Sara Sanda Lyrics by Lakmini Udawatta

You smiled like the autumn moon
then sank away into a bank of clouds
You left my heart alone forever
You hid yourself away…
You hid yourself and left…

We met on the shore that day long ago
You and I felt such peace
But like a wave on the sea
you would not stay beside me
You left me weeping…
You left me weeping and went…

Like the autumn moon…….

Alone on my bed, weeping
I find comfort only in dreams, with you near
Like the moon in the sky
come back to me, my love
I sit here watching….
I sit here watching for you….

Like the autumn moon…….

A young man is left aching for someone who walked out of his life, and the whole song is him talking to her, even though she is long gone. He keeps circling back to one image: she was like the autumn moon. In Sri Lanka the autumn sky is clear and the moon at that time of year is at its softest and brightest, so calling her the “sara sanda” says she was a calm, gentle beauty that lit up his world. Then, just as quickly, she sank into a bank of clouds and disappeared. That is how he describes losing her, a bright moon swallowed by cloud, there one moment and hidden the next, leaving his heart alone for good.

The middle of the song takes him back to where it started. They met on the shore one day, and for a little while everything felt right, the two of them at peace together. But he reaches for the sea to explain why it could not last. She was like a wave, and a wave never stops at the shore, it rushes in and pulls straight back out. She would not stay beside him, and she left him in tears. There is no blame in how he says it, just the helpless sense that some people pass through your life the way water moves, never meant to stay.

By the last verse he is alone on his bed, crying, and the only place he finds any comfort is in his dreams, where she is still near him. He looks up at the moon in the sky and pleads with it the way he wishes he could plead with her: come back to me, my love. And then the quiet ending, the part that hurts most, he tells us he is still sitting there, watching, waiting for her to return. He knows she is gone like the moon behind the clouds, and still he keeps his eyes on the sky, holding on to the smallest hope that she might appear again.