Mariyasilo Lyrics by Marians

(Mariyasilo, my Mariyasilo,
Mariyasilo picking through the nets on the silver shore…//)

The boat landing at Ambakandawila,
this is where I’m hanging up my nets,
the gruel and gotukola you gave me,
it satisfies the craving in my heart.

(Mariyasilo, my Mariyasilo,
a wave will break and leave you soaked, Mariyasilo…..//)

The saree fold and blouse worn tucked in tight,
the saree fold and blouse worn tucked in tight,
you go off on your errand with a little sway,
you go off on your errand with a little sway,
you know it, the wind lifts your underskirt right up,
you know it, the wind lifts your underskirt right up….

Oh, Mariyasilo, my Mariyasilo,
Mariyasilo picking through the nets on the silver shore,
oh, Mariyasilo, my Mariyasilo,
a wave will break and leave you soaked, Mariyasilo…..

The boat at Ambakandawila…..

Climb up to the stern and come, let’s go,
climb up to the stern and come, let’s go,
your lap will fill with fish, no trouble at all,
your lap will fill with fish, no trouble at all,
your easy ways are a hook driven straight through the core of me,
your easy ways are a hook driven straight through the core of me…..

(Mariyasilo, my Mariyasilo,
Mariyasilo picking through the nets on the silver shore…//)

The boat at Ambakandawila……

(Mariyasilo, my Mariyasilo,
a wave will break and leave you soaked, Mariyasilo…..//)

This is a fisherman’s love song, sung by a young man from a coastal village to a girl he calls Mariyasilo. The whole world of the song is the seaside: the silver shore where she stands picking through the fishing nets, the boat landing at Ambakandawila (a real fishing spot up the west coast near Chilaw), the waves, the catch. He is not pining from afar. He is right there with her on the beach, teasing, flirting, watching her work and watching her walk, and the song bounces along with the cheerful, rolling rhythm of a baila, the playful party music of the coast.

Listen for how he weaves the fishing life into every line of affection. When he sings that the gruel and gotukola she gave him “satisfies the craving in my heart,” he is talking about more than food, the simple village meal she handed him stands in for her care, and a hungry man being fed is his plain way of saying she fills a need in him. The chorus warns her, half laughing, that a wave is going to break and leave her soaked while she fusses over the nets, the kind of thing you say to someone you like just to keep talking to them. Then his eye wanders, the wind catching her saree as she walks off on an errand, and he is honest enough to admit he notices. None of it is dressed up as high romance. It is a man who works the sea, charmed by a girl who works the same shore.

The fishing images keep doing double duty, and that is the clever heart of the song. He calls her over to climb to the stern of the boat and promises her lap will fill with fish “no trouble at all,” which is both a fisherman’s boast of a good haul and an invitation to come share his life and his luck. The last line lands the catch on himself: her easy, natural way of being is “a hook driven straight through the core of me.” He has spent the whole song casting nets and praising the catch, and now he confesses that he is the one who has been hooked. It is light and funny and unmistakably tender, the courtship of two people who smell of salt and the sea, set to a beat you cannot sit still through.