Nisansalai Seethai Lyrics by Surendra Perera

The night slips by, quiet and cool,
and at dawn the golden rooster crows.
The days go by and never come back again,
yet still my memory holds on.

Hoo hoo hoo, eyes like a blue lake,
oh ho, a smile soft as a flower,
I hold you in my arms, my beautiful one.
The night slips by, quiet and cool,
and at dawn the golden rooster crows.
The days go by and never come back again,
yet still my memory holds on.

Like heavenly maidens, the gentle breeze drifts by,
where does my heart float to? It stays close beside you, my princess.
Like heavenly maidens, the gentle breeze drifts by,
where does my heart float to? It stays close beside you, my princess.
The night has come, and sleep won’t find me now,
I bless these restless, flickering eyes.
The night, quiet and cool…

The night slips by, quiet and cool,
and at dawn the golden rooster crows.
The days go by and never come back again,
yet still my memory holds on.

One by one we leave this world, on a day we cannot bear,
a flower blooms upon the heart, and win or lose, it all turns over.
One by one we leave this world, on a day we cannot bear,
a flower blooms upon the heart, and win or lose, it all turns over.
If my love, my whole life, is yours,
then wrapped in song is that delicate form of long ago.
The night, quiet and cool…

The night slips by, quiet and cool,
and at dawn the golden rooster crows.
The days go by and never come back again,
yet still my memory holds on.

Hoo hoo hoo, eyes like a blue lake,
oh ho, a smile soft as a flower,
I hold you in my arms, my beautiful one.
The night slips by, quiet and cool,
and at dawn the golden rooster crows.
The days go by and never come back again,
yet still my memory holds on.

It’s late, the house is still, and a young man lies awake with the woman he loves on his mind. The night passes quiet and cool, and by the time the rooster crows at dawn he still hasn’t slept. That’s where the song lives, in those slow hours when you can’t switch your thoughts off, and the one person you want is the only thing you can think about.

The line that keeps returning, “the days go by and never come back again, yet still my memory holds on,” is the ache at the heart of it. He knows time is slipping away and that nothing stays, but the memory of her refuses to fade. So instead of fighting the sleeplessness, he gives himself to it. “I bless these restless eyes,” he says, almost grateful to be kept awake, because being awake means being with her in his mind.

The pictures he reaches for are the familiar ones of Sinhala love song, and they carry their own meaning. Her eyes are “a blue lake,” neth vila, calm deep water you could lose yourself in, not a flashy beauty but a still one. Her smile is soft “as a flower.” The gentle night breeze that drifts through the verses is compared to suranganawan, the heavenly maidens, so even the wind feels graceful and otherworldly while he thinks of her, his kumari, his princess. A flower “blooming upon the heart” is love itself opening inside him, tender and alive.

Underneath the tenderness there is a quiet awareness of how short all of it is. He notices that one by one people leave this world, that win or lose it all eventually turns over, that days don’t return. Against that, his answer is simple and whole: if his love and his very life belong to her, then she is held safe in the song itself, that “delicate form of long ago” kept alive in melody. It’s a man choosing love and memory as the things that outlast the passing night, and that’s what makes the song linger.