Elapare Thiththa Patawu Lyrics by Rookantha Gunathilaka

Along the stream the little tittha fish gather in schools
softly whispering their talk of love
while I am alone in this dim, desolate dusk
the lonely dusk

In the land of dreams you said I would be your chief queen
you said I was the kinnari of the Kinnara folk-play
you said you would take me away beneath the wedding arch
then heartlessly you gave your word and made me weep

Along the stream the little tittha fish gather in schools
softly whispering their talk of love
while I am alone in this dim, desolate dusk
the lonely dusk

Unlike the bees around a flower, I had no crowd of suitors
birth after birth I worshipped and longed for you alone
helpless as a drought-stricken field, my heart weeps
I cannot understand where you have gone

Along the stream the little tittha fish gather in schools
softly whispering their talk of love
while I am alone in this dim, desolate dusk
the lonely dusk

This is a woman’s lament, and its power comes from a single cruel contrast. Down by the stream even the little tittha fish move in pairs and schools, “whispering their talk of love,” while she stands alone in the fading half-light of dusk. Gomman, that grey hour when the light dies, is the loneliest time of the village day, and nature all around her is coupled up while she is left with no one.

The middle verse is where the betrayal lives. He had promised her the world: that she would be his “chief queen,” that she was his kinnari, the celestial bird-maiden of the old Kinnara folk-drama, the highest compliment a Sinhala man can pay a woman’s beauty and grace. He even promised to lead her away beneath the thorana, the decorated wedding arch, meaning marriage itself. Then, “heartlessly,” he broke every word and left her in tears.

The last verse measures how total her devotion had been. She was not a flower ringed by suitor-bees; she had no one else, and “birth after birth” she had worshipped him alone, the language of samsara that turns a love affair into a vow across lifetimes. Now her heart is as parched and helpless as a field in drought, and the worst part is she does not even know where he went or why. What the listener is left with is the ache of a faithful heart abandoned without explanation, alone at nightfall while the whole world pairs off around her.