Mata Aye Ona Lyrics by Raveen Tharuka

Undoing everything that was yesterday,
remaking this love once more,
into my hand, as it was that day,
will you come, entwined?

Like a dream from an idle time,
love will drift and be spent on the water
that season of smiles, once again,
will you come, entwined?

Through these three watches of night my heart is restless
brushing against the hands of my very being
this doubt sets my whole world in turmoil
in the love that burned me, I am bathed anew

I want it again
I need to be beside you
saying that this is not, once more,
the sorrows of a time we call love

I want you again
I need to be beside you
lying close, sighs held at a distance,
closing the lids over my eyes

Like verses written on the shore, washed away,
so too the measures of sorrow wash off and fade
the eyes once filled with tears will dry
and again, upon the lake of the heart, a boat of smiles will drift

Erasing the pain in my heart,
against your breast I fall asleep, soothed by love

This is a song of wanting a lost love back, and its title says it plainly: mata aye ona, “I want it again.” The singer’s whole wish is for a reunion that would “undo everything that was yesterday” and “remake this love once more,” so that the beloved might come back “into my hand, as it was that day,” entwined together as before. Twice he asks the hopeful question, “will you come, entwined?”

The middle captures how restless the wanting has made him. “Through these three watches of night my heart is restless,” sleepless the whole night, tormented by a “doubt” that “sets my whole world in turmoil.” Yet the same love that “burned” him is the one he wants to be “bathed in” again, because his need is simple and total: “I want you again, I need to be beside you,” and this time not as “the sorrows of a time we call love,” but as real closeness, “lying close” until his eyes gently close in peace.

The most beautiful image comes near the end, and it carries genuine hope rather than despair. “Like verses written on the shore, washed away,” the “measures of sorrow” will fade; tear-filled eyes “will dry”; and once more, “upon the lake of the heart, a boat of smiles will drift.” He imagines healing itself, “erasing the pain,” and falling asleep “against your breast, soothed by love.” What the listener is left with is not just heartbreak but yearning turned toward reunion, a person who believes that if only they could be together again, the grief would wash off like writing in the sand and the smiles would come sailing back.