I tried to hide it, but my love showed on my face all the same — so much that people asked me, 'Is something troubling you?'
Mid-Heian period, the 4th year of Tentoku (960): the palace poetry contest held before Emperor Murakami. In the final round of the greatest contest in the history of uta-awase (poetry matches), on the topic "hidden love," this poem clashed with Mibu no Tadami's "Koi su chō" — and it is the legendary winning poem. Tradition says that the judge could not decide between them, and the match was settled when the emperor quietly hummed this poem to himself.
This is a "daiei" — a poem composed on an assigned topic — not an actual confession of love. And yet: "I tried to hide it, but it showed in my face — so much that people ask me whether I am lost in thoughts of love." The truth of the moment when the effort to conceal is defeated by overflowing feeling has kept drawing sympathy for a thousand years. A poem in which something real seeped into an artificial form.
We moved the original poem — a love that shows on your face no matter how you hide it — into a modern film studio. The role in the script is, of all things, "hidden love," and the co-star is the very person you are actually in love with — a setup in which the acting meant to hide it becomes, in front of the camera, the greatest confession of all. And at the ending, we take one step beyond the original. Rather than waiting "until people ask," she goes and says it herself before she is asked — we rewrote the passive love of a thousand years ago as the active love of today.
台本に書かれた 役は「忍ぶ恋」
よりによって 相手役は君で
「アクション」の声で 世界が始まる
隠すことなら 得意なはずだった
「今のワンカット 最高だった」と
褒められたけど 演じきれなかった
忍ぶれど 色に出でにけり
わが恋は 隠しきれず
隠すための 演技のはずが
いちばんの告白に なってしまう
心より先に 瞳が白状する
カメラは嘘を 見逃さない
いにしえの夜の 蝋燭の下
同じ想いを 隠す人がいた
お題は「忍ぶ恋」 差し出す一首
なぜかその声は 震えていた
ざわめきの中 誰も知らない
お題を借りた 本当の恋
忍ぶれど 色に出でにけり
わが恋は 顔に出ていた
問われるたびに 嘘が下手になる
「なんでもない」と 言うその声が
いちばん雄弁 だったらしい
いつの時代も 恋は隠せない
忍ぶれど 色に出でにけり わが恋は
物や思ふと 人の問ふまで
演じても 隠しても あふれるものは
昔も今も 変わらずにある
歌に忍ばせた人も 役に忍ばせる僕も
同じ痛みを 抱えている
忍ぶれど 色に出でにけり
わが恋は もう隠さない
どうせ表情に 出てしまうなら
言葉くらいは 自分で言うよ
クランクアップの 拍手の後
二人きりの スタジオで
「話がある」と 君を呼び止めて——
人の問ふまで……
——問われる前に 言いに行く
The script says the role is "hidden love"
And of all people, my co-star is you
"Action" — and the world begins
Hiding should have been my specialty
"That take was perfect," they say
But I couldn't finish the performance
I tried to hide, yet it shows on my face
My love could not be concealed
An act meant to hide it
Turned into my clearest confession
Before my heart, my eyes gave me away
The camera never misses the lie
On an ancient night, under candle flame
Someone else was hiding the same feeling
The topic was "hidden love" — one waka offered
And somehow that voice was trembling
In the murmur of the room, no one knew
The real love, hidden under the topic
I tried to hide, yet it shows on my face
My love was written on my face
Each time they asked, I lied worse
"It's nothing," I said, and that voice
Was the most eloquent thing of all
In every age, love can't be hidden
I tried to hide, yet it shows on my face — my love
Until people asked, "Are you in love?"
Even acted, even hidden, what overflows
Was the same then, is the same now
The one who hid it in a poem, the one hiding it in a role
Both carry the same ache
I tried to hide, yet it shows on my face
My love — I won't hide it anymore
If it's going to show on my face anyway
At least I'll say the words myself
After the wrap party's applause
In the studio, just the two of us
"There's something I need to tell you" — I'll stop you and say —
Until people ask...
— but I'll go say it before they ask