Kiyanna Kiyanna Lyrics by Nadeeka Jayawardana

Tell me, tell me
whatever is held in your heart, share it with me…
Tell me, tell me
all there is, freely, as you please….

My heart is full of love, and there is room for you inside it
Your pearl-like smile appears before my two eyes
My enchanted heart fills with restless, aching feelings
And without my knowing, in that moment your name quietly speaks itself

Tell me, tell me
whatever is held in your heart, share it with me….
Tell me, tell me…
all there is, freely, as you please…

Sleepless, in the song I have woven from my life
the words you spoke wrap around my ears
Across the white pages, songs are born in your name
And without a thought, in the corner of those pages your name quietly writes itself

Tell me, tell me……

A young man is in love and he wants the girl to open up to him. The song begins with him pleading, tell me, tell me, whatever is in your heart, say it freely. He is not demanding anything. He just wants her to trust him enough to share what she feels, and he promises there is room for her in a heart that is already full of love for her.

From there the song turns inward, into how completely she has taken him over. Her smile, which he calls pearl-like, keeps appearing in front of his eyes even when she is not there. Pearls in Sinhala song stand for something rare and pure and treasured, so calling her smile a row of pearls is his way of saying it is precious to him and impossible to forget. His heart is happy and restless at the same time, full of that sweet ache new love brings, and the lovely detail is that he does not even notice it happening. Her name just speaks itself inside him, on its own, almost in secret.

The second verse moves that same feeling onto the page. He is a songwriter, and he tells us that lying awake at night he weaves songs out of his own life, and the words she once said keep echoing in his ears as he writes. So song after song comes out in her name, and then the quiet, tender twist returns. At the corner of the white page, without him meaning to, her name writes itself. The repeated idea of the name appearing on its own, first spoken in his heart, then written on the paper, is the whole point of the song. Love like this is not something he decides to feel. It leaks out of him into everything he does.

What stays with you is that gentleness. There is no drama here, no heartbreak, just a man so taken with someone that her name has become part of how he breathes and how he writes, and all he asks in return is that she tell him what is in her own heart.