Senehasa Puda Ammawarun Wage Lyrics by Malani Bulathsinhala

They offered their love like mothers do
They poured out their sweat like a great ocean
They gave us counsel precious as pearls and gems
They raised us up like little butterflies…

For the small things we did wrong in the disorder of childhood//
They never once struck us for it//
Their love stood as tall as the great mountain (Maha Meru)
A father’s tears turned to pearls out of love for his child…

Children who have fathers are never alone
Never alone
Children who have mothers are never alone
Never alone
Mothers and fathers keep us close, like the sun and the moon
We do not have the smiles that those children share with us…

They offered their love…

This is a tribute to mothers and fathers, a thank-you to parents for everything they pour into raising a child. It was written by a Buddhist monk, Rambukkana Siddhartha Thera, and it carries that gentle, reflective tone, less a love song and more a quiet bow of gratitude. There is no romance here, no single narrator pining for someone. The voice is simply that of a grown child looking back on how they were loved and cared for.

The song builds its feeling through everyday images that any Sri Lankan recognises. A parent’s love is set beside a mother’s tenderness, and their hard work is compared to a great ocean of sweat, the kind of endless, uncomplaining effort it takes to keep a family going. Their advice is called precious pearls and gems, the most valuable thing they could hand down. And being raised is likened to little butterflies being looked after until they can fly, a soft image of small, fragile children growing up under careful protection.

The middle verse holds the most touching turn. It remembers the mischief and small mistakes of childhood and points out that even then, the parents never raised a hand. Their patience is measured against Maha Meru, the great mythical mountain at the centre of the world in Buddhist and Hindu cosmology, the standing image in Sinhala for something immovably tall and vast. Then comes the line about a father’s tears becoming pearls, a way of saying that even a father’s quiet weeping, often hidden, born of love for his child, is something rare and precious.

The last part lands on the simplest truth the song wants to leave you with. A child who has a mother is never alone, a child who has a father is never alone, and together parents sit on either side of a child like the sun and the moon, two steady lights that never leave. It is a song that asks the listener to remember what that kind of love is worth, and to feel grateful for it while it is still there.