- Top
- -
- Yamato Monogatari
Wakaruredo aimo oshimanu momoshiki o mizaramu koto no nanika kanashiki
I am the one who leaves, and the palace does not grieve to part with me. Yet the thought that I shall never look upon it again is somehow more than I can bear.
Mi hitotsu ni aranu bakari o oshinabete yukimegurite mo nadoka mizaramu
You are not the only one who must go. All of us alike will move on and circle round, and in the end, why should we not see this place again?
Furusato no tabine no yume ni mietsuru wa urami ya suramu mata to towaneba
Are the people of the capital appearing in my dreams on the road because they hold it against me? I have never once gone back to see them since.
Chiji no iro ni isogishi aki wa suginikeri ima wa shigure ni nani o somemashi
The autumn we spent in such a rush, dyeing everything a thousand colours, has gone. Now the cold rains have come, and there is nothing left for me to dye.
Katakake no fune ni ya noreru shiranami no sawagu toki nomi omoiizuru kimi
Are you sailing in a boat with only one sail rigged? You remember me only when the white waves rise and start to break around you.
Aoyagi no ito uchihaete nodokanaru haruhi shimo koso omoiidekere
The willow lets down its long green threads, and it is on a quiet spring day like this one that you come into my mind.
Tamakushige futatose awanu kimi ga mi o ake nagara ya wa aramu to omoishi
Like the lid of a comb box that will not close, two years have passed without our meeting — and who would have thought you would still be in the same scarlet robe?
Wabinureba ima wa to mono o omoedomo kokoro ni ninu wa namida narikeri
I have grieved myself out, and I tell myself that this must be the end of it. Yet the one thing that will not do as my heart tells it are these tears.
Tagueyaru waga tamashii o ikani shite hakanaki sora ni mote hanaruramu
I have sent my soul to go with you. How could it ever be pulled away from you and left adrift in that empty sky?
Au koto wa ima wa kagiri to omoedomo namida wa taenu mono ni zo arikeru
I tell myself that we shall not meet again, that this is the end of it. And still the tears turn out to be a thing that does not end.
Au koto no kata wa sanomi zo futagaramu hitoyo meguri no kimi to omoeba
Of course the way to you is always blocked — when I think of you as that god who moves to a new place every single night.
Ōsawa no ike no mizukuki taenu tomo nanika uramimu saga no tsurasa wa
Even if the water-weed stems of the Ōsawa pond should break off, why would I hold it against Saga for being cold — or against you, for being made as you are?
Ōkata no aki no hate dani kanashiki ni kyō wa ikadeka kimi kurasuramu
The end of an ordinary autumn is sad enough. How, then, are you getting through this day of all days?
Araba koso hajime mo hate mo omooeme kyō ni mo awade kienishi mono o
If he were living, beginnings and endings might mean something to me. But he went out like a light without ever reaching this day.
Furusato o kawa to mitsutsu mo wataru kana fuchise ari to wa mube mo iikeri
Is that my old house over there? I cross the river, watching it as I go. Deep pools become shallows — how right the old saying was.
Suminoe no matsu naranaku ni hisashiku mo kimi to nenu yo no narinikeru kana
I am no ancient pine of Suminoe, and still the run of nights without you at my side has grown very long indeed.