Me Diganthaye Lyrics by Rookantha Gunathilaka

On this far horizon, in the spring of flowers
She is at peace, and I am at peace
O moon rising in the blue belly of the sky
Do you know that love story?

The heart won’t say yes, the body won’t say no
She won’t give a kiss, she can’t be made to understand
My thoughts find no hold, our eyes won’t meet and bind
My wishes can’t be gathered, she won’t give her love

In the rush of monsoon clouds, in the cold of the night
my young man’s feelings are bruised and crushed inside me

The heart won’t say yes…//
O girl, is there no pity left in your heart?

The heart won’t say yes, the body won’t say no
She won’t give a kiss, she can’t be made to understand
She doesn’t know me, doesn’t know my love
She won’t whisper a word, she stays far, far away

The pain that you bring me
keeps turning over, this longing, again and again
I am bathed in my own sad tears
on this spring night

Thinking of you, night and day
the flowers of spring have bloomed
why do you look away?
I don’t want a world without you
Comfort me, night and day, night and day, night and day, night
the binding of our eyes loosens, the binding of thought breaks
the smile dies away, and the sorrow in my heart fades to nothing

A young man is in love with a girl who does not love him back, and this song is the long ache of standing right beside someone who feels nothing for you. It opens on a wide, beautiful scene, a spring full of flowers stretching out to the horizon, and at first it seems calm. She is at peace, he says, and so am I. But that calm is the saddest part, because she is at peace only because she has no idea what he is feeling.

He turns to the moon and asks it a strange, lonely question: do you know that love story? It is the kind of thing you only do when there is no one else to tell. The moon has watched everything from the blue sky, so he speaks to it the way a person talks to the night when their heart is too full to keep quiet. The whole song lives in that gap between his world, which is consumed by her, and hers, where he barely exists.

The refrain is built entirely out of things that do not happen, and that is what makes it hurt. Her heart never says yes, but it never says no either, so he is left with nothing to hold and nothing to let go of. She won’t kiss him, she can’t be made to understand him, their eyes never meet and lock the way two people in love look at each other. He even begs, “is there no pity left in your heart?” Not love, by this point, just a little mercy. The hardest line comes when he admits she doesn’t even know him, doesn’t know his love exists at all, and she stays far away while he stands there whispering to himself.

Spring runs through the whole song as a quiet cruelty. The flowers bloom, the season is alive and warm, the world is doing exactly what it does when love is meant to begin, and none of it is for him. He spends those spring nights and days washed in his own tears, telling her he doesn’t want a world without her, asking her to comfort him. By the end everything gently comes apart: the look that never bound them loosens, the thoughts let go, the smile dies, and even the sorrow in his heart finally fades to nothing. It is not peace so much as exhaustion, the feeling of a love quietly going out because it was never returned.