Devani Budun Lesa Lyrics by Sunil Edirisinghe

Like a second Buddha, she gave her whole self for the world
A woman the world honoured, the noblest of women
Mother, mother… mother

You who soothed my eyes and rocked me to sleep
You taught me the meaning of the sweet song
Now, today, when I sing that song
You are not beside me to hold and kiss me
Mother, mother… mother

You gave your tears to teach me to speak
You gave me the courage to bear life’s hardships
Now, when I win the world with that courage
You are not beside me to hold and kiss me
Mother, mother… mother

This is a son’s tribute to his mother, sung after she is gone. It opens with the highest praise a Sri Lankan can give a person. He calls her a second Buddha, someone who gave her whole self for the world the way the Buddha did out of pure compassion. In a culture shaped by Buddhism, there is no greater honour you can pay to anyone, and to place a mother at that level says everything about how he sees her. From there the song narrows from “the world” down to one home and one child, his own.

The heart of it is the gap between then and now. In the past tense he remembers what she did for him: she calmed his eyes and rocked him to sleep, she taught him the meaning of song itself, she gave her own tears so he could learn to speak, and she handed him the strength to carry every hardship that came. Each verse builds a small gift she gave, and each one ends on the same quiet wound. Now that he can sing that very song she taught him, now that he is winning the world with the courage she put in him, he turns to share it with her and she is not there. The line “you are not beside me to hold and kiss me” repeats like an ache he keeps reaching toward and never reaches.

That is the move that gives the song its weight. Everything good in him came from her, and the moment he finally has something to show for it is the exact moment he feels her absence most. The repeated cry of “amma, amma” at the close of each verse is not a polished lyric, it is the plain word a child calls out, and that is the point. For anyone who has lost a mother and wished she could see who they became, this song says it without a single wasted word.