In the Middle of the Night
This song is rather sad; a woman, lying awake, hears a group of men, probably drunk, wandering down the road and one of them she recognizes as her lover. Or, more likely, she is waiting for her husband to return and is fearful that he may be very drunk.
13 | Shō no yonaka ni |
In the middle of the night |
Drinking with One’s Lover
This song describes the scene of two lovers getting together and exchanging cups of wine. When drinking in company it is both polite and social to exchange cups of wine as one drinks. The description of the exchange here suggests a double entendre of a man and a maid making love.
This is a hayashi in characteristic free form with lines of varying numbers of syllables but with certain regular repetitions of sound and length (cf. Song 4).
14 | A full cup taken |