Api Denna Lyrics by Sanuka Wickramasinghe

All day I waited for you to come
evening fell before I knew it, and now, well
I cannot wait any longer than this
how do I hold on until tonight’s lights come on

Drenched in the falling snow
mixed with sweet mead,
seeking the sweet places of the love that bound us
I bring it to you once again
like a wrapped-up gift,
or else
set that memory gently aside without looking

This cold Christmas night
shall we two grow warm?
we two
This cold Christmas night
shall we two grow warm?
we two

If you too had waited all day for me to come,
what would it matter that evening slipped by?
if it needs more patience than that,
stay right beside me until tonight’s lights

Drenched in the falling snow
mixed with sweet mead,
seeking the sweet places of the love that bound us
I bring it to you once again
like a wrapped-up gift,
or else
set that memory gently aside without looking

This cold Christmas night
shall we two grow warm?
we two

Those days far across the sea,
somewhere in your heart
was I there at all?
Night and day it was only you
in my heart, with me

This cold Christmas night..

A warm Christmas love duet about two people longing to spend the season together. He has waited all day for her, evening slipped past unnoticed, and now he cannot bear to wait any longer, asking how he will last until the lights come on tonight. Snowfall and Christmas belong to a colder country than Sri Lanka, yet Sinhala pop happily borrows them for the tenderness they carry, so the falling snow here is simply the softest setting the song can picture.

He imagines himself drenched in that snow, sweet as mead, going back over the places where their love first took hold and bringing it to her again like a wrapped gift. There is a small ache folded in: either take the gift, he says, or set that memory quietly aside. The refrain holds the whole wish of the song, this cold Christmas night, shall we two grow warm, api denna, the two of us.

The last verse reaches back across distance and time, over the sea and the days apart, and asks quietly whether he was ever there in her heart at all. His own answer is that night and day it was only ever her in his. It is a season’s song about wanting to close the cold gap between two people and be, simply, the two of us.