Cindarella Lyrics by Kithsiri Jayasekara

Drawn by the scent of jasmine flowers, softly setting your feet on the moonlit ground,
through the window of my little hut,
breaking my sleep, was it really you who came, Cinderella?
Breaking my sleep, was it really you who came, Cinderella?

The birdsong fades and slips away as the eastern sky turns dark,
gathering the evening shadows, drifting like a breeze with a faint, gentle rustle,
from far beyond you came into my heart, Cinderella.

With pure white swan feathers a short little garment was woven and finished,
a soft silk shawl spread out for you to rest on, there in the fold of the clouds,
but you turned to leave, afraid, Cinderella.

A young man falls asleep in his small hut and a girl drifts in through his window in the night, light as a dream. He calls her Cinderella, the fairytale name standing in for a beauty who appears out of nowhere and slips away just as quickly, the way a wonderful dream does. From the very first line he is not sure she is real, “was it really you who came?”, and that uncertainty runs through the whole song. She arrives drawn by the scent of jasmine, treading the moonlight as if it were solid ground, more vision than visitor.

The middle of the song fills in the hour and the mood. The birds have stopped singing, the eastern sky has gone dark, evening has settled in. Into that quiet she comes, carried like a breeze with the faintest rustle, “from far beyond,” and steps straight into his heart. In Sinhala song the moon and the jasmine and the soft night breeze are the familiar language of tenderness and of something pure and barely-there, and here they all gather around her to make her feel otherworldly, a beauty made of moonlight and fragrance rather than flesh.

The last verse is where the dream turns gentle and sad. He imagines making her a place to stay, a little garment woven from pure white swan feathers, a soft silk shawl spread out for her in the fold of the clouds. The swan feathers and the bed among the clouds tell you this was never an ordinary girl coming to an ordinary room, he is trying to keep something heavenly, something not meant to be held. And then she grows afraid and turns to leave. That is the ache the song leaves you with, the moment a beautiful thing comes close enough to touch and then takes fright and goes, the way the loveliest dreams break right when you reach for them.