Asha Nirasha Mawu Lyrics by Victor Rathnayake

The one who created hope and despair,
she is a dream, an illusion
streams of affection, the ache of love,
she is the magic that made them all

To burn me, in the wind of love,
it is she who stays close in my heart
to soothe this sorrowful life,
she is the shade, the flower-lined path
day and night she is beside me,
my wondrous lady of love

The one who created hope and despair…

Hiding, hiding within my eyes she stays,
she sleeps on a golden bed in my heart,
wearing a soft smile on her lips,
and my sleep is broken once again
day and night she is beside me,
my wondrous lady of love

A tender, adoring love song. The singer describes a woman who has become the whole weather of his inner life: she is the one, he says, who created both hope and despair in him, a dream and an illusion at once, the magic that conjured up the streams of affection and the sweet ache of love. She is not an ordinary person to him but an enchantment.

The middle holds a gentle contradiction that lovers know well. The same woman who burns him in the wind of love is also the one who stays close in his heart to soothe his sorrowful life. He calls her his shade and his flower-lined path, the cool relief and the beautiful way forward, and says that day and night she is beside him, his wondrous lady of love. She is both the wound and the balm.

The last verse turns inward and intimate. She hides within his eyes and sleeps on a golden bed inside his heart, wearing a soft smile, an image of how completely he carries her in his mind. And because of her, he says, his sleep is broken once again, the sweet sleeplessness of someone in love. It is a classic Victor Rathnayake love song, elevated and dreamlike, about a woman who lives more vividly in the singer’s imagination than anyone could in the flesh.