Sundarayi Ahinsakayi Lyrics by Nalin Perera

You are beautiful, you are innocent.. you are so dear
Day by day I love you more and more
The feelings filling my heart are ten million
Of them I have told you only half so far
Of them I have told you only half so far

You are beautiful, you are innocent.. you are so dear
Day by day I love you more and more
The feelings filling my heart are ten million
Of them I have told you only half so far
Of them I have told you only half so far

Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree
Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree
Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree
Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree

Amid pure and simple wishes, thinking of you
I draw a fresh breath

Amid pure and simple wishes, thinking of you
I draw a fresh breath
Like a lotus taken up in cupped hands
I will kiss you with contentment
And hold you close to my chest

You are beautiful, you are innocent.. you are so dear
Day by day I love you more and more
The feelings filling my heart are ten million
Of them I have told you only half so far
Of them I have told you only half so far

Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree
Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree
Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree
Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree

From long ago, through samsara, birth after birth like this
We must have come without ever parting

From long ago, through samsara, birth after birth like this
We must have come without ever parting
Beloved who has taken my heart
Always you are my very life
I will guard you with everlasting love

You are beautiful, you are innocent.. you are so dear
Day by day I love you more and more
The feelings filling my heart are ten million
Of them I have told you only half so far
Of them I have told you only half so far

You are beautiful, you are innocent.. you are so dear
Day by day I love you more and more
The feelings filling my heart are ten million
Of them I have told you only half so far
Of them I have told you only half so far

Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree
Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree
Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree
Ayiyayiyayi yaare riree

This is a young man in the full, uncomplicated rush of love. His opening line piles up the three things he sees in her: she is beautiful, she is innocent, and she is dear to him, and each passing day only turns the feeling up. The line that gives the song its charm is his admission that the emotions crowding his heart number in the “ten million,” and of all of them he has managed to tell her only half. Love here is bigger than words, and he knows it.

The gentler middle verse shows how he wants to hold her. He compares her to a lotus lifted up in cupped hands, an image with real weight in Sri Lankan life, since the lotus is the flower carried to the temple, offered to the Buddha, handled with care and reverence. To hold his beloved “like a lotus in cupped hands” is to say he treasures her as something pure and almost sacred, to be kissed softly and drawn to his chest, never grasped.

The final verse lifts the whole song from a passing crush to something eternal. He reaches for samsara, the Buddhist cycle of rebirth, and decides they must have travelled together “birth after birth” without ever being parted. This is the deepest vow a Sinhala love song can make: not just to love you now, but to have loved you across countless past lives and to keep guarding you forever. What the listener is left with is that mix of youthful giddiness and something ancient and steady underneath it.