Adare Mal Lyrics by Karunarathna Diwulgane

I go without wounding a broken heart……
in song, the sweetest note of love that gives the meaning of a broken affection..

Holding flowers of love in your hand,
the day you stood there smiling,
wrapped and deceived in a single white dewdrop of mist,
beneath the blue willow trees,
caught in the wind that wandered past,
the most beautiful flower garden
became a summer without you

On a far-off day you have forgotten,
the sweet love the two of us bound,
I bore so many troubles in my heart,
do you know it, my lovely one?
on the banks of your love,
teardrops spilled over,
and like that day, today too that river
flows on, undivided

To erase the loneliness of a heart,
coming close in love,
did we meet only to part again?
tell me, my kinduri
creating love-tears in the eyes,
tangled up in a dream,
I go without wounding a broken heart,
the dream-distance coming to a halt

This is a wistful classical love song of separation, opening with a spoken line that becomes its refrain: I go without wounding a broken heart. It sets out to sing, in the sweetest note it can find, the meaning of a love that has broken. From there it drifts into memory, soft and picture-like.

He remembers her standing and smiling with adare mal, flowers of love, in her hand, wrapped as if in a single white dewdrop of mist, beneath blue willow trees with the wandering wind around her. Then comes the loss: that most beautiful flower garden, he says, became a gimhana, a dry season, a summer without her, her absence turning all that beauty to drought. He recalls the sweet love they once bound on a day she has since forgotten, and how, on the banks of that love, his tears spilled over. Like that day, he says, the river still flows on undivided, his grief unchanged by time.

The last verse asks the question underneath it all. Did we come close in love only to part, he wonders, tell me, my kinduri, my celestial maiden. Caught in a dream that keeps making tears in his eyes, he chooses grace over blame: I go without wounding a broken heart, he repeats, letting the dream and its distance come quietly to rest. Sung by the veteran Karunaratna Divulgane, it is heartbreak handled with the restraint of an older school of Sinhala song.