Mal Pipi Lyrics (මල් පිපී) by Shirly Waijayantha

When the flower blooms and its fragrance wafts, there is a swarm of bees,
a flower that pricks with a thorn and sends poison, forever giving pain,
not knowing that, sensing the fragrance always, a heart enthralled,
again and again, why, I don’t know, drawing close to you

On the flower-arrow’s tip I feel the sweet honey,
in a moment of bearing it, the poison-thorn gave its pain,
the heart stayed to keep coming to seek you, why, I don’t know,
why I stay without taking my leave, I ask myself

Tears flowing, filling the eyes, warm sighs are felt,
will my heart go lonely? I ask myself,
all night, tirelessly seeking you, I feel the weariness,
the one wonder I cannot feel is love itself, my dear

When the flower blooms and its fragrance wafts

A bittersweet love song built on the double nature of a flower, sweet fragrance and hidden thorn. When the flower blooms and its fragrance spreads, there is a swarm of bees; but it is also a flower that pricks with a thorn and sends poison, forever giving pain. Knowing that, the heart is still enthralled by the fragrance, and again and again, why, I don’t know, drawing close to you. Love that hurts, drawn to anyway.

The middle lives inside that contradiction. On the flower-arrow’s tip he tastes the sweet honey, and in the very next moment the poison-thorn gave its pain. Still, the heart stayed to keep coming to seek you, and he asks himself, honestly, why I stay without taking my leave. He cannot explain his own refusal to walk away.

The close is the sleepless toll of it. Tears fill the eyes, warm sighs rise, he wonders if his heart will be left lonely, and all night, tirelessly seeking you, I feel the weariness. And the quiet paradox that ends it: the one wonder I cannot feel is love itself. Amid all the pain he can name, love remains the thing he cannot quite grasp. Sung by Shirly Waijayantha, it is a tender, aching song about loving something as sweet and thorned as a flower, and being unable to explain, or stop, the pull of it.