Sarungaley Lyrics by Nipuni HerathRanga WeerasekaraRidma Weerawardena

O kite..

The wind of love, and the heart-flower bursts into bloom,
life is a desert, and its obstacles a fortress wall

Love trembles, the lake of the heart is stirred,
it lets go into the wind and floats in the blue sky

Time has passed, left alone in both worlds,
I ask in mad, raving words,
who are you.. o kite

My eyes were bound the day I saw the flower of your face,
love overflowed and brimmed over the lake of the heart

Love longed, smeared over with passion,
but you were never there, however I searched my thoughts

Time has passed, left alone in both worlds,
I ask in mad, raving words,
who are you.. o kite

My heart is right beside you, so why have I forgotten myself?
emptiness and loneliness keep wounding my eyes

The old tales that scrape the heart raw
tell of just how you scratched it,
who are you.. o kite

A wistful, poetic song that turns an elusive love into a sarungale, a kite, something you hold by a thread and yet that drifts and tugs, always half out of reach. It opens with love as spring and hardship together: the wind of love makes the heart-flower burst open, even as life is called a desert and its troubles a fortress wall. Love trembles, stirs the lake of the heart, and then simply releases into the wind and floats off into the blue.

The refrain is the ache of not knowing what this love even was: time has passed, the singer is left alone in both worlds, and can only ask, in mad, raving words, who are you, o kite? He remembers his eyes being bound the day he first saw the flower of her face, love brimming over the lake of the heart, longing smeared with desire, and then the cruel truth: you were never really there, however hard I searched my own thoughts.

The close deepens the confusion of a love that hurt. My heart is right beside you, he says, so why have I lost myself? Emptiness and loneliness keep wounding him, and the old, heart-scraping memories only remind him of how she scratched his heart. He ends where he began, holding the string of a kite he can neither reel in nor understand: who are you, o kite? Sung by Ridma Weerawardena and Ranga Weerasekara with Nipuni Herath, to words by Savindra Madushan, it is a haunting song about a love that stays forever aloft and unknowable, beautiful, painful and just out of grasp.