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- Gosen Wakashu
Kurete mata asu to dani naki haru no hi o hana no kage nite kyō wa kurasamu
This spring day has no tomorrow once it ends, so today I will spend it in the shade of the flowers.
Gosen Wakashu - Oshikochi no Mitsune
Mata mo komu toki zo to omoedo tanomarenu waga mi ni shi areba oshiki haru kana
I know the spring will come again, yet I cannot count on living to see it—and so how I regret this passing spring.
Gosen Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Kyō yori wa natsu no koromo ni narinuredo kiru hito sae wa kawarazari keri
From today we have changed into summer robes, yet the one who wears them has not changed at all.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
U no hana no sakeru kakine no tsuki kiyomi inezu kike to ya naku hototogisu
The moon shines so clear over the hedge where the deutzia blooms—is the cuckoo telling me not to sleep, but to listen, as it sings?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hototogisu kiiru kakine wa chika nagara machidō ni nomi koe no kikoenu
The hedge where the cuckoo comes to perch is close at hand, and yet I only wait and wait, and its voice never reaches me.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hototogisu koe matsu hodo wa tōkarade shinobi ni naku o kikanu naruran
The time you wait for the cuckoo's voice is not so long—it sings in secret, softly, and it must be you who do not hear.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Urameshiki kimi ga kakine no u no hana wa ushi to mitsutsu mo nao tanomu kana
The deutzia at the hedge of you, whom I resent—though I see sorrow in them, as their name suggests, I still go on trusting you.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Uki mono to omoishirinaba u no hana no sakeru kakine mo tazunezaramashi
If you truly knew it to be a thing of sorrow, you would never come seeking the hedge where the deutzia blooms.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Toki wakazu fureru yuki ka to miru made ni kakine mo tawa ni sakeru u no hana
So thickly do the deutzia bloom that the hedge bends beneath them, as if snow had fallen heedless of the season.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Shirotae ni niou kakine no u no hana no uku mo kite tou hito no naki kana
White and gleaming bloom the deutzia on my hedge—and sorrowful, as their name suggests, there is no one who comes to visit me.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Toki wakazu tsuki ka yuki ka to miru made ni kakine no mama ni sakeru u no hana
Heedless of the season, the deutzia bloom all along the hedge, so that I wonder whether it is moonlight or snow.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nakiwabinu izuchi ka yukan hototogisu nao u no hana no kage wa hanareji
I am worn out with singing—where shall I go now, little cuckoo? Yet I will never leave the shade of the deutzia.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Aimishi mo mada minu koi mo hototogisu tsuki ni naku yo zo yo ni nizari keru
Whether a love already met or a love not yet met, a night when the cuckoo sings beneath the moon is like nothing else in this world.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ari to nomi otowa no yama no hototogisu kiki ni kikoete awazu mo aru kana
Like the cuckoo of Mount Otowa, known only by the rumor that it is there, I hear and hear of you, yet we never meet.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kogakurete satsuki matsu tomo hototogisu hane narawashi ni edautsuri seyo
Even if you hide among the trees to wait for the Fifth Month, little cuckoo, flit from branch to branch, as if to practice your wings.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Iisomeshi mukashi no yado no kakitsubata iro bakari koso katami narikere
The iris at the house of old, where first I told you of my love—only its color remains now as a keepsake.
Gosen Wakashu - Yoshimine no Yoshikata