Rane Igilenna One

We should fly together as a flock
out to the edge that our eyes can see,
gliding like birds,
drifting along this riverbank

Far off it rises, it rises, and the sun’s glow scatters
Far off it rises, it rises, and the sun’s glow scatters
Without bruising the flowers that have opened, laying down beads of dew,
a morning where soft shapes take form

We should fly together as a flock…

Drifting, drifting far away, on a sound that sways in the breeze
Drifting, drifting far away, on a sound that sways in the breeze
In between the ripples of the water, feelings go under,
here in this heart that sings this song

We should fly together as a flock…

This is a song about wanting to be free, and about not wanting to be free alone. The word the song opens with is rena, the flock, the way birds move over Sri Lankan paddy fields and river mouths in the early morning, all together, in one shape. The wish is not “let me fly”, it is “let us fly”, out as far as the eye can reach, low over a river.

The second verse fills in the hour. The sun is just coming up somewhere far off and its light spreads out over everything, but the picture stays gentle. The flowers that opened during the night are not crushed, and dew is laid over them like something set down carefully. That care is the point. This is a morning that arrives softly, and in that soft light shapes begin to appear, half formed, the way things look at dawn near water.

Then the song moves from what you see to what you hear and feel. A sound sways on the breeze and drifts away, and the feelings sink down between the ripples on the river instead of being spoken out loud. Water carrying feeling is an old habit in Sinhala song, and it works here because the river is also the thing the birds are flying over. The same current holds the morning, the flight and everything the singer cannot say.

What is left at the end is a quiet kind of longing rather than a sad one. The heart in the last line is a heart that is singing, not breaking. Milton Mallawarachchi’s songs often sit in this register, a simple wish said in a calm voice, and here the wish is for lightness, for company, and for a morning that lets you go as far as you can see.