Me Jeewithe Lyrics by Rookantha Gunathilaka

This life, the day youth arrived,
echoes with sweet love songs
that love I gave you, my darling,
do not go, leaving me only sighs of sorrow

On the day life is left destitute because of love,
may you too weep like me, my love, I wish it
tears in the eye and pain in the heart,
no, no, the young women do not know it

I know the pain of love,
the way it kindles feelings in the fire,
the love-thoughts the world’s lovers
suffered through night and day, this is it

On the day life is left destitute because of love,
may you too weep like me, my love, I wish it
tears in the eye and pain in the heart,
no, no, the young women do not know it

This is a classic bittersweet love song, given its words by the celebrated lyricist Ajantha Ranasinghe. It opens on youth: this life, from the day youth arrived, has echoed with sweet love songs. But under the sweetness lies a plea to a lover who is leaving, that love I gave you, my darling, do not go leaving me only sighs of sorrow.

There is a very human sting in the middle. On some day when life is left destitute by love, he says, may you weep the way I am weeping now. It is not quite a curse, more the wish of someone hurt enough to want the other to understand the pain someday, the tears in the eye and the ache in the heart that, he adds, the young women simply do not know.

The last verse widens the private hurt into something universal. I know the pain of love, he says, the way it kindles feelings like a fire, and these are the very love-thoughts that lovers all over the world have suffered through night and day. In the older, literary style Ajantha Ranasinghe was known for, the song turns one man’s heartbreak into the common lot of everyone who has ever loved.