Story Behind The Song

Story derived from a Japanese Buddhist writing by Nichiren Daishonin, which is why the title remains in Japanese. Original writing compares human beings to this Kankucho Bird. (Kankucho means shivering)

Song Description

moral analogy of procrastination

Lyrics

Deep in the snow mountains, crying tonight
A bird in the branch is waiting for the first sign of light
His feathers cannot shield him from the biting of the wind
The night allows no rest, there's no nest to hide in.

And he cries and he shivers
And this promise he delivers:
In the morning, I'm gonna build my shelter, my home.

Oh, how his bellows bother the flock in the tree
And so in the daylight gathers a nesting party.
But sun has warmed his body and he's finally sleeping
Till the twighlight hours when again he starts his weeping.

And he cries and he shivers,
And this promise he delivers:
In the morning, I'm gonna build my shelter, my home.
In the morning, I'm gonna build my shelter, my home.

And so it went on, for day upon day.
The flock had grown tired and moved on their way.
Each day's opportunity missed his blind eye
Till a wasted lifetime had come and gone by.

One day at last he tried to take to the sky
In search of leaves and twigs and needles
For his home in the pines.
But all the years of lying still on fragile, weakened wings
Made him tumble to the ground and die among the evergreens.

And there he cried and he shivered
And regretfully delivered:
This was gonna be the day I made my home.
This was gonna be the day I made my home.
Yeah, I guess I finally made myself my home.