Adara Mage Jesuni Lyrics by Rookantha Gunathilaka

My beloved Jesus, I speak to you after so long
How are you, my Lord?
I did whatever I pleased, ruining the goodness of your teaching
Today I fall at your feet and weep…

Caught in the storm, having lost my way on the road
I write these words to you, my Lord
In that great ocean of mercy, you alone are love
Grant me your peace, my Lord

My beloved Jesus…..

Jesus, I love you, but your love for me is greater still
Forever I am in your debt
For all that you have given me, and even for what you withheld
I offer my thanks with love, my Lord

My beloved Jesus, let us meet again in days to come
Day by day you reign over the world, my Lord
I did whatever I pleased, yet you showed me compassion
I fall at your feet and weep…

This is a Christian devotional song, a prayer set to music. The whole thing is one person speaking directly to Jesus, the way you would talk to someone you have drifted away from and are finally returning to. The Sinhala address “සමිඳේ” (samide), which runs through almost every verse, is the old, reverent word for “my Lord,” and the repeated “ආදර මගෙ ජේසුනි,” “my beloved Jesus,” sets the tone: this is closeness, not formality, even though it is full of awe.

The song opens with confession. He admits he has not prayed in a long time (“I speak to you after so long”) and that he went his own way, doing whatever he pleased and pushing aside the goodness of the teaching he was raised on. That is why the first verse ends with him falling at Jesus’ feet in tears. In the second verse he gives a reason for the drifting without excusing it: he was caught in a storm and lost his way on the road. The “storm” and the “wrong road” are the everyday Sinhala images for life going off course, trouble and temptation pulling a person away from faith. Against that he reaches for the picture of God as a “මහ කරුණා සාගරේ,” a great ocean of mercy, vast and bottomless, and asks for one thing, peace.

What makes the song tender rather than just guilty is the turn in the third verse. He says he loves Jesus, but then quickly corrects himself: your love for me is greater still. And then comes the line that lands hardest for a Sri Lankan listener, the thanks not only for everything he was given, but for the things that were withheld from him. It is the quiet faith that even the prayers God did not answer were a kind of care, that being told no can be mercy too.

By the end the weeping is no longer only shame. He asks to meet again in the days to come, trusts that this Lord reigns over the world day after day, and says plainly that even after all his wandering, “you showed me compassion.” So he kneels and cries one more time, but now it is the relief of someone who came home and was taken back. The song leaves you with that feeling of being forgiven before you had even finished apologising.