Kandula Ithin Samaweyan Lyrics by Keerthi Pasquel

Tears, forgive me now
We part this evening
She is coming to my home
to keep me company on the bridal bed

Dark cloud, do not rise
over the river at dusk
Beneath the ridge-pole, on the floor of the house
the cow-dung is washed fresh and new
Cut through the mountain, let the moon rise
come to this bed of moonbeams
In the moonlight, on her body
see the gomara flowers in bloom

Tears, forgive me now…

On the flower fence, white vathusudu blossoms
will open to welcome her
With dimpled cheeks her gentle smile
rises to outshine the flowers
A milky fragrance, the kind a newborn brings,
comes drifting through the doorway of the home
Make way, o cloud,
let my dream bloom like a flower

Tears, forgive me now…

A young man is getting his home ready for the woman he loves, who is coming to live with him this very evening. He opens by speaking to his own tears, telling them goodbye, asking their forgiveness, because tonight he parts from sorrow for good. After a long wait, she is finally coming through his door, and the loneliness of his bed is about to end.

The whole song is him tending to the small, homely things that make a house ready for a bride. He has washed the earthen floor with fresh cow-dung, which is the old Sri Lankan way of cleaning and blessing a village home, leaving it smooth and clean for someone special. He asks the dark cloud not to gather over the river at dusk, because he wants nothing to spoil this evening. Then he turns playful and grand, telling the night to cut through the mountain and let the moon rise, so that she can come to a bed lit by moonbeams. In Sinhala song the moon is the image of calm, gentle beauty, and here its soft light falls on her body and turns her skin into blooming gomara flowers. He is not describing lust so much as a quiet wonder at how lovely she looks in that gentle light.

The tenderness keeps building. The white vathusudu flowers on the garden fence open as if to welcome her, and her own smile, with the little dimples in her cheeks, is so sweet that it outshines even those flowers. The most touching image comes near the end, the milky smell of a newborn baby drifting in through the doorway. It is his hope spoken without saying it directly, the dream of a child, of a family, of a real home filling these rooms.

He closes by asking the cloud one more time to move aside and let his dream bloom like a flower. That is the heart of the song, a man on the edge of the life he has longed for, sweeping away every last shadow so that nothing darkens the night his whole world is about to change.