Dana Danath Lyrics by Jude Rogans

Knowing full well, we grew close, did we begin only to end in tears?
I can’t bring myself to leave you, and I want no one else
I can’t bear not to see you, you show up even in my dreams
It’s true, I would write your name even in my own blood
I won’t leave you, but you……

The aching pain piles up deep in my heart
Drawn close to you with a love as high as the Himalayas
I loved you and carried all this pain because you are mine
There is no world for me now without you
I am the one who belongs to you….

If only I could be born yours like this in every lifetime
But oh, would I ever earn merit enough, after all the wrongs I’ve done?
I loved you and carried all this pain because you are mine
There is no world for me now without you
I am the one who belongs to you….

Knowing full well…..

A young man is making a promise here, the kind of promise you only make when you have already given someone your whole heart. He knew from the start that loving her this hard could end in pain, and he says so in the very first line, but he chose her anyway. He cannot leave, he does not want anyone else, and she follows him even into his dreams. When he says he would write her name in his own blood, he is not being dramatic for effect, he means that his love is something he would sign with his life.

The pain runs all the way through the song, sitting quietly under everything he feels. He talks about a love as high as the Himalayas, and for a Sri Lankan listener that mountain is the natural image for something vast and unreachable, the biggest thing the mind can hold, so he is saying his love has grown to that size. He has borne all of it, all the hurt, and his reason is simple and absolute, “because you are mine.” That line, “I am the one who belongs to you,” turns the whole thing into a kind of belonging rather than just wanting. Without her, he says, there is no world left for him at all.

The last verse is where the song reaches its most Sri Lankan and most tender moment. He wishes he could be born hers in every bhava, every future birth in the long cycle of saṃsāra (the Buddhist belief in being reborn life after life). To be reborn beside the same person is, in our culture, the deepest thing you can wish for someone, far beyond a single lifetime’s love. Then he stops himself with a quiet, almost guilty thought, would he even earn the merit (pin) for such a blessing, after all the wrongs he has done? In Buddhist understanding good fortune in the next life is earned through merit, so he is half afraid he is not good enough to deserve her even in the lives to come.

What you are left holding at the end is that mix of total devotion and humble doubt. He gives everything, his blood, his world, every future birth, and still wonders if he is worthy of her. That is what makes the song ache rather than just declare. It is love offered without any guarantee it will be returned, and offered anyway.