Aaley Mal Lyrics by Kanchana Anuradhi

Through samsara, saying it was searching
for the beat of my heart, it came
a heart that showed its tender desire
sits imagining dreams

Flower of love,
did it bloom this day?
the one who came holding my hand,
was it you?

Wind that flies, having fallen in love,
among the ripples, right beside me,
stay, won’t you?

Was it you?

In pride,
across my sky,
I will stay like a star
in the dusk, in the darkness,
I will hide and smile

Laying that dream, the light of your eyes, at your feet,
and placing it there,
so that I may become wholly yours,
my heart poured out
truly wearing the golden friend’s ring,
I have felt what love is,
falling asleep in that trance of longing

Flower of love,
did it bloom this day?
the one who came holding my hand,
was it you?

Wind that flies, having fallen in love,
among the ripples, right beside me,
stay, won’t you?

Was it you?

This is a dreamy, tender love song sung by a woman who feels love arriving as something almost fated. She imagines it travelling “through samsara,” the cycle of rebirths, “searching for the beat of my heart,” until at last “it came.” From the very start the love feels older than this life, a heart that has been looking for hers across time.

The refrain is a soft, wondering question rather than a declaration. “Flower of love, did it bloom this day?” she asks, and “the one who came holding my hand, was it you?” She is not quite sure the wonderful thing happening to her is real, and she gently asks the beloved, imagined as a “wind that flies, having fallen in love,” to “stay, won’t you?” right beside her among the ripples. The uncertainty is part of the sweetness.

The heart of the song is her joyful surrender. She pictures herself “like a star” across the sky, hiding and smiling “in the dusk,” and then lays “that dream, the light of your eyes, at your feet,” offering everything “so that I may become wholly yours.” The image of “truly wearing the golden friend’s ring” hints at love pledged, even marriage, and she confesses she “has felt what love is,” drifting off “in that trance of longing.” What the listener is left with is the delicate happiness of a woman falling fully in love, half-dreaming, half-believing, and asking the one who has taken her hand to stay and make the dream real.