Like waves driven by a fierce wind that shatter alone against the rock, you remain unmoved while I alone am broken with longing.
Minamoto no Shigeyuki (d. c. 1000) was a great-grandson of Emperor Seiwa. His father's generation left the imperial line for the Minamoto clan; Shigeyuki served the future Emperor Reizei as a captain of the crown prince's guard, held provincial posts such as vice-governor of Sagami, and finally followed the governor Fujiwara no Sanekata to the far northern province of Mutsu, where he died. One of the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets, with about sixty-five poems in imperial anthologies, he is credited with the oldest surviving 'hundred-poem sequence', presented to Reizei while still crown prince. This poem is Shika Wakashū, Love I, 211. 'Kaze o itami' means 'because the wind is fierce', and the whole upper verse — 'the wave that strikes the rock' — is a preface leading to 'it alone breaks'. Driven by a violent wind, the wave crashes against the rock and shatters; the rock does not move. The rock is the one whose heart will not move; the wave is the poet. Inpumon'in no Taifu later took another of Shigeyuki's poems as the model for No. 90, 'Misebaya na'.
The rock does not break. Only the wave does. The other does not move at all, and only I shatter — the most unfair thing about unrequited love, that the one who gets hurt is always the same side, laid over the asymmetry of rock and wave. In the single word 'onore nomi' — 'I alone' — there is no resentment toward the other, only the feeling of having nowhere to put oneself. And the wave, having broken, comes back and strikes the rock again. 'These days', he says — 'koro kana' — and that 'these days' is also a confession that he never learns.
What drew Kaoru and Kuroko to this poem was the asymmetry — only the wave breaks — and the way the wave comes back to strike again anyway. The poem is filed under love, but it contains no word of love: wind, rock, wave, breaking, thought. So we made the song for anyone who keeps breaking against someone who does not move — a lover, a boss, a father. A man at the end of a breakwater at night, watching the waves shatter on the rock. The words he sent never come back; the other side wears the same face tonight; in his pocket he clenches the shape of the words he could not say. We chanted the poem's key phrase 'onore nomi' — 'I alone' — as the hook, and kept only one word of feeling in the whole song: 'never learns' — the wave never learns, and neither do I. We never say 'sad'; instead there is a cheek that tastes of salt, and the fact that the only thing changing shape is this side. The bridge holds the song's small discovery: is it because the rock won't break that the wave can go on being a wave? Someone long ago stood on this same shore; tonight he strikes it until morning. That is what we put into this song — set as shoegaze, a wall of fuzz guitars for the waves and a low voice deep in reverb, quiet verses returning again and again to a chorus that breaks.
風をいたみ（詞花集/源重之・百人一首48番）Garu JP
防波堤の先で 風が鳴る
飛沫が顔に 届くまで
送った言葉は 返ってこない
向こうは今夜も 同じ顔
何度ぶつかっても 同じ形
砕けるのは いつもこっち
風をいたみ 岩うつ波の おのれのみ
くだけて物を 思ふころかな
おのれのみ おのれのみ
砕けて また戻る
おのれのみ おのれのみ
波は懲りない 僕も懲りない
ポケットの中で 握りしめた
言えなかった 言葉のかたち
海は暗くて 岩は黙って
白い泡だけ 光ってる
何度砕けても 同じ場所
戻ってくるのは いつもこっち
風をいたみ 岩うつ波の おのれのみ
くだけて物を 思ふころかな
おのれのみ おのれのみ
塩の味の 頬をぬぐって
おのれのみ おのれのみ
形を変えるのは こっちだけ
いにしえの人も 同じ岸で
砕ける波に 自分を見た
岩が砕けないから
波は波で いられるのか
風をいたみ 岩うつ波の おのれのみ
くだけて物を 思ふころかな
おのれのみ おのれのみ
砕けて また戻る
おのれのみ おのれのみ
朝が来るまで 打っている
おのれのみ…… おのれのみ……
Kaze o itami (Shika-shu / Minamoto no Shigeyuki, Hyakunin Isshu No. 48) Garu JP
At the end of the breakwater, the wind is howling
Until the spray reaches my face
The words I sent never come back
The other side wears the same face again tonight
However many times it strikes, the same shape
The one that breaks is always this side
The wind is fierce; the wave that strikes the rock, alone
Breaks apart — and so do I, lost in thought these days
Alone, I alone
Break, and come back again
Alone, I alone
The wave never learns, and neither do I
Clenched in my pocket
The shape of the words I couldn't say
The sea is dark, the rock keeps silent
Only the white foam is shining
However many times it breaks, the same place
The one that comes back is always this side
The wind is fierce; the wave that strikes the rock, alone
Breaks apart — and so do I, lost in thought these days
Alone, I alone
Wiping a cheek that tastes of salt
Alone, I alone
The only one that changes shape is this side
Someone long ago, on this same shore
Saw himself in the breaking wave
Is it because the rock won't break
That the wave can go on being a wave?
The wind is fierce; the wave that strikes the rock, alone
Breaks apart — and so do I, lost in thought these days
Alone, I alone
Break, and come back again
Alone, I alone
Striking the shore until morning comes
Alone... I alone...