- Top
- -
- Sarashina Nikki
Kuchimosenu konokawabashira nokorazuwa mukashinoatoo ikadeshiramashi
Had these pillars not stayed standing in the water, unrotted through all those years, how could I ever have known that a house once stood here?
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Madoromaji koyoinaradewa itsukamimu kurotonohamano akinoyonotsuki
I will not let myself drift into sleep. If not tonight, when will I ever see it again—this autumn moon over the shore of Kuroto?
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Arashikoso fukikizarikere miyajiyama madamomijibano chiradenokoreru
No storm has come blowing across Mount Miyaji, it seems—for the maple leaves are still here, not yet fallen.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Tanomeshio naoyamatsubeki shimogareshi umeomoharuwa wasurezarikeri
You told me to trust you—must I go on waiting even now? Spring did not forget the plum, though the frost had withered it.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Naotanome umenotachiewa chigiriokanu omoinohokano hitomotounari
Keep trusting, and wait. They say that where the plum lifts its high branches, even one who promised nothing, one you never looked for, will come.
Chiruhanamo matakomuharuwa momoyasemu yagatewakareshi hitozokoishiki
The falling blossoms I may yet see again when spring comes round. It is the one I parted from, and never saw again, whom I long for.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Toribeyama taninikemurino moetataba hakanakumieshi waretoshiranamu
If smoke should rise from the valley of Toribeyama, know that it is I—the one who seemed so frail to you.
Tokinarazu furuyukikatozo nagamemashi hanatachibanano kaorazariseba
I would have taken it for snow out of season, had the orange blossom not been giving off its scent.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Izukonimo otorajimonoo wagayadono yooakihatsuru keshikibakariwa
Surely it yields to nowhere—this garden of mine, in the sight of autumn coming to its end, a sight I never tire of.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Sakutomachi chirinutonageku haruwatada wagayadogaoni hanaomirukana
All through the spring, waiting for them to open and grieving when they fall, I look at these blossoms as though the garden were my own.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Akazarishi yadonosakurao harukurete chirigatanishimo hitomemishikana
That cherry at the house I could never see enough of—only as the spring was closing, only as the petals fell, did I catch a single glimpse of it.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Chigirikemu mukashinokyōno yukashisani amanokawanami uchiidetsurukana
Longing to know that day long ago, this same day, on which they are said to have made their vow, I have let my words break out like waves on the River of Heaven.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Tachiizuru amanokawaberano yukashisani tsunewayuyushiki kotomowasurenu
The banks of the River of Heaven, where the two come forth to meet, draw me too; and so I have forgotten what I always held to be ill-omened.
Fuenoneno tadaakikazeto kikoyuruni nadooginohano soyotokotaenu
The flute sounded for all the world like the autumn wind itself—so why did the reeds not stir even once in answer?
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Oginohano kotaurumademo fukiyorade tadanisuginuru fuenonezouki
He would not blow his way near enough for the reeds to answer, but simply passed on—it is that flute's going that I find hard to bear.
Nioikuru tonarinokazeo minishimete arishinokibano umezokoishiki
The wind from the house opposite comes carrying its scent, and it sinks into me, and I long for the plum that stood at the eaves of the house we had before.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume