Kaari Na Sanda

A string of poems was written about you
three watches of a night withered away
gathering up the sorrow that splits my heart,
I go on, watching the road

The reason I searched was only my longing to see your face
a full moon rises just once a month anyway, my friend

I long to be a reason for your love
it does not matter, moon, though I do not get to see you today

In the lonely sky where the starlight has gone out,
I will keep watching, at the foot of the mountain, till you rise
when will the clouds clear from the sky, I wonder
even with no light, I will come again tomorrow, just as the sun does

On the day you rise to give light to someone,
it does not matter, moon, even though my world is not lit

I long to be a reason for your love
it does not matter, moon, though I do not get to see you today

This is a song of patient, selfless love, and its beauty is in its acceptance. The beloved is “the moon,” sanda, the oldest Sinhala image for the one you love, and the refrain, kaari na sanda, means “it does not matter, moon.” The singer has “written a string of poems” about her and let “three watches of a night wither away” waiting, “gathering up the sorrow that splits my heart,” and still he simply goes on “watching the road.” His only reason for all of it is disarmingly humble: “my longing to see your face.”

He knows how rare his glimpses of her are, and finds a gentle image for it: “a full moon rises just once a month anyway, my friend.” So he tempers his own hope. He does not demand to possess her; he only “longs to be a reason for your love,” and even that he holds loosely, repeating, “it does not matter, moon, though I do not get to see you today.”

The last verses turn that patience into steadfast devotion. In “the lonely sky where the starlight has gone out,” he will “keep watching at the foot of the mountain till you rise,” and “even with no light, I will come again tomorrow, just as the sun does,” faithful and unfailing. The most selfless line of all is his blessing on her happiness with someone else: “on the day you rise to give light to someone, it does not matter, moon, even though my world is not lit.” What the listener is left with is love without possession, a heart content to wait, to watch, and to wish the beloved well, even if her light is destined to shine on somebody else’s sky.