Mathaka Lyrics by Abhisheka WimalaweeraKarunaratna Divulgane

She:
Amid the darkness of memory’s lanterns
I caught the scent of your breath
By chance, in the pattering monsoon rain
I was drenched, all alone
The words I meant to say, waiting on the road,
were forgotten, and it hurt
Though you never noticed, with my tears
the shoulder of your shirt was soaked

He:
Amid the darkness of memory’s lanterns
I should have stayed without breathing
Even by chance, that pattering rain
I should have walked away and never let it fall
The words that left me, though forgotten,
still reached my heart
As if I had not noticed, though I stayed,
the shoulder of my white shirt ached

He:
It had withered and lay buried,
the heart should have just withered away
The blue of a blue katarolu flower
should have been given to a heart in bloom

She:
Loneliness is familiar in my world
loneliness should not have been left so alone
That day, without looking into your eyes…

This is a duet between two people who once loved each other, looking back on the moment they parted and telling it from both sides. She sings first, then he answers, and the same rainy scene returns in each voice, remembered a little differently. The whole song leans on the Sinhala word thibuna, “it should have been,” the quiet ache of hindsight.

The images are memory and rain. She calls the past a row of lanterns glowing in the dark, and in that glow she catches the scent of his breath again. They are caught in the murugasan rain, the fine pattering monsoon that Sinhala song ties to sorrow, and she stands drenched and alone. The detail that undoes you is small: while he never noticed, her tears had soaked the shoulder of his shirt. He answers with his own regret, that he should have walked away before the rain fell, and yet her forgotten words still reached him, and that same shoulder ached.

In the last verses the regret turns to what was never given. A heart that had withered should simply have been let go, he says, and the blue of a katarolu flower should have been offered to a heart still in bloom, love handed over while there was still time. She closes on her old companion, loneliness, wishing it had not been left so alone, and trails off on the day she looked away from his eyes. It is a song about the small things two people wish they had done, realised too late.