Atha Ime Lyrics by Shirly Waijayantha

At the far edge, you, over there, your tears are smiling
at the near edge, I, over here, my loneliness is smiling
a sweetness of love was felt, for a moment

Crossing this desert in search of fortune
I keep remembering you
soon I will come, filled with tenderness
I will come looking for you

At the far edge, you, over there, your tears are smiling

On the ocean’s shore, in this desert,
as loneliness makes itself felt,
singing to you, soothing my heart,
my tears are smiling

At the far edge, you, over there, your tears are smiling

This is a song of two people kept apart, and its whole feeling is caught in one repeated, bittersweet image: “tears are smiling.” At the far edge stands the beloved, her tears smiling; at the near edge stands the singer, his loneliness smiling. It is the exact emotion of smiling through tears, missing someone so much that grief and tenderness become the same expression, softened by the memory that “a sweetness of love was felt, for a moment.”

The reason for the distance is quietly ordinary and moving. He is “crossing this desert in search of fortune,” out in the hard world earning a living, the “desert” standing for the barren, lonely stretch of life away from the one he loves. Through all of it, he “keeps remembering” her, and he promises what every separated lover promises: soon I will come, “filled with tenderness,” looking for you.

The last verse sets him on an ocean shore that still feels like a desert, because loneliness is what fills it. His only comfort is the song itself, “singing to you, soothing my heart,” even as the tears keep smiling. What the listener is left with is the gentle ache of distance held together by hope, a person far from home, worn by the search for a livelihood, who keeps the one he loves close by singing to her across the miles until he can return.