Ha Ha Hadai Rupe Lyrics by Walter Fernando

Oh, what a lovely figure, pretty as a doll,
Oh, what a lovely figure, pretty as a doll,
You really are the one for me,
You really are the one for me.
A moon shows on your face, a flower of a smile, golden as treasure,
A moon shows on your face, a flower of a smile, golden as treasure,
You really are the one for me,
You really are the one for me.

The moment I saw you, my heart fell for you,
The door of good fortune swung open.
The moment I saw you, my heart fell for you,
The door of good fortune swung open.
Now I understand, now it makes sense to me,
This is my lucky turn.
The dream I had last night came true this morning,
The dream I had last night came true this morning,
You really are the one for me,
You really are the one for me.

Back then I was a lucky man,
And today I’m a lucky man still,
Back then I was a lucky man,
And today I’m a lucky man still,
Now I understand, now it makes sense to me,
This is my lucky turn.
The gem I kept searching and searching for, at last I have found her,
The gem I kept searching and searching for, at last I have found her,
You really are the one for me,
You really are the one for me.

A young man has fallen for a girl on sight, and the whole song is him glowing with disbelief at his own good luck. He can hardly get over how lovely she is, so the words tumble out almost playfully, like a man grinning to himself. This is light, happy, old-fashioned love, not the aching kind. He is not pining for someone out of reach, he has just found her, and he cannot quite believe she is real.

Watch how he reaches for the brightest, most precious things he knows to describe her. She is “pretty as a doll,” her face carries a moon, and her smile is a flower “golden as treasure.” In Sinhala song the moon is the standing image of a calm, glowing beauty, soft light that soothes rather than dazzles, so to say a moon shows on her face is to say her whole face lights up gently when she smiles. Calling that smile “golden” piles on the highest praise a village heart can give, gold being the most precious thing he can name. He even says she is fit for a god, the kind of beauty you would expect of a celestial being, not an ordinary girl on his lane.

The turning point is small but lovely. The moment he saw her, “the door of good fortune swung open,” and a dream he had the night before came true by morning. That is the heart of the song, the feeling that meeting her was not just nice but fated, a piece of luck the universe handed him. So he keeps repeating that this is “my lucky turn,” and that he was a lucky, capable man before and is even luckier now.

It closes on the sweetest line of all. After searching and searching, he says, he has finally found his gem. To call a woman a gem (menika) is the warmest endearment in Sinhala, she is rare, precious, the prize at the end of a long looking. What the listener is left with is pure, uncomplicated joy, a man who looked his whole life for someone and now stands there, dazzled, telling her over and over that she is the one.