Bambara Wage Wise Karaya Lyrics by Sangeeth Wijesuriya

Like a hornet, I’m a clever one
Like a wasp, I’m a calculating one
Like a butterfly, I’m a fine-looking one
Like a honeybee, I’m a real worker //

Like the koel singing its song
I sing songs that pour out sweetness
The way the peacock dances and shows off
I can put on a show anywhere too
Like a crow, I’m well used to a bit of cunning
Like the egret, I turn up and stand out everywhere

Like the swallow, I stay quiet
And speak only in the right place
Like the eagle, I can spot things from far off
I sense when there’s danger coming
Like a chattering parrot, I’m always talking
Like a fighting cock, wherever I go I come back a winner

This is a playful, boastful song, a man drawing a comic self-portrait by lining himself up against one creature after another. There’s no heartbreak or longing here. It’s a wink and a swagger, the kind of song that makes a room laugh because everyone knows a fellow exactly like this, all confidence and charm, listing off his own good points without a hint of shyness.

The fun is in the parade of animals, and each one carries a meaning a Sri Lankan listener catches instantly. The hornet (bambara) and the honeybee (meemassa) make him busy and hardworking. The wasp (debara) marks him as sharp and calculating, someone who keeps his accounts. The butterfly (samanalaya) makes him good-looking and a bit of a show-off, and the peacock (monara), the great showman of the village, lets him claim he can put on a performance anywhere. Then the koel (kokila), the bird whose call every Sri Lankan loves, makes his singing sweet.

What gives the song its grin is that he doesn’t only pick flattering creatures. He happily compares himself to a crow (kaputa), the local symbol of slyness, owning up to a streak of cunning, and to the egret (kirikoka), the white bird you see standing in every paddy field, to say he turns up and gets noticed everywhere. He balances it with the eagle (ukussa) for his sharp eye and his knack for sensing trouble before it arrives, and the swallow for knowing when to keep quiet and when to speak. The last two land the joke: a chattering parrot for his non-stop talking, and a fighting cock (pora kukula), the bird bred to win in the ring, for his boast that wherever he goes he comes home the winner.

Put together, it’s a man celebrating himself with humor and a lot of cheek, sweet as a koel one moment, sly as a crow the next, and always sure he’ll come out on top. The pleasure of the song is in recognizing the type and enjoying how shamelessly he sings his own praises.