Dawasak Da Eka Lyrics by Nalin Perera

One day, in a cold season, until I met you,
I walked on, searching and searching for blooming flowers,
across gardens with no flowers at all
not only my eyes hurt, my jewel,
my heart hurt too
not only did the heart break that day, my eyes grew wet as well

As if thieves had carried the sunlight away,
the shadows of the branches faded and were gone
and yet, unfaded and undying, there remained
the shadow of your love
that sorrow I can hide, even now,
but a heart gone wet cannot be hidden

Bringing the stars out ahead on a moonless night,
it fills my heart with loneliness
just the same, even now, my love,
is the emptiness only you could fill
that I will never, ever forget,
feeling the fact of your absence

One day, on a cold day, until I met you,
I walked on, searching and searching for blooming flowers,
across gardens with no flowers at all
not only my eyes hurt, my jewel,
my heart hurt too
not only did the heart break that day, my eyes grew wet as well

This is a poetic, aching heartbreak song. It begins in a barren time before the singer found love: one cold-season day, he says, until I met you I kept walking through flowerless gardens, searching and searching for a single bloom. When it ended, the hurt went deeper than the eyes; not only my eyes hurt, my jewel, he says, my heart hurt too, and not only did my heart break, my eyes went wet as well.

The middle turns on a striking image of loss and persistence. It was as if thieves had stolen the sunlight, he says, and the shadows of the branches faded away, and yet one shadow refused to fade or die: the shadow of your love. That is the cruelty of it, he admits, he can hide the sorrow, but a heart soaked through with feeling cannot be hidden.

The close settles into steady, incurable longing. On a moonless night he brings the stars out ahead of him, and still the loneliness only fills his heart, because the one emptiness he can never fill is the one shaped like her. That, he says, he will never forget, and he lives now simply feeling the fact of her absence. It is heartbreak rendered in soft, exact images, a man who has made a kind of home inside missing someone.