Numbe Pem Loke Suwe Lyrics by Sangeeth Wijesuriya

Butterfly, my friend, flying through your world of love
If only I had a sweetheart beside me, just like you
There’s nothing like you have, the binding is endless
Banana trees all around, the boundaries are many
I can’t even meet her freely…
Butterfly, my friend, flying through your world of love
If only I had a sweetheart beside me, just like you

When I sing a song in a sweet moment, it would be good to have her near
When I win in the world of sport, how lovely it would be to see her
But there’s no one, alas, no one at all
I wasn’t given the chance, you aren’t beside me, my love

If only I had someone to meet at the cinema hall on a weekend, my love
At sunset, on the soft, smooth shore, I would sing love songs with all my heart
Ho ho, there’s no one, alas, no one at all
But there’s no one, alas, no one at all
She never came, alas, leaving me alone in my world

A young man watches a butterfly drift freely from flower to flower and finds himself a little envious of it. To him the butterfly already has everything he wants, a whole world of love to wander through, a companion at its side. That is where the song begins, with a lonely heart talking to a butterfly and wishing he had a sweetheart of his own to keep close, just the way the butterfly does.

The ache here is not heartbreak, it is the longing of someone who has simply never had that person yet. He imagines all the little moments where her presence would make life sweeter: singing a song in a happy hour and having her right there beside him, winning at a game and turning to find her watching him win. These are small, everyday daydreams, which is what makes them tender. He is not asking for the world, only for one person to share the ordinary good moments with.

The images he reaches for are the simple pleasures of a young Sri Lankan life. The butterfly flying through its “world of love” stands for the easy, unburdened romance he feels shut out of, while he is hemmed in by walls and boundaries, the banana trees and fences that fence him off from that freedom. He pictures meeting her at the cinema on a weekend, or singing love songs together at sunset on a soft stretch of beach, the kind of golden, slightly shy picture of romance that so many people carry in their heads before love ever arrives.

What the song keeps returning to is that one heavy refrain, there’s no one, no one at all. Every bright daydream is followed by the same quiet drop back to reality. By the last line he is left alone in his own little world, the butterfly still flying happily through its world of love while he watches from the outside. It is a gentle, wistful song about wanting someone to love and not yet having found them, a feeling almost anyone who has waited for love will recognise.