Mal Kinithi Pethi Agin

With the tips of flower-bud petals, caressing, with those lips,
the words of love you spoke, I feel them,
the songs you sang, dancing on a stage-floor,
I can hear them

A dream I saw one night,
I saw a message of love,
like a letter written, savoured,
sweet, for a poet

As you danced and sang, raising the sound of anklets,
the moment your conjured form faded away,
the flower-arrow, hidden in the heart

With the tips of flower-bud petals

Circling the belly of the sky,
flocks of birds in flight,
singing songs, dancing,
raising the koel’s call

I saw the depth of the sky, heard the anklet-sound,
your form went, in an instant, you,
the flower-arrow, hidden in the heart

With the tips of flower-bud petals

A dreamy, delicate love song about a beloved who appears like a vision. With the tips of flower-bud petals, caressing, with those lips, she speaks words of love the singer can still feel, and sings, dancing on a stage-floor, songs he can still hear. She is remembered as a performer, radiant and just out of reach.

The middle frames her as a dream and a poem. A dream I saw one night, in which he saw a message of love, like a letter written sweet for a poet. As she danced and sang, raising the sound of anklets, her conjured form faded away, leaving only the flower-arrow, hidden in the heart, the sweet wound of love, planted and lingering.

The close lifts into open sky. Bird-flocks circle the belly of the sky, singing and dancing, raising the koel’s call; he glimpses the depth of the sky, hears the anklet-sound, and again your form went, in an instant, leaving the flower-arrow hidden in the heart. Sung by Shirly Waijayantha, it is a soft, dreamlike love song about a dancing, singing beloved who appears and vanishes like a vision, leaving love’s sweet arrow lodged in the heart.