Surangani

Surangani, Surangani, they brought fish for Surangani
Fish, fish, fish, the fish just brought in, they brought fish for Surangani

Aren’t you ashamed, crying here in the middle of the road, people are gathering round from every side
You’re crying, your eyes are going red, and watching you, I’m ready to cry too

What is it, why won’t you take the fish, you just sit there looking cross
You say you don’t want them, you scold me for bringing them, and the fish are flopping about all over me

Surangani is one of those baila songs almost every Sri Lankan can sing without being taught it, the kind that gets shouted back line by line at weddings, parties and long bus rides. There is no grand story in it. The whole song is one small comic scene played out in a village street.

A young man has brought fish for a girl called Surangani, and instead of taking them she has burst into tears right there on the road. The chorus is him announcing his delivery over and over, fish, fish, fish, the catch just brought in, and that chant is exactly why the song works at a party. It is made to be answered by a crowd.

In the verses you can hear him swing between annoyance and softness. First he tells her off, aren’t you ashamed to cry out here, look, everyone from all around is stopping to watch. Then he sees her red eyes and gives in, saying that now she has got him ready to cry as well. By the last verse the comedy takes over. She will not touch the fish, she sits there angry, she tells him off for bringing them at all, and he is left standing in the road with fresh fish still flapping around all over him. Nothing is settled and nobody wins, which is very much the baila way.

The fish carry more weight than they look like they do. In a fishing island, turning up at a girl’s door with the day’s catch is an everyday act of care, close to a courting gesture, and the market fish is the honest gift of a man with no money for anything fancier. So her refusing it in front of a growing crowd stings him twice, once as a rejected gift and once as a public embarrassment. The song’s charm is that it refuses to take any of this seriously. The crying, the scolding, the crowd and the slippery fish all end up as one joke about how badly a simple kindness can go, and the tune sends everybody home laughing about it.