▶These days I brood all night long, and even the cracks in my bedroom door seem cold and heartless, as the night refuses to end.
The Priest Shun'e was a monk and poet of the late Heian period. His father was Minamoto no Toshiyori and his grandfather Minamoto no Tsunenobu, so three generations in a row have poems in the Hyakunin Isshu. He named his home in Shirakawa, Kyoto, the "Karin'en" (Garden of the Grove of Poems) and held poetry gatherings there open to people of any rank; Kamo no Chōmei was his student. The poem appears in the second Love section of the Senzai Wakashū. It is a love poem in which the monk speaks as a woman waiting for a lover who does not come.
"Yomosugara" means "all night long." "Mono omou koro wa" means "in these days when I am troubled by love." "Akeyarade" means "the night will not fully break." "Neya no hima" is the gap in the bedroom door. Lying awake waiting for someone who does not come, the night never seems to end. If only the morning light would slip in, this long night would be over, but even the gap will not let the light through, and it seems cold to her. There is not one word blaming that person; all she can do is turn her feelings on the gap in the door.
What drew us to this poem was that, instead of blaming the one who does not come, she calls the gap in the door "cold." The one waiting knows better than anyone who is really cold. In the lyrics we moved that one night into a room today: a screen stopped at the last message, a light left on at the entrance, the sound of the second hand. Even when the long night ends and morning light comes in, the heart does not warm. Taking the poem's "even the gap is cold" one step further, we sang the night up to the moment she stops waiting, as a midnight neo-soul song with a second hand ticking all the way through.
夜もすがら（千載集/俊恵法師・百人一首85番）Garu JP
灯りを 消してから 何度 時計を 見ただろう
「今夜 行くね」で 止まった 画面
枕に 耳を つけると
自分の 鼓動ばかり 大きい
玄関の 灯りは つけたまま
足音が するたび 息を 止める
夜もすがら 物思ふころは 明けやらで
閨のひまさへ つれなかりけり
早く 朝に なればいいのに
窓の すきまは まだ 夜の色
夜もすがら 秒針だけが 歩いてく
暗い部屋には 鼓動とわたし
冷めた お茶を 淹れなおして
読みかけの 本を ひらいても
同じ 一行を 何度も なぞる
しおりの 場所から 動けない
窓の すきまを 見るたびに
夜は まだ そこに 座ってる
夜もすがら 物思ふころは 明けやらで
閨のひまさへ つれなかりけり
いっそ 眠って しまえたら
夢でなら 会えるのに
夜もすがら まぶたが閉じて くれなくて
夢への扉 今夜は遠い
遠くで 始発の 音がする
すきまが 少しずつ 白んでく
朝は ちゃんと 来たのに
あなたは 来なかった
夜もすがら 物思ふころは 明けやらで
閨のひまさへ つれなかりけり
つれないのは すきまじゃない
差しこむ 朝日も 冷たい
夜もすがら 待ちつづけてた 玄関の
灯りをそっと 今消しにゆく
閨のひまさへ つれなかりけり
Yomosugara (Senzai-shu / Priest Shun'e, Hyakunin Isshu No. 85) Garu JP
Since I turned off the lights, how many times have I looked at the clock?
The screen stopped at "I'll come tonight"
When I press my ear to the pillow
only my own heartbeat sounds so loud
I've left the entrance light on
every time I hear footsteps, I hold my breath
"All through the night, these nights I lie in longing, the dawn won't come,
and even the gap of my bedroom door is cold to me"
I wish the morning would hurry
the gap in the window is still the color of night
All through the night, only the second hand keeps walking
in the dark room, just my heartbeat and me
I make the cold tea again
open the book I was reading
trace the same line over and over
I can't move on from the bookmark
Every time I look at the gap in the window
the night is still sitting there
"All through the night, these nights I lie in longing, the dawn won't come,
and even the gap of my bedroom door is cold to me"
If only I could fall asleep
in a dream, at least, I could see you
All through the night, my eyelids just won't close
the door to dreams is far away tonight
Far off, I hear the first train
the gap slowly turns pale
The morning came as it should
but you never came
"All through the night, these nights I lie in longing, the dawn won't come,
and even the gap of my bedroom door is cold to me"
It isn't the gap that is cold
even the morning sun shining in is cold
All through the night, the entrance light I waited by
now I quietly go to turn it off
And even the gap of my bedroom door is cold to me