Kalaye Lyrics by Senaka Batagoda

Things you cannot grasp,
surrounding the heart,
are dragged away, far and farther off,
things you cannot bear,
holding the heart tight, for how long
did we even last?
looking back, memory is a field of paintings,
and whatever you think, you cannot take back the time that has gone

Whatever things were written into time,
what must be done must be done, in that very moment

The me that I do not recognise,
so what is there left to think about anyone else?
in agreement with my own heart,
like counting the sands of the ocean,
I must have thought it over, right up to today,
even though it all has changed
looking back, memory is a field of paintings,
and whatever you think, you cannot take back the time that has gone

Whatever things were written into time,
what must be done must be done, in that very moment

A reflective, philosophical song about time, memory and the impossibility of going back, by Senaka Batagoda. It opens with the mind’s helplessness before change: the things you cannot grasp gather round the heart and then drift away, far and farther off, while the things you cannot bear are clutched tight, and still, he wonders, how long did any of it really last? Nothing holds; everything slips.

The refrain is the song’s hard-won wisdom, twinned. First: looking back, memory is only a field of paintings, lovely but fixed, and whatever you think, you cannot take back the time that has gone. And then its active counterpart: whatever was written into time, what must be done must be done in that very moment. Since the past is unrecoverable, the only honest response is to act now.

The middle turns inward and humble. The me that I do not recognise, he says, so what use is there in judging anyone else? Staying true to his own heart, he has turned things over as endlessly as counting the sands of the ocean, right up to today, even as everything changed. Sung by Senaka Batagoda, it is a calm, contemplative song about accepting the irreversibility of time, and drawing from it not regret but resolve: do, now, what has to be done.