Therunado Lyrics by Sanuka Wickramasinghe

The sky roared and said, did you understand?
The earth cracked and asked, did you understand?
Where are you going, it said, did you understand?
That we ourselves are the wrong, did you understand?

Those who gave their hearts to sin and lived on,
who tried to make the whole world dance in their palm,
who held their chest far off and dreamed their dreams,
whose hearts turned tame and did wrong

Between the sky and the earth there is a gap
it burns, it blazes, and the fault is ours
If only we had thought
that one day this would come upon us
if only we had grown a little closer
to a tree, to a flower

The man who once cupped his hands to the sun in worship,
who tied divine names to tree and rock and hill,
the man who flew to the moon, why is he shut indoors,
with all his ranks and titles, he broke nature

Where are the planets that were to bring royal fortune?
Where are the crows who sold the gods and ate the fruit?
As you leave, you leave empty-handed, don’t you know it?
You still have not become the one same creature, have you?

Between the sky and the earth there is a gap
it burns, it blazes, and the fault is ours
If only we had thought
that one day this would come upon us
if only we had grown a little closer
to a tree, to a flower

This is a furious, grieving song that puts humanity on trial, and its refrain, therunado, “did you understand,” is thrown back at us by the sky and the earth themselves. The sky roars it, the ground cracks open and asks it: do you finally see that we ourselves are the mistake? The whole song is a reckoning with human greed and the damage we have done.

It names the culprits without softening them: those who gave their hearts to sin, who tried to make the whole world dance in their palm, who kept everyone at arm’s length and chased their own dreams until their conscience went tame. Between sky and earth there is now a burning gap, the broken balance of nature, and the song lays it squarely on us. Its one tender wish is small and sad: if only we had seen this coming, if only we had lived a little closer to a tree, to a flower.

The sharpest verse goes after false reverence and hollow progress. Our ancestors cupped their hands to the sun and gave divine names to tree and rock and hill, while the man who can fly to the moon now sits shut indoors with all his ranks and titles, having broken the natural world that older worship once protected. Then it turns on the marketplace of belief: where are the lucky planets the astrologers promised, where are the crows who sold the gods and ate the profit? You leave this world empty-handed, it reminds you, and closes on the hardest line of all, that after everything we still have not understood we are all one and the same creature of this earth.