuwara Eliya and remote Meemure fizzles into self-isolation, he finds a “chassis number,” playful slang for a good-looking person, on Facebook, and loses all track of time as a second week of lockdown slips by. It is a light, silly, affectionate snapshot of falling for someone during the pandemic, built entirely out of the era’s own vocabulary.