Oba Nidanna Lyrics by HR Jothipala

Sleep now, sleep now
Rest in peace
I’ll be right here beside you
gently stirring the breeze

The words that lovers
say to one another
I’ll tell them all to you, my beauty
weaving them softly together
Your tender, graceful beauty
fills my eyes
“Could you be the lovers of Isurumuniya?”
my heart asks me

You who have won my heart,
my sweet one
Beauties like you stand carved at Sigiriya
Bringing a new dawn’s light to our world
a new sun will rise
tomorrow morning

A young man sits beside the woman he loves as she drifts off to sleep, watching over her and telling her softly to rest. He promises to stay right there through the night, even fanning the air to keep her cool and comfortable. That tenderness is the whole heart of the song, the quiet, protective love of someone who would rather watch his beloved sleep than sleep himself.

As he sits there he starts to say the things lovers say to each other, gathering them up gently like little gifts. Her soft, graceful beauty fills his eyes, and looking at her he thinks of Isurumuniya, asking his own heart whether the two of them could be the lovers from that famous stone. Anyone in Sri Lanka knows the image he means: the Isurumuni Lovers, an ancient carving at the Isurumuniya temple in Anuradhapura of a man and a woman seated close together, the stone symbol of devoted, timeless love. By reaching for it, he is saying their love feels like it belongs in that same gentle, lasting story.

He goes on to call her the one who captured his heart, and says that beauties like her belong among the painted maidens of Sigiriya, the celebrated frescoes of graceful women on the great rock fortress. For a Sri Lankan ear these are the two highest standards of beauty and love the culture has, ancient art that has outlasted centuries, and he is placing her right alongside them.

The song closes on a soft note of hope. Her sleeping beside him feels like a new dawn breaking over their little world, and he looks ahead to the fresh sun that will rise the next morning. It leaves you with the warm, settled feeling of a love that is just beginning and already sure of itself, two people who feel like the start of something bright.