Oba Mulin Dutuwa Dina Ma Lyrics by Sohan Weerasinghe

The day I first saw you
you settled into my whole heart
I remember, that day my love was bound to you in secret, my love, my love

My heart stayed close beside you
I kept wanting to tell you
but the love I never let slip, never spoke
my love, my love, my love

My love, my love, my love, my love //
to take your hand, will you give me your heart
this love cannot be hidden away, my love
to take your hand, will you give me your heart
this love cannot be hidden away, my love

There is no one nearby
no one to tell it to
this love I never let slip, never spoke, never spoke, my love, my love

I see you like a heavenly maiden
a lovely sight that holds my mind
I have wanted nothing more from you
all I long for, my love, my love, my love

In my dreams too I saw you
and awake as well I saw you
it is your eyes that I have longed for today
my love, my love

In my loneliness, in my emptiness
through all the days I am living now
if I could only win it, I would find peace at last
in your love, my love, my love

A young man is carrying a love he has never said out loud. From the very first day he saw her, he tells us, she settled into his whole heart, and that day his love quietly tied itself to her without her ever knowing. That is where the song lives, in the gap between how much he feels and how little he has dared to say. The word that keeps returning, “aadare,” is simply “love,” and he repeats it almost like a sigh, the way you say a person’s name over and over when you cannot stop thinking about them.

The ache here is the ache of the unspoken. He kept wanting to tell her, his heart stayed right beside her, but the words never came out. He even admits there is no one nearby he could confide in, no one to carry the message for him, so the feeling just stays sealed inside. Then comes the one brave moment of the whole song, when he finally asks it plainly: may I take your hand, will you give me your heart. And he says the thing every secret lover eventually learns, that love like this cannot be hidden forever.

When he describes her, he reaches for the highest image he has. He calls her a “surangana,” a heavenly maiden, the celestial beauty of Sinhala folklore and temple painting, the kind of being who belongs to another world. Saying she looks like a surangana is not just calling her pretty, it places her almost beyond his reach, someone too lovely to quite believe is real, which is exactly why he saw her in his dreams and then, waking, saw her again. He insists he wants nothing else from her, only this love, which tells you how pure and how desperate the longing is.

By the end the song turns soft and a little sad. He speaks of his loneliness and his empty days, and you understand that this love is not a passing crush but the one thing he thinks could settle him. If only he could win it, he says, he would finally find peace. That is what stays with you when the song fades, a gentle man who has loved in silence for a long time, holding out for the one tenderness he believes would make his whole life feel calm.