Saiman Aiyai Martin Aiyai Lyrics by MS Fernando

Brother Saiman and Brother Martin,
the two of them are the best of friends.
Going places, eating, drinking, they do it all together,
and the two of them even dress alike.
You couldn’t make these two fall out with each other,
everyone knew that well.
A family came from another district
to settle in this village.

Brother Saiman and Brother Martin,
the two of them are the best of friends.
Going places, eating, drinking, they do it all together,
and the two of them even dress alike.
You couldn’t make these two fall out with each other,
everyone knew that well.
A family came from another district
to settle in this village.

There was a really pretty girl,
..in that house there was a pretty girl.
There was a really pretty girl,
..in that house there was a pretty girl.

One day the two of them went out walking
and passed close by this house.
He’d love to, oh he’d love to talk to her,
the way that young woman smiles.
Was it at me, or was it at him? He couldn’t tell,
but she gave him such a warm welcome.
Just as Brother Saiman thought it,
Brother Martin thought the very same.

A huge doubt crept into both of them,
it sank deep into their hearts.
Each one thought he’d go and see her alone,
both of them had the same idea.
Now Brother Saiman is coming
without Brother Martin.
Martin knows nothing about this,
and he too is coming alone.

Brother Saiman and Brother Martin,
the two of them are the best of friends.
Going places, eating, drinking, they do it all together,
and the two of them even dress alike.
You couldn’t make these two fall out with each other,
everyone knew that well.
A family came from another district
to settle in this village.

There was a really pretty girl,
..in that house there was a pretty girl.
There was a really pretty girl,
..in that house there was a pretty girl.

The rivalry between the two of them
grows stronger by the day.
Like their matching clothes,
now even the scent of their powder and perfume is the same.
One day the two of them happened to meet
right near this young woman’s house.
The young woman was standing at her door,
together with her husband.

The two young men walk away.
“Sir, you are so very kind.”
Every time they leave this place,
they go off with a smile.
She did look like a young married
woman, that was true.
But she was full of good manners,
and she smiled at everyone alike.

Right then it dawned on both of them
that the two of them had been fooled.
Saiman and Martin, the two of them,
are still the best of friends.

Brother Saiman and Brother Martin,
the two of them are the best of friends.
Going places, eating, drinking, they do it all together,
and the two of them even dress alike.
You couldn’t make these two fall out with each other,
everyone knew that well.
A family came from another district
to settle in this village.

There was a really pretty girl,
..in that house there was a pretty girl.
There was a really pretty girl,
..in that house there was a pretty girl.

This is a playful village story song, a comic little tale about two inseparable friends named Saiman and Martin. The chorus paints them for us right away: they go everywhere together, eat and drink together, even wear the same clothes, and the whole village knows nothing could ever come between them. They are the kind of pair people point to as proof that real friendship lasts.

The trouble starts, as it so often does, when a family moves into the village from another district, and with them comes a very pretty young woman. One day the two friends walk past her house and she gives them a warm, welcoming smile. The catch is the joke of the whole song: each man is sure that smile was meant just for him. Saiman thinks it, and at the very same moment Martin is thinking exactly the same thing. Neither says a word to the other.

From there the song has fun watching their secret rivalry grow. A doubt creeps into both their hearts, and each one quietly decides he will go back and visit her on his own, without telling his friend. The lyric has a sly eye for detail here. The two who once dressed alike out of friendship now start matching each other in vanity instead, the same fancy clothes, the same scent of “sent powder” (scented talcum and perfume, the small luxuries a village fellow would put on to impress a girl). Their closeness has quietly turned into competition.

Then comes the gentle punchline. The day they both turn up near her house, they find her standing at the door beside her husband. She is a married woman, and that warm smile they each took so personally was just her good manners. She smiled at everyone the same way. Both men realise, at the same instant, that they were equally fooled, and the song lands on its kind little moral: Saiman and Martin are still the best of friends. The thing that nearly divided them was never real, and once the misunderstanding clears, so does the threat to their friendship. It is the sort of warm, knowing humour Karunaratne Abeysekara wrote so well, laughing softly at how easily a single smile can turn two grown men’s heads, while reminding us that a true friendship outlasts a foolish week.