Kusum Pipena

Film: Siri Perakum (2013)

The spring when flowers bloom
The spring when bees hum and circle
Stirring feelings, dancing their dance
The sweet, fragrant spring

Rays of light rise over the eastern mountain
Pouring down, strained through the dew
A wildflower sways, giving its scent
And smiles, blossoming with joy

A lovely moon, full in all sixteen phases
Peers down from the clouds, from the river of the sky
Parting fresh, young petal-like lips
It smiles, blossoming with joy

The spring when flowers bloom…

This is a spring song from the 2013 film Siri Perakum, and it does one thing beautifully: it paints the season of vasantha, the time when the whole world wakes up and starts to bloom. There is no heartbroken lover here, no sleepless night. The song simply stands in the middle of spring and points at everything coming alive. Flowers open, bees hum and circle in the air, and the whole season seems to be dancing, full of scent and sweetness.

The second verse takes you to first light. The sun climbs over the eastern mountain, and its rays come down softened, as if poured through the morning dew. Then the camera, so to speak, settles on one small wildflower in the forest. It trembles a little, gives off its fragrance, and opens into a smile. That image of a flower “smiling” as it blossoms is the heart of the song. In Sinhala lyric, a flower opening with joy stands for life itself unfolding, fresh and unguarded, the way new beginnings feel.

The richest image comes at the end. The song reaches for the full moon to describe beauty, but not just any moon. It calls it a moon full in all sixteen kala, its sixteen phases, the Sinhala way of saying the moon at its absolute completeness, perfect and whole. This moon peers down through the clouds from the ahas ganga, the “river of the sky,” which is the old poetic name for the Milky Way. And then the moon parts “fresh young petal-like lips” and smiles. Here the season, the moon and a blooming flower all melt into one face, young and radiant, smiling with the same joy the flowers feel.

What the song leaves you with is pure, uncomplicated delight. It is a hymn to spring and renewal, where light, dew, fragrance, flowers and a perfect moon all seem to be smiling together at the same moment. You come away not with longing but with lightness, the simple wonder of watching the world bloom.