For a single night's rest, brief as one joint of a cut reed in Naniwa Bay, must I love you my whole life through, wearing myself away like the channel markers?
Kōkamon-in no Bettō was a lady-in-waiting who served Kōkamon-in Seishi (Kiyoko), empress of Emperor Sutoku, and a poet of the late Heian period, the latter half of the twelfth century. Her dates of birth and death are unknown. This poem was composed on the set topic "Love at a Lodging on a Journey" and is included in the Senzai Wakashū, Love III 807. Naniwa Bay (the inlet of Osaka Bay) was famed for its reeds and was also a harbor where miotsukushi (channel markers guiding boats into port) stood. With "karine" (cut reed root / a brief sleep), "hitoyo" (one joint of reed / one night) and "miotsukushi" (channel marker / wearing oneself out), it weaves three puns and their associated words into thirty-one syllables—the very essence of Heian poetic craft. The anthology's compiler was Fujiwara no Shunzei, in an age when the memory of Sutoku's tragedy (the Hōgen Rebellion and his exile to Sanuki) was still raw.
"For the sake of a single night's brief sleep, short as one joint of a cut reed of Naniwa Bay, must I wear myself out like a channel marker and go on loving for the rest of my days?" No answer is written. The poem ends with the question "must I go on loving?" still hanging. It is a topic poem and not necessarily lived experience, but in the setting of a single night at a lodging on a journey, a lady of rank entrusted both the fear and the sweetness of the fact that "a single night can change a whole life." The abundance of technique is also an abundance of feeling.
Kaoru's request was "a woman's poem that evokes a small journey." This poem's "brief sleep = one night on a journey" fit perfectly. In the lyrics, at an inn in an unfamiliar port town after seeing off the last boat, she simply talks late into the night with a fellow traveler who shared her table—never even asking for contact details, and back to everyday life by Monday morning. And yet she is still carrying the scent of the tide. What Kaoru and Kuroko most wanted to put in was to receive the question the original leaves unanswered, and leave it unanswered ourselves. The final chorus is "It's fine if the answer never comes." Instead, using the true meaning of "miotsukushi"—the marker that guides boats along the channel—we turned the pain of one night from a loss into "a marker for setting out on a journey again." In the Bridge we sing that at an inn a thousand years ago someone sang the same question, and that voice is still waiting for a reply. "The scent of the tide is still in my hair" was changed to "I'm still carrying the scent of the tide" for the sake of the vocal, but as it turned out that created the contrast between "the person you search for / the scent you carry." Chance, too, is part of the journey.
難波江の（千載集/皇嘉門院別当・百人一首88番）Garu JP
最終の船を 見送って
知らない港に 灯がともる
一晩だけの 宿の窓
波の音だけ 聞こえてくる
宿の食堂で 相席したひと
旅の話で 夜がふけた
難波江の 蘆のかりねの
ひとよゆゑ 眠れずにいる
たった一夜の 語らいなのに
波の音より 声が残る
これが恋なら どうしよう
月曜の朝の 改札口
いつもの日々に 戻ったのに
似た後ろ姿 探してしまう
潮の香りを まだ連れている
連絡先も 聞かないままで
名前ひとつが 胸に灯る
難波江の 蘆のかりねの
ひとよゆゑ みをつくしてや
身を尽くすほど 焦がれるなんて
ばかみたいねと 笑ってみても
目を閉じれば あの港にいる
千年前の 港の宿で
同じ痛みを 歌ったひとがいた
「恋ひわたるべき？」 問いかけた声は
まだ答えを 待っている
難波江の 蘆のかりねの ひとよゆゑ
みをつくしてや 恋ひわたるべき
難波江の 蘆のかりねの
ひとよゆゑ 恋ひわたるべき
答えはきっと 出ないままでいい
この痛みは 澪標
また旅に出る 目印になる
みをつくしてや……
恋ひわたるべき
Naniwae no (Senzai-shu / Kokamon'in no Betto, Hyakunin Isshu No. 88) Garu JP
I watched the last ferry leave without me
Lights come on in a harbor town I don't know
At the window of my one-night inn
Only the sound of waves drifts in
A stranger shared my table at the inn
We talked of our travels deep into the night
Like reeds cut short in Naniwa Bay
One brief night, and now I cannot sleep
It was only one evening of talking
Yet that voice lingers louder than the waves
If this is love, what do I do
Monday morning at the ticket gate
Back to my ordinary days again
Still I catch myself searching for a familiar back
Still carrying the scent of the sea with me
I never even asked how to reach you
Just one name glows inside my chest
Like reeds cut short in Naniwa Bay
One brief night — must I wear my heart away
Yearning enough to burn myself out
"How silly of me," I try to laugh
But when I close my eyes, I'm in that harbor
At a harbor inn a thousand years ago
Someone sang this very same ache
"Must I love on forever?" — that questioning voice
Is still waiting for an answer
For one night, brief as a reed's node in Naniwa Bay
Must I wear my heart away, loving on and on
Like reeds cut short in Naniwa Bay
One brief night — must I love on forever
The answer can stay unanswered
This ache is my channel marker
A sign that will guide me to travel again
Wearing my heart away...
Loving on and on