Dara Wedana Lyrics by Kaveesha Kaviraj

Bearing the pain in my chest, I watched you, smiling,
imagining a teardrop sliding down your eye
even after you left that day and loved another, drawing close to him,
you don’t know, do you, of this pain

That dream of mine, left alone in the world..
this life of mine goes by, spent in loneliness..
spent away, mine..

Distanced from my eyes, gone out of sight,
will you meet me once again before I die?
the kisses given in the embrace of that time come back to me,
I will suffer and die on the journey of samsara,
on the journey of samsara I will suffer and die

That dream of mine, left alone in the world..
this life of mine goes by, spent in loneliness..
spent away, mine..

When even my breath becomes you and rests in my arms,
the life of my beloved will slip away,
in the hour this song of mourning is sung,
did you feel the affection flowing in this heart?
did you feel the affection flowing in this heart

That dream of mine, left alone in the world..
this life of mine goes by, spent in loneliness..
spent away, mine..

This is a sorrowful song about a love hidden and never returned, carried all the way to the edge of death. Bearing the pain in his chest, the singer says, he watched her while smiling, imagining a tear sliding down her eye. Even after she left and gave her love to someone else, he kept his own agony to himself, and his refrain is quiet and devastating: you don’t know, do you, of this pain.

The middle is pure loneliness. His dream is left alone in the world, and his whole life goes by spent in isolation. He wonders whether she will meet him even once more before he dies, while the kisses from the embrace of an earlier time keep returning to him. Then the grief widens beyond this life: I will suffer and die on the journey of samsara, he says, as if his sorrow will follow him through the cycle of rebirths.

The final verse is spoken from the doorway of death. When even his breath becomes her and rests in his arms, he says, the life of his beloved will slip away, blurring the two of them into one. As this shoka geethe, this song of mourning, is being sung, he asks one last thing: did you feel the affection that flowed in this heart? It is a song about carrying a love so deep and so unspoken that it outlasts the body itself.