Mayam Nagaraye Lyrics by Mihindu Ariyaratne

Hiding sorrows and doubts
away in memory,
time flies, slipping in,
we will live on,
growing used to the unfamiliar

Scorn we never wished for, insults,
stealing away the smile, somehow,
in a moment they go, they say,
blurring away

Wishes will die,
and be born again,
never stopping..
and we too, always,
keep chasing our desires

In the city of illusion,
our story,
it is no one else,
we ourselves who write it..

In this world..
we came alone,
we go alone,
on the journey,
came alone,
go alone,
on the journey..

Breaking through
boundaries and limits,
tasting joy and sorrow just the same,
we will live on,
growing used to the unfamiliar..

Gentle smiles,
showers of flower-rain,
on the day they are gone, bowing the head and bearing it,
we rise up again… falling, falling

Endlessly they flow and come,
the thoughts….
and we too, always,
keep chasing our desires…

In the city of illusion,
our story…
it is no one else,
we ourselves who write it…

In this world,
the sun rises and sets,
the moon rises and sets,
and we live on,
the sun sets..
the moon sets,
and a tomorrow will come….!

A reflective, philosophical song about living through an illusory, impermanent world, from Mihindu Ariyaratne, an artist known for exactly this kind of conscious writing. It opens with the strategy of survival: hiding sorrows and doubts away in memory, letting time slip past, and growing used to the unfamiliar. Scorn and insults, it says, blur and pass in a moment. Nothing painful is permanent.

The middle states its Buddhist-tinged worldview plainly. Wishes will die, and be born again, never stopping, desire is an endless cycle, and we too, always, keep chasing our desires. And the two lines at the song’s core: in the city of illusion (mayam nagaraya), our story, it is no one else, we ourselves who write it, and, in this world, we came alone, we go alone, on the journey. Life is a solitary passage we author for ourselves.

The close is quietly resilient. Breaking through boundaries and limits, tasting joy and sorrow just the same, we keep living; and when the smiles and showers of flower-rain are gone, we bow the head, bear it, and rise up again, falling, falling. The final image is the great impersonal cycle, the sun rises and sets, the moon rises and sets, and we live on, and, no matter what, a tomorrow will come. Sung by Mihindu Ariyaratne to words by Reru, composed by Chaturangana De Silva, it is a serene, philosophical song about walking alone through an illusory world, writing your own story, and rising again each time you fall, trusting that tomorrow always comes.