Oba Hinda Ba Mata Metharam Lyrics by Samitha Mudunkotuwa

Because of you I can’t hold myself together this much
My restless mind keeps going round and round, trying to bear it
You drew me close to you
Honestly, there’s no way out now, you’ve won me over

Reading through the well-worn book of love and longing
I was spellbound, cradled in your arms
Darling, come to me every day and let me stay
held close in your arms
Marry me, bind me to you, our wedding
The day you make me yours, when will it come

What is this that has gone circling around my heart
What won me over, how much of you has happened to me
I was won over by the sight of you
Tie that love fast, through saṃsāra (the cycle of rebirth), my love
Only one thing I ask of you, my love
Don’t take another woman’s love

A young woman has fallen completely, and she is not shy about saying so. From the first line she admits she can’t hold herself together anymore, her mind keeps spinning, and there is simply no way out: he has won her over and she knows it. The song is her telling him exactly how deep she is in, and asking him for the one thing she wants in return.

The middle of the song is where her feeling turns into a wish for a life together. She pictures the two of them having read the whole book of love and longing, page by page, and now she wants the everyday of it: come to me each day, let me stay cradled in your arms. Then she says it plainly, marry me, make me yours, and the only worry left is when. There is nothing guarded here. She is asking for the wedding, not just the romance.

The Sinhala leans on a couple of images an outside listener would miss. When she says she was won over “by your looks” (ruwata), it is not vanity, in Sinhala love songs a person’s ruwa, their face and form, is the thing that first catches and holds the heart, the way a glimpse turns into longing. And when she asks him to tie that love fast “through saṃsāra,” she is reaching for the deepest promise the culture offers. Saṃsāra is the long cycle of birth and rebirth in Buddhist thought, so to bind a love across saṃsāra is to ask for far more than this one life. It means find me again, lifetime after lifetime.

She closes on the single request underneath all of it. After all the spinning and the longing, what she really needs is faithfulness: don’t give your love to another girl. That is the ache the song leaves you with, a woman who has handed over everything and asks only that he not turn that gift toward someone else.