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Hyakunin Isshu No. 84 · Fujiwara no KiyosukeNagaraeba

“Someday, Even This Night” — Fujiwara no KiyosukeSource: Shin Kokinshū, Miscellaneous II · 1843
長らへば またこのごろや しのばれむ
憂しと見し世ぞ 今は恋しき
Nagaraeba mata konogoro ya shinobaren
ushi to mishi yo zo ima wa koishiki
If I live long, will I look back on even these days with longing?
The world I once saw as misery is now what I miss.
Hyakunin IsshuShin Kokin WakashūMiscellaneousImpermanenceNostalgia
Nagaraeba jacket art▶

What the poem says

If I live on, will I someday look back fondly on even these painful days? For the days I once found so hard now seem dear to me.

Music Video

ミュージックビデオ

The Story

歌のものがたり

Historical Background

The poet, Fujiwara no Kiyosuke, was a leading scholar-poet of the late Heian period. He wrote the poetic treatises Fukuro Zōshi and Ōgishō and was regarded as the foremost authority of his day on the theory of waka. Yet his life was long unrewarded. A serious rift with his own father, Fujiwara no Akisuke, left him blessed with neither court rank nor standing in the poetic world, and he spent years in obscurity. Only in his later years did he finally win the favor of Emperor Nijō and see the light of day. "The world I once saw as bitter is now dear to me"—days that had seemed nothing but painful are now missed. These are words that only Kiyosuke, who actually lived through those years of misfortune, could have written: a poem carrying the weight of lived experience.

The Poet's Heart

A poem of hard-won feeling from a poet who endured long years of misfortune through the rift with his father Akisuke, and saw the light only in old age. "The days I thought were painful are now dear to me"—then surely this painful present, too, will one day be dear. His own memory has become proof of hope for the future. Not despair, but a song of hope with solid grounds.

What We Put into the Lyrics

The core of this poem is "the magic of time." A past that was so painful is now something to miss. Then this painful present, too, will surely become dear in the future. Kiyosuke's hope has a basis. His own memory guarantees the future. In the lyrics we layered this structure onto a modern night, going home on the last train. Someone who "somehow survived another day" suddenly remembers that even the nights they cried so hard have now become stories to laugh about. So the chorus sings: "Yesterday is the proof." This hope is not a matter of grit. Your own past is what encourages you. And what we most wanted to convey is this line in the Bridge: "That there were nights you wanted to disappear, and that you didn't disappear—that is already courage." Even without accomplishing anything special, simply having survived is already courage—the baton we received from Kiyosuke a thousand years ago, we pass tonight to you, swaying on a last train somewhere.

Lyrics

歌詞
Japanese

ながらへば（新古今和歌集・百人一首84番）Garu JP

Verse 1

終電の窓に 映る顔

今日もどうにか 生き延びた

「何のため」なんて 聞かないで

答えは今も 探してる

Pre-Chorus

でも思い出して あの日々を

あんなに泣いた夜も 今は笑い話

Chorus 1

ながらへば また このごろや

しのばれむ いつかきっと

つらいだけの この日々さえも

恋しくなる日が 来るから

昨日がそれを 証明してる

Verse 2

あの頃は世界の 終わりだった

なくした恋も 眠れない夜も

なのに今では 宝物みたいに

笑って話してる 不思議だね

Pre-Chorus 2

つらさの数だけ 未来の自分が

「懐かしいね」って 迎えに来る

Chorus 2

ながらへば また このごろや

しのばれむ 今日の涙も

この痛みは 光に変わる

変わらなかった夜は ないから

明日がそれを 待っている

Bridge

消えたい夜が あったこと

それでも消えなかったこと

それがもう 勇気なんだ

明日の自分が 知っている

Drop

ながらへば またこのごろや しのばれむ

憂しと見しよぞ 今は恋しき

Final Chorus

ながらへば また このごろや

しのばれむ だから行こう

憂しと見る この世界が

恋しい世界に 変わるまで

その日まで 生きていこう

Outro

憂しと見しよぞ……

今は 恋しき

English

Nagaraheba (Shin Kokin Wakashu / Hyakunin Isshu No.84) Garu JP

My face reflected in the last train's window

Somehow I survived another day

Don't ask me "what is it all for"

I'm still searching for the answer

But remember those days

The nights we cried so hard are now a funny story

If I live on, someday

I will look back on these days with love

Even these days of nothing but pain

Because the day will come when I miss them

Yesterday is the proof of that

Back then it felt like the end of the world

The love I lost, the sleepless nights

Yet now, like little treasures

I talk about them with a smile — strange, isn't it

For every hardship, a future me

Comes to greet me saying "those were the days"

If I live on, someday

I will miss even today's tears

This pain will turn into light

Because no night has ever stayed the same

Tomorrow is waiting to prove it

That there were nights I wanted to disappear

And that I never did disappear

That alone is already courage

Tomorrow's me knows it

If I live on, I may yet long for these days

The days I saw as misery — now they are dear to me

If I live on, someday

I will miss these days — so let's go on

Until this world I see as misery

Turns into a world I long for

Until that day, let's keep on living

The days I saw as misery......

Now, how dear they are

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