Iren Handen Eliya Aran Lyrics by Harshana Disanayake

Taking light from the sun and the moon

Taking light… from the trees and the fields
Taking fragrance from the streams and the brooks
Taking the cool air
In this world of ours that was made for us
Come and be happy, my friend
In this world of ours that was made for us
Come and be happy, my friend

Don’t cut down the butterflies and the stars
The colors of the rainbow will fade away
Don’t cut down the trees and the fields
The earth will melt in the fire of the sun

In this world of ours that was made for us
Let us always keep the joy, my friend
In this world of ours that was made for us
Let us always keep the joy, my friend

The singing vines, the bees and the little ones
The two-legged and four-legged creatures
The sun, the moon, the trees, the fields
They have the same right to all of this, just like us

In this world of ours that was made for us
Let us always keep the joy, my friend
In this world of ours that was made for us
Let us always keep the joy, my friend

This is a gentle song about the natural world and about taking care of it together. There is no lover and no heartbreak here. The singer is talking to a friend, almost as if standing outside in the open and pointing all around, asking that friend to come and share the simple happiness the world offers. The whole song is an invitation: this place was made for us, so come, be glad in it, and let us look after it.

The first part is a list of small gifts that cost nothing. Light borrowed from the sun and the moon, from the trees and the open fields, the fragrance that drifts up from streams and little brooks, the coolness in the air. In Sinhala these everyday country images, the gala (stream), the dola (brook), the wel (paddy fields), carry the feeling of village life close to nature, where happiness comes from what is freely around you rather than from things you buy. The line “come and be happy, my friend” sets the warm, easy mood of the whole song.

Then the song turns into a quiet plea, and this is where its real meaning sits. “Don’t cut down the butterflies and the stars,” it says, and “don’t cut down the trees and the fields.” The word for cutting down is the same one used for clearing forest, so the image links the felling of trees to losing the butterflies, the stars, even the colors of the rainbow. The warning is plain: harm one part of nature and the rest fades with it, and the earth itself will burn under the sun. It is an environmental message dressed in soft, singable lines, the kind of song meant to teach children and grown-ups alike to value what we have before it is gone.

The last verse widens the circle. The vines that seem to sing, the bees, the small creatures, the animals on two legs and four, the sun and moon and trees and fields, all of them, the song says, have the same claim to this world that we do. That is the heart of it. We are not the owners of the earth, only one more living thing sharing it. What the listener is left holding is a calm, kind sense of belonging, and the wish to keep this shared world whole and happy for everyone in it.