Kola Balum Lyrics by Sajeewa Dissanayake

Your coy glances
that make the heart fall in love,
those tendernesses you showed,
where have they gone today?

I sit here alone,
where has your heart gone?
as we loved before,
come, let us go on

So many feelings of love,
bright palaces close by,
seen through careful eyes..

Those rose-red lips,
to break my reverie,
will they come looking..?

In my heart, with love,
I will swear and say it:
I have never known an ease like you..

You stay right beside me,
never parting,
princess of my story…

The image you showed me with a love out of saṃsāra, mine…
stay beside me always..

This is a tender love song built around a single, very Sinhala image: kola balum, the playful, coy glances a girl throws that send a heart tumbling into love. The singer remembers those looks and the small tendernesses that came with them, and asks the ache that runs through the whole song: where have they gone today? He sits alone now, wondering where her heart has drifted, and gently pleads that the two of them go on loving as they once did.

The middle is all longing and admiration. He sees bright palaces of feeling close by, watches her through careful eyes, and wonders whether those rose-red lips will come again to break his reverie. Then comes the line he stakes everything on: with love in his heart, he swears he has never known an ease, a comfort, quite like her.

The close reaches for something larger than this life. Stay right beside me, he says, never parting, princess of my story, and calls her the image shown to him by a love out of saṃsāra, the cycle of rebirths, as though she were promised to him across lifetimes. It is a warm, yearning song about wanting to hold on to a love that has begun to cool, and believing it was always meant to be.