Kontha Tharueli

At the foot of the Calvary hills,
o Mary Magdalene,
from the depths of anguished eyes, the rosary’s star-lights were lit,
in the painted dream-city,
did the veil of saṃsāra loosen at last, beloved?

Hearing the hymn that sounds, resounding, I wake with a sorrowing sigh,
pierced by a familiar tear, bearing the weight of a cross of love, I smile,
the night I do not know is a long one, of passion,
go on, cast the first stone at the gate of heaven,
I do not see the dream of the resurrection

Within my being sounds the dying note of a melody-song, o Mary,
from the dewy tears frozen on an eyelid, I awaken in a spring of heavenly warmth,
the night I do not know is a long one, of passion,
go on, cast the first stone at the gate of heaven,
I do not see the dream of the resurrection

A richly poetic song that weaves Christian imagery, Calvary, Mary Magdalene, the cross, the rosary, the resurrection, together with longing and love. It opens at the foot of the Calvary hills, addressing Mary Magdalene, and describes how, from the depths of her anguished eyes, the rosary’s star-lights were kindled, prayer glimmering out of grief. In this painted dream-city, the singer wonders whether the veil of saṃsāra, of worldly attachment, has finally loosened.

The middle is the pain of faith and love intertwined. Woken by a sounding hymn and a sorrowing sigh, pierced by a familiar tear, the singer bears the weight of a cross of love and still manages to smile. Then two of the song’s boldest lines, drawn straight from the Gospel: go on, cast the first stone at the gate of heaven, echoing let him who is without sin cast the first stone, and the ache of doubt, I do not see the dream of the resurrection. Faith here is real but shadowed by suffering.

The close moves, faintly, toward hope. Inside the singer’s being sounds the dying note of a song, and from the frozen dewy tears on an eyelid he awakens in a spring of heavenly warmth, grief thawing into something like grace. Composed by Tharindu Damsara to words by Chathurika Vinodi Perera, it is a haunting, devotional song that treats the Passion, the cross, the tears and the hoped-for resurrection, as the very landscape of a wounded, believing heart.