Athi De Athi Satiyen Dakina Minissu Lyrics by Lakshman Wijesekara

People who see the world with whatever awareness they have,
people who live taking joy in their hearts in whatever they are given.

People who pulled themselves up from the soil of the earth,
people who, like the setting sun, bow low, asking what deeds we have done.

On the face of the earth, under the wide reach of the sky, in this divided world,
in an age where the goodness of the dhamma lies buried away,
even then they comfort our hearts and our struggling minds,
people who, like the setting sun, bow low, asking what deeds we have done.

In a time when eyes are blinded by inherited wealth and power,
in a world that does not see those who carry the sorrows of life,
like a poem of blessing, sitting near, they bring peace to the troubled heart,
people who, like the setting sun, bow low, asking what deeds we have done.

This is a reflective song about a certain kind of person, the humble, hardworking, ordinary people who carry the country on their shoulders. It is not a love song or a lament. It is a quiet tribute, almost a meditation, on those who live simply and decently while the world around them grows hard and unfair.

The song builds its portrait line by line. These are people who take the world as it is, with whatever understanding they have, and who find contentment in whatever little they are given rather than grasping for more. The image of people who “rose up from the soil of the earth” is doing real work here: it tells you these are farmers and labourers, people rooted to the land, not those born into comfort. The repeated line that compares them to the sun is the heart of the song. In Sinhala thought the sun gives endlessly and asks for nothing, and at the end of the day it bows down and sets without complaint. So to be “like the sun, bowing low, asking what deeds we have done” is to be someone who toils through the whole day, then humbly accepts their lot, wondering quietly what karma brought them this life. Karuma (karma) carries the Buddhist sense that one’s present circumstances flow from past actions, and these people meet that idea with patience instead of bitterness.

The middle and final verses sharpen the contrast. The lyric names an age in which the goodness of the dhamma, the moral teaching that should guide people, lies “buried away” like forgotten treasure, and a time when people’s eyes are “blinded” by inherited wealth and power so they no longer see the poor and the suffering all around them. Against that cold, unequal world, these humble people stand out. The closing image likens them to a sethkavi, a traditional verse of blessing chanted to wish someone well; just by being near, by their plain goodness, they bring peace to a troubled, struggling heart.

What you are left holding is a feeling of deep respect, and a gentle ache. The song honours the people the world tends to overlook, the ones who give like the sun and ask for nothing, and it quietly asks the listener to notice them, and to value goodness over riches in an age that has forgotten how.