Nilla Nagana Lyrics by Milton Mallawarachchi

In the golden ringing of anklet bells that spread a cool shade,
filling the heart….//
Golden little sons… golden little daughters…
they come close, giving a smile…
In the golden ringing of anklet bells that spread a cool shade, hey hey…

Ah… that smile, that smile seeking shade for the heart, that smile…
Ah… that smile, that smile seeking shade for the feet, that smile…
Let us take both sorrow and joy with gladness, let us make the children we bore into kings,
let us build a tomorrow full of comfort, let us offer our lives and keep our mothers safe.
Let us take both sorrow and joy with gladness, let us make the children we bore into kings,
let us build a tomorrow full of comfort, let us offer our lives and keep our mothers safe.
Ah…. ah….. ah…..

In the golden ringing …/

Ah… a fragrance rising, a fragrance rising in the heart, rising…
Ah… drawn close, the hum of bees heard, heard…
Let us take both sorrow and joy with gladness, let us make the children we bore into kings,
let us build a tomorrow full of comfort, let us offer our lives and keep our mothers safe.
Let us take both sorrow and joy with gladness, let us make the children we bore into kings,
let us build a tomorrow full of comfort, let us offer our lives and keep our mothers safe.
Ah…. ah….. ah….

In the golden ringing …/

This is a song about being a parent. It is sung from the place of a mother and father looking at their small children and quietly making a promise about the kind of life they want to give them. There is no lover here and no heartbreak. The feeling is warm and protective, the way a parent feels watching a child take its first steps.

The picture the song opens with is a gentle one. Little children with tiny golden anklet bells on their feet come toddling toward you, smiling. In Sinhala homes, babies often wear small anklets that jingle as they move, so that ringing sound is the sound of a child in the house. The words call the children “golden”, which is how Sri Lankans speak of something precious and loved, not the colour but the worth. And again and again the song reaches for one image, “nilla”, the cool shade. A child’s smile is described as something that “seeks shade”, and the parents in turn want to be that shade. Under the hot sun of a village, shade is comfort, rest, shelter. So the whole song is built on that one tender idea, that a child looks to its parents for shelter, and the parents long to be exactly that for them.

The heart of the song is the promise the parents make to each other. They say they will take whatever comes, sorrow and joy alike, and meet it with a glad heart. They will raise the children they were given as if they were kings, build them a tomorrow full of comfort, and even give up their own lives to keep their mothers safe. That last line widens the love outward, it is not only about the babies but about honouring and protecting the older generation too, the grandmother, the mother. In one breath the song holds three generations.

By the end, with the fragrance rising in the heart and the soft hum of bees, the feeling is calm and full. What you are left holding is the steady, ordinary devotion of family, parents who ask for nothing for themselves and want only to be the shade their children rest under. It is a small song with a very large heart.