歌詞

Mukashi, mukashi…

Every kindness has an echo

Every cruelty does too

In a village beneath the cedar moon

I sang by the window of a paper room

A gentle old man held rice in his hand

And I thought I had found a place to land

But hunger led me to a bowl one day

Cold scissors flashed and stole my song away

I flew through the bamboo, wounded by the night

With a silent little heart still burning bright

You can cut the sound

You can close the door

But the truth remembers

What the silence is for

Give my voice back, give my name back

Every word you cut will find its way back

I hid my heart in the smaller box—

No hand can own what kindness unlocks

Under the moon, the sparrows take flight

Carrying dawn through the darkest night

Mukashi, mukashi, the old bells say:

What you give to the world will return one day

The old man followed one feather through the snow

Past the sleeping pines where the cold winds blow

At the sparrows’ inn, we danced until dawn

For the one gentle soul who had done us no wrong

Two woven boxes waited by the gate—

One small and light, one heavy with fate

He chose the little one and bowed his head;

Inside, a thousand golden flowers spread

A heart without greed

Needs no grand reward

The smallest gift

Can hold an endless world

Give my voice back, give my name back

Every word you cut will find its way back

I hid my heart in the smaller box—

No hand can own what kindness unlocks

Under the moon, the sparrows take flight

Carrying dawn through the darkest night

Mukashi, mukashi, the old bells say:

What you give to the world will return one day

Then greed came walking through the bamboo trees

Demanding treasure, falling to its knees

She took the largest box and broke the thread—

Every shadow in her heart raised up its head

It was never a story of silver or gold

But the weight of the kindness—or cruelty—we hold

What we place in another soul

Will wait for us when the night unfolds

I found my voice, I reclaimed my name

Now every silent bird is singing the same

We kept our hope in the smaller box—

A light that hatred never stops

Over the mountains, the sparrows take flight

Ten thousand wings in the morning light

Mukashi, mukashi, hear Japan say:

What you give to the world will return one day

Choose the smaller box

Choose the gentler heart

Mukashi, mukashi…

This is where our story starts