This song is my tribute to "Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso" - the anime that once taught me music has colours, and made me fall even deeper in love with it. Written from Kaori's point of view, for anyone who has ever heard someone before they saw them.

聴こえる

聴こえる

I heard you play before I saw your face

Your sound bled silver through the winter air

A grey so heavy it forgot its grace

But underneath - a gold you didn't dare

They said you stopped - they said the sound went still

I heard it differently - I heard it bleed

A white so hollow it could make you ill

The kind of silence only sound can fill

So I picked up my bow

Let it catch that glow

Played the warmest shade of amber I could find

Like the colour of the light

Just before the night

Bleeds into something you can't leave behind

君の名前を知る前から

Before you knew my name - I already knew your sound

The way it faded into grey before it touched the ground

You were the melody bleeding gold then letting go

君の名前を知る前から

Before you knew my name

I lied a little - played it like a game

But every note I pulled was crimson red

The kind that doesn't cool, the kind that stays

Long after all the pretty things have fled

I knew the ending - yes, I always knew

That April turns to ash, to ivory, to blue

But love like this bleeds through every shade

It doesn't wait for colours that won't fade

So I picked up my bow

Let the trembling show

Played the one last colour I had left in me

Not afraid of the white

Of the fading light

If it fades into you - that's enough for me

君の名前を知る前から

Before you knew my name - I already knew your sound

The way it faded into grey before it touched the ground

You were the melody bleeding gold then letting go

君の名前を知る前から

Before you knew my name

Don't mourn the crimson - it was always meant to run

Don't mourn the gold - it spent itself becoming sun

Every colour that I heard in you

Was worth the bleeding through

Some songs go white before they're done

Some loves burn amber into dawn

But I would rather flame in every shade

Than never have been played

君の名前を知る前から

Before you knew my name - you heard me fade to white

Before the last note, in the colourless last light

I leave you with the gold I couldn't keep

君の名前を知る前から

Before you knew my name