Kadelle Athiwu Kirilli Wage Lyrics by Mignon Rathnayake

Like a little bird raised in its nest,
in the shelter of my mother and father, I slept content,
enjoying comfort and peace. On an auspicious hour,
tomorrow I leave with the one I am to marry.

A moment after thinking of that,
my eyes fill with tears.

I step out carrying a sorrow I keep hidden,
remembering my parents, my little sister and brother.
Like a little bird raised in its nest,
in the shelter of my mother and father, I slept content,
enjoying comfort and peace.

Torn and aching, my heart is wrung,
and in the world my loving husband will build,
I long for happiness.
Like a little bird raised in its nest,
in the shelter of my mother and father, I slept content,
enjoying comfort and peace.

This is a bride’s farewell, sung in the voice of a young woman on the eve of her wedding. She is about to leave the home she grew up in, and the whole song sits in that tender, bittersweet space between gratitude for the family that raised her and grief at having to say goodbye.

She opens with the image at the heart of the song: she has lived like a little bird raised inside its nest, kept safe in the shade of her mother and father, sleeping easy, never wanting for anything. In Sinhala homes the nest is the natural picture of a child sheltered by parents, fed and protected until the day she is grown enough to fly. Now that day has come. On an auspicious hour chosen for the wedding, she will step out tomorrow with the man she is to marry, and the moment she lets herself think about it, her eyes fill with tears.

What gives the song its ache is that she has to hide that sorrow. She walks out wearing a brave face while the sadness stays inside, and her mind keeps returning to the people she is leaving behind: her mother and father, and her younger sister and brother. Anyone from a close Sri Lankan family knows this exact feeling, the joy of a marriage and the quiet heartbreak of an empty place at home folded into the same day.

By the end her heart is wrung tight, pulled between the home she is losing and the new home ahead. She is not bitter about it. She turns toward the life her loving husband will build for her and simply hopes to find comfort and happiness there. That is what stays with you, a girl stepping bravely into a new world while still aching for the nest that raised her.