Watu Kurullane Lyrics by Thamara Darshana Gunathilaka

Saying we’ll leave the cowardly net and go,
listen to the sound these chicks are raising,
listen to it,
there is no delay in plucking out foolish ways,
there is no delay in plucking out foolish ways

Surround the very net,
surround the very net,
don’t fall beneath the snare-net,
o quail birds…, o birds,
o quail birds…, o birds,
surround the very net,
don’t fall beneath the snare-net,
surround the very net,
don’t fall beneath the snare-net

A short, rousing allegorical song addressed to quail birds caught, or about to be caught, in a fowler’s net. Saying we’ll leave the cowardly net and go, it cries, listen to the sound these chicks are raising, the young birds refusing to be trapped. And the urgent push: there is no delay in plucking out foolish ways, now is the moment to shake off cowardice and folly.

The refrain is a call to collective defiance. Surround the very net, it repeats, and don’t fall beneath the snare-net, o quail birds. Rather than each bird struggling alone, the song urges them to ring the trap together and refuse to be caught, courage and unity set against the snare.

The quails plainly stand for people, and the net for the traps, fear, folly and exploitation, that catch them; the whole thing is a small, spirited anthem of breaking free. Sung by Thamara Darshana Gunathilaka to words by Naveen Timothy Kodikara, composed by Harshana Disanayake, it is a brief, energetic allegory urging the trapped to cast off cowardice, unite, and escape the net.