Ma Ha Lanwee Lyrics (මා හා ළංවී) by Neela WickramasingheRookantha Gunathilaka

Come close to me in love,
let us live this life in joy,
our love cannot be broken,
there is no sorrow, my friend,
there is no sorrow, my friend,
come close to me in love

Secretly by night, in a world of our own,
feelings of love form without end,
our love cannot be broken,
there is no sorrow, my friend,
there is no sorrow, my friend,
come close to me in love

On the wave-tossed ocean of life,
echoes rise as in a fairy celebration,
our love shines like the stars,
there is no sorrow, my friend,
there is no sorrow, my friend

Come close to me in love,
let us live this life in joy,
our love cannot be broken,
there is no sorrow, my friend,
there is no sorrow, my friend,
come close to me in love

This is a warm, reassuring love song, sung as a duet, and unusually it carries no ache at all. Come close to me in love, it says, and let us live this life in joy; our love can never be broken, so there is no sorrow, my friend. That gentle word yaaluwe, friend, runs through it, treating the beloved as companion as much as lover.

The middle gives the two of them a private world. Secretly by night, in a world all their own, feelings of love keep forming without end, and again the promise returns: our love cannot break, there is no sorrow. It is love pictured as a safe, shared place rather than a source of longing or pain.

The last verse sets that security against the turbulence of life. On the wave-tossed ocean of living, it says, echoes rise as if from a fairy celebration, and their love shines steady like the stars above it. Written, gently, by a Buddhist monk, it is a rare Sinhala love song that is simply happy, a duet about two people certain of each other while the rest of life rolls and heaves around them.