Ingi Marana Tharu Rana Ko Lyrics by K Sujeewa

The stars that wink, the playful moonlight in the sky,
Don’t fade away, rise up and call my love close.
Show me the rainbow you sent. //

Like dancing butterflies, in the mist that drifts and flies,
With sorrowful thoughts I am begging for your love.
Show me the rainbow you sent.

Is the sky you walked away into dark? Has it clouded over, gone out of sight?
Has the rainbow faded away? //

Are those raindrops in the sky? Did you come to bring me sorrow?

Is the sky you walked away into dark? Has it clouded over, gone out of sight?
Has the rainbow faded away?

Oh Oh OOO (2nd Time Chorus)

Show me that golden stem our hands once held,
To be adorned through saṃsāra (the cycle of rebirth), to belong to one another,
The love bells that break a vow, the pollen of love’s flowers,
I am pleading, show me the rainbow.
In a dream where sorrow stings,
Give me a little room to rest in your arms.
The warm tears born of sadness, wipe them away and let me smile.
Show me the rainbow you sent.

Like dancing butterflies, in the mist that drifts and flies,
With sorrowful thoughts I am begging for your love.
Show me the rainbow you sent.

Is the sky you walked away into dark? Has it clouded over, gone out of sight?
Has the rainbow faded away? //

Are those raindrops in the sky? Did you come to bring me sorrow?

Is the sky you walked away into dark? Has it clouded over, gone out of sight?
Has the rainbow faded away?

A young man is looking up at the sky and pleading with someone who has left him. He cannot reach her anymore, so he asks the small bright things up there, the winking stars, the playful moonlight, to bring her back, or at least to send him one sign that she still cares. That sign, all through the song, is a rainbow.

The rainbow, the “dedunna” he keeps asking for, is the heart of it. In Sinhala love songs the rainbow stands for a beautiful promise that appears only after rain, a flash of color and hope that never lasts. So when he begs her to show him the rainbow she once sent, he is really asking for the happiness they had together, and for proof that the love was real. He even reaches for the sky she “walked away into” and asks if it has gone dark and clouded over, if the rainbow has faded out. That is him asking, in the gentlest way, whether her love for him has died. When he wonders if the drops up there are raindrops or whether she came only to bring him sorrow, the rain becomes his own tears falling.

The middle of the song turns to memory and to what he wishes for. He asks her to show him “the golden stem our hands once held,” the bond between two people who held hands and meant to stay together. He talks about being adorned together through saṃsāra, the cycle of rebirth, which is how Sri Lankan lovers promise to belong to each other not just in this life but in every life to come. The “love bells that break a vow” and the “pollen of love’s flowers” carry the sweet, almost reckless pull of a love strong enough to make you forget every rule, and he is pleading for all of it back.

By the end he is not even asking for much, just a little room to rest in her arms inside a dream, and for her to wipe away his warm tears and let him smile again. That is what stays with you when the song finishes: a man left talking to the sky, hoping a rainbow he can no longer see will somehow answer him.