P.S. The Lyrics are really good. I’ve found ones that I couldn’t find before. Thanks a lot!

It’s quite interesting how the language can be both having a sense of rules and decorum, yet at the same time can have so many exceptions that made the previous rules useless. Just my 2 cents worth.

It should be:

黄昏, if it were read as an ateji, would be read as “koukon“.

I have slapped myself thoroughly and corrected the mistake. Gah.

That etymology is somewhat reminiscent of the (less poetic) French word “vasistas”, a small panel one can open in a closed door to take a peek outside. This comes from the German phrase “Was ist das?” (what’s that?).

As an aside, doesn’t this makes 黄昏 a special reading (熟字訓) rather than an ateji? (As well as kyou, etc. Another funny one is 五月蝿い urusai). I think ateji are the opposite: kanji used for their phonetic value, notably in non-Asian loanwords before the use of katakana was widespread, but also in words like 寿司 sushi.