Priye Lyrics by Shanudrie Priyasad

Even in the gloom of an overcast sky…
Your soft, loving eyes appeared in my mind, stirring desire…
Believing you were given to me in sansara (the cycle of rebirth)…
Did you come here, painting pictures in my mind..

Let us stay close, in love, forever…
Smiles were born in your warmth…
The moon slips by, watching from its hiding place…
Beloved, keep me right beside you…

At night.. I will stay close to you..
Drawing closer, still shy..
If you become mine.. dream after dream,
I will stay close to you….
Weaving patterns of love in my heart…
With tender, adoring glances…
I will come through sansara.. claiming you as mine..

Let us stay close, in love, forever…
Smiles were born in your warmth…
The moon slips by, watching from its hiding place…
Beloved, keep me right beside you…

Let us stay close, in love, forever…
Smiles were born in your warmth…
The moon slips by, watching from its hiding place…
Beloved, keep me right beside you…

A young woman is falling in love, and it feels to her like she has found someone she already knew. Even under a mandaaram sky, that dull grey gloom before rain, his soft, loving eyes rise up in her mind and stir her. She tells herself he was given to her in sansara, the long cycle of birth and rebirth, and asks whether he came into this life already painting pictures in her head. Sinhala love songs reach for sansara when a feeling is too big for one lifetime: I have loved you before, and I will love you again.

The chorus is her wish spoken out loud. Stay close, stay in love, for good. His warmth draws out her smiles, and while the two of them are together the moon slips along, hiding and peeking at them. In Sinhala song the moon is the lovers’ quiet witness, a gentle light that watches without breaking the spell, and she asks her beloved, her priye, to keep her right there beside him under it.

The second verse turns playful. Night falls, she promises to stay near him, and she draws closer with kola, the shy teasing of new love. She weaves her affection like geththam, fine needlework built up stitch by stitch, and gives him adoring glances. Then comes the vow that holds the whole song together: if you are mine, I will come back through sansara and call you my own. The song ends on that warm certainty, a love that expects to outlast this life.