Sithak Ridunu Lyrics by Shirly Waijayantha

When the heart is hurt, that is when I feel your love,
loving that love was, I feel, not enough,
that you come to mind again and again, and why, I never knew,
I long to go seeking the days we lived so close

Your form, lodged in memory, I bear in the heart always,
the string of pearls you wore at your neck, do you remember, back then?
you married away, with the golden tilaka set, and, bearing it, I endure,
you and I, far and near, took flight and were gone

Was the dream of youth lost? I ask it of you,
so much I cannot put into words, I bear within,
far apart, in our two places, with tears at the corner of the eye,
shall we smile again, like back then, hearts brimming with joy?

When the heart is hurt, that is when I feel your love

A bittersweet song in which pain itself becomes the proof of love. When the heart is hurt, that is when I feel your love, the singer says, and confesses that simply loving that love was not enough. She keeps coming to mind, for reasons he never understood, and he longs to go seeking the days we lived so close.

The middle is vivid, specific memory, and one hard fact. He carries your form, lodged in memory, and recalls the string of pearls you wore. Then the loss: you married away, with the golden tilaka set, and, bearing that, he endures. The two of them, once inseparable, far and near, took flight and were gone.

The close is longing turned into a question. Was the dream of youth lost? he asks her directly; there is so much I cannot put into words. Now in our two places, each with tears at the corner of the eye, he wonders, tenderly: shall we smile again, like back then, hearts brimming with joy? Sung by Shirly Waijayantha, it is a wistful song about a first love lost to marriage, where the very ache of it keeps the old love alive, and a fragile hope that they might one day smile together again.