Oba Gawa Mama Innemi Lyrics by Milton Mallawarachchi

(I am here beside you
joined to you like the breath of a sigh
alone, wrapped close to you, murmuring sweet love songs
drawing near in the cold of the night
I will pluck the star-flowers and give them to you…//)

Shining like jewels, fading soft like stars,
are those laughing eyes of yours, aren’t they
Unshaken, never trembling away,
is this love of yours and mine, aren’t they
The one who soothes my heart, who makes it beautiful, is only you, my love
No one else will ever sleep in my arms, my love

In a life to come, when I have left this world
and taken to flying through the sky,
out in space, among the planets and stars,
when I must go searching for companions,
even then the one I will long for is you, my love
the one I will ask the gods for is you, my love

(I am here beside you
joined to you like the breath of a sigh
alone, wrapped close to you, murmuring sweet love songs
drawing near in the cold of the night
I will pluck the star-flowers and give them to you…//)

A young man is lying close to the one he loves on a cold night, and the whole song is him whispering to her about just how completely she fills his world. There is nothing restless or aching here. This is the warm, settled kind of love, the contentment of finally being beside the person you want, with the night quiet around the two of you.

He opens with promises that are gentle and a little playful. He will stay joined to her like a sigh, hum sweet songs against her, pull her close against the cold, and even pluck the stars from the sky to give her. In Sinhala love poetry that image of reaching up and breaking off the “star-flowers” (තරුමල්) for someone is a tender exaggeration, the way English might say he’d give her the moon. It is the language of a lover who wants to offer her everything, including the things no one really can.

Then he turns to her eyes. He says they shine like jewels and then soften like stars going dim, two small pictures that capture how her smiling eyes both sparkle and gentle him at the same time. And he sets that against their love, which he calls unshaken, never trembling away. The eyes flicker and glow, but the love underneath stays still and sure. Only she settles his heart, he says, and no one else will ever sleep in his arms.

The last verse is where it grows almost devotional. He imagines a future life, leaving this world behind, flying through the sky, wandering among the planets and stars looking for companions. This carries the quiet Buddhist sense of saṃsāra, of being reborn again and again across lifetimes. And his promise is that even then, life after life, drifting through space, the one he will long for is still her. He even says that when he prays, the gods themselves will hear him asking only for her. That is the heart of the song. His love is not just for this cold night, it is something he intends to carry with him past death and into whatever comes next.