Like the waves that draw near the shore of Suminoe, why will you not come to me even in my dreams at night, shunning the eyes of others?
Fujiwara no Toshiyuki Ason (d. 901 or 907) was a poet and calligrapher of the early Heian period, one of the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry; he is also remembered for the autumn poem 'Aki kinu to', and his hand was ranked beside Kūkai's. This poem is Kokin Wakashū, Love II, 559, composed for the Empress Dowager's poetry contest of the Kanpyō era (around 889–893). It is a contest poem rather than a record of experience, and is usually read as written in the voice of a woman who waits. Suminoe is the coast of Sumiyoshi in present-day Osaka, a place-name famous in poetry for white sand, pines and incoming waves. Love affairs of the time were hidden from people's eyes by day; the 'path of dreams', on which lovers travelled to each other at night, was thought to be the one road no one could watch. People also believed that someone appears in your dream because that person is thinking of you.
By day it cannot be helped; there are eyes everywhere. But at night, on the path of dreams, there is no reason to hide. And still you do not come, not even in a dream. 'Waves that reach the shore of Suminoe' is a preface that calls up the word yoru, yet it works as a picture: the waves come in again and again, never tiring, while you have not come once. For a complaint, the tone is light. 'You must be avoiding other eyes' — she guesses, and does not press the charge. She is sulking, or a little amused. In an age that believed a person comes to your dream rather than being dreamed by you, his absence is itself the evidence. Even so she does not corner him; she says it in a breath as even as the waves, and stops.
What drew us most is that one word, yoru, holds both the returning of the waves and the returning of the nights she waits. The waves come in again and again. The night comes again and again. Only you have not come yet. It is a poem from eleven hundred years ago, but we did not want to make it a song of blame; the original is closer to a light sulk, and stops at a guess. So the lyrics became a song about waiting for the night. By day the two pass like strangers among other people's eyes. In a room where the waves can be heard she waits for dusk, believing that if she closes her eyes they can meet in a dream. The chorus sings the poem as it is, then says it again in today's words — even on a night when the waves reach the shore, even on the road of dreams, you still avoid other eyes — so that the pun on yoru can be heard. On the dream shoreline the footprints are only hers; at each wave she listens for a step. Morning comes and the dream ends, and by day they are strangers again; but when the sun goes down the waves come in and the night comes. The last line calls out from the one who waits: tonight, come and meet me. The music rolls like waves on pizzicato strings, with one voice layered many times into a soft choir behind — bright and calm. It is not a song that counts the nights he did not come, but one that waits for the next.
住の江の（古今集/藤原敏行朝臣・百人一首18番）Garu JP
波の音の 届く 部屋で
日が 暮れるのを 待っている
昼間は 人の目の なかで
知らない顔で すれちがう
夜になれば 目を 閉じれば
夢の中で 会える
住の江の 岸に寄る波 よるさへや
夢の通ひ路 人目よくらむ
波が 岸に 寄る 夜でさえ
夢の中の 通い道でさえ
あなたは 人目を 避けるの
夢でなら 会えるのに
眠りに 落ちて 夢の 中
波打ち際の 砂の 道
足あとは わたしの 分だけ
あなたは まだ 来ていない
寄る 波の 音の たびに
足音かと 耳を すます
住の江の 岸に寄る波 よるさへや
夢の通ひ路 人目よくらむ
波が 岸に 寄る 夜でさえ
夢の中の 通い道でさえ
あなたは 人目を 避けるの
夢でなら 会えるのに
朝が 来て 夢は さめる
昼は また 知らない顔
それでも 日が 暮れれば
波は 寄る 夜は 来る
住の江の 岸に寄る波 よるさへや
夢の通ひ路 人目よくらむ
波が 岸に 寄る 夜でさえ
夢の中の 通い道でさえ
あなたは 人目を 避けるの
今夜こそ 会いに 来て
よるさへや……
波が 寄る 夜を 待つ
Suminoe no (Kokin-shu / Fujiwara no Toshiyuki Ason, Hyakunin Isshu No. 18) Garu JP
In a room where the sound of the waves reaches
I wait for the day to end
By day, among other people's eyes
we pass each other like strangers
When night comes, when I close my eyes
we can meet in a dream
Like waves that reach the shore of Suminoe — even at night,
on the path of dreams, do you still hide from other eyes?
Even on a night when the waves reach the shore
even on the road we travel in dreams
you still avoid the eyes of others
though in a dream, we could meet
I fall asleep, and I am inside a dream
a path of sand along the water's edge
The footprints are only mine
You have not come yet
Each time I hear a wave come in
I listen, thinking it might be your step
Like waves that reach the shore of Suminoe — even at night,
on the path of dreams, do you still hide from other eyes?
Even on a night when the waves reach the shore
even on the road we travel in dreams
you still avoid the eyes of others
though in a dream, we could meet
Morning comes, and the dream is over
By day we are strangers again
But when the sun goes down
the waves come in, and the night comes
Like waves that reach the shore of Suminoe — even at night,
on the path of dreams, do you still hide from other eyes?
Even on a night when the waves reach the shore
even on the road we travel in dreams
you still avoid the eyes of others
Tonight, come and meet me
Even at night...
I wait for the night when the waves come in