Nihada Kalpanawa Lyrics by Shirly Waijayantha

A silent thought drifted away
searching for love, for my love
such thoughts brought only pain
all because of my love for your love

Flying in among the moon and the stars,
where are you, in what fairy world?
For just a moment, leaving
this world of my thoughts,
could I catch a single glimpse of that smile?

A silent thought drifted away

The night’s moonlight is lovely, the night-birds call
wrapped in the ripple of the breeze, time slips by
if loneliness is felt, then your laughing voice is heard
where are you, in what fairy world?

A silent thought drifted away

This is longing turned almost entirely inward, a love that lives in silent thought. The opening image says it exactly: “a silent thought drifted away, searching for love,” and those very thoughts “brought only pain,” precisely because he loves her so much. Nothing here is spoken aloud or acted upon; the whole song happens in the quiet of a longing mind.

The beloved is imagined as something more than earthly. He pictures her “flying in among the moon and the stars” and asks the song’s aching refrain, “where are you, in what fairy world?” Calling her a surangana, a celestial nymph, places her in a realm his ordinary world cannot reach. And his wish is heartbreakingly modest: not to hold her, not even to speak to her, but simply, “for just a moment, could I catch a single glimpse of that smile?”

The final verse lets the setting deepen the ache. The moonlit night is beautiful, the night-birds call, a gentle breeze wraps around him and time slips by, all the loveliness only sharpening how alone he is. And in a lovely turn, he says that whenever loneliness sets in, “your laughing voice is heard,” as though her remembered laugh haunts the quiet. What the listener is left with is the soft, dreamlike sorrow of a heart that loves in silence, reaching toward someone who feels as distant and unreachable as a fairy among the stars.