Ridena Hadawatha

It is unheard now, that day,
the tales of love you told,
it is lonely now,
you are far from me

The dream flies off, in my mind,
searching the ruins of memories past,
wherever I look, that smile of yours appears,
because I loved you with a single heart

Come, for just a moment,
to this aching heart,
and tell me, before you go,
the words of love left unspoken that day

Meeting as if we were familiar from saṃsāra,
yet never becoming mine,
why did you go without a word,
passing me by in this very life?

It is not where you get bound,
but where you linger in the world,
strange, that is just how it is,
this love

A soft, melancholy love song about someone the singer met, loved, and lost without explanation. Now, he says, the love-tales she once told go unheard, the days are lonely, and she is far from him. In his mind the dream keeps taking flight, wandering the ruins of memories, and everywhere he looks her smile reappears, because, he says simply, he loved her with a single, undivided heart.

The middle is a quiet plea. Come, just for a moment, to this aching heart, he asks, and before you go, at least say the words of love that were left unspoken that day. The wound is not only that she left, but that so much between them was never said aloud.

The close reaches for meaning in the language of saṃsāra. They met, he feels, as if already familiar from past lives, and yet she never became his; so why did she leave without a word, passing him by in this life? He ends on a gentle paradox: love is not measured by where you are formally bound, but by where you truly linger in someone’s world, and strange, he marvels, that is just how this love is. Sung by Mihindu Ariyaratne, it is a wistful reflection on a love that felt fated and still slipped away, and on all the words that were never said.