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- Shika Wakashu
Imasara ni onoga sumika o tataji tote konoha no shita ni oshi zo nakunaru
As if resolved, even now, not to fly away from its home, a mandarin duck seems to be calling from beneath the fallen leaves that cover the water.
Kaze fukeba nara no uraba no soyosoyo to iiawasetsutsu izuchi chiruramu
When the wind blows, the oak leaves rustle on their undersides, “so it is, so it is,” as if agreeing among themselves; where, I wonder, are they all scattering to?
Toyama naru shiba no tachie ni fuku kaze no oto kiku ori zo fuyu wa monouki
It is when I hear the wind blowing through the tall bare boughs of brushwood on the hills near the village that winter feels most dreary.
Shika Wakashu - Sone no Yoshitada
Aki wa nao ko no shitakage mo kurakariki tsuki wa fuyu koso mirubekarikere
In autumn, after all, even the shade beneath the trees was dark; the moon, it turns out, is best viewed in winter.
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Morotomo ni yamameguri suru shigure kana furu ni kai naki mi to wa shirazu ya
These winter showers go round the hills along with me. Do they not know that mine is a life in which there is no use in falling, no worth in living on?
Shika Wakashu - Fujiwara no Michimasa
Iori sasu nara no kokage ni moru tsuki no kumoru to mireba shigure furu nari
I have built a rough hut in the shade of an oak, and the moonlight filters through its leaves; when I see that light grow dim, I know the winter showers are falling.
Miyama ni wa arashi ya itaku fukinuramu ajiro mo tawa ni momiji tsumoreri
Deep in the mountains the storm must have raged fiercely, for here the fish weir sags beneath the crimson leaves piled upon it.
Shika Wakashu - Taira no Kanemori
Arare furu katano no mino no karigoromo nurenu yado kasu hito shi nakereba
Hail falls on the royal hunting grounds of Katano, and my hunting cloak is drenched, for there is no one to lend me shelter where I might keep dry.
Shika Wakashu - Fujiwara no Nagato
Yama fukami yaku sumigama no keburi koso yagate yukige no kumo to narikere
So deep are these mountains that the smoke rising from the charcoal kilns becomes, just as it is, the clouds that herald snow.
Shika Wakashu - Oe no Masafusa
Toshi o hete yoshino no yama ni minaretaru me ni mezurashiki kesa no hatsuyuki
Even to eyes grown used, over many years, to the snows of the Yoshino mountains, this morning’s first snowfall is a rare and wondrous sight.
Higurashi ni yamaji no kinō shigureshi wa fuji no takane no yuki ni zo arikeru
The showers that fell on me all day yesterday along the mountain road were, high on the peak of Fuji, falling as snow.
Shika Wakashu - Ōe no Yoshitoki
Okuyama no iwakaki momiji chirihatete kuchiba ga ue ni yuki zo tsumoreru
Deep in the mountains the maples that ringed the rocks like a hedge have shed every leaf, and now snow lies piled upon those rotting leaves.
Shika Wakashu - Oe no Masafusa
Kurenai ni mieshi kozue mo yuki fureba shirayū kakuru kaminabi no mori
The treetops that once glowed crimson, now that snow has fallen, seem hung with white sacred cloth in the holy wood of Kaminabi.
Shika Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tadamichi
Matsu hito no ima mo kitaraba ikaga semu fumamaku oshiki niwa no yuki kana
If the one I am waiting for should come this very moment, what shall I do? How I would hate to see it trampled, this snow lying in my garden.
Shika Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Kazu naranu mi ni sae toshi no tsumoru kana oi wa hito o mo kirawazarikeri
Even upon one as insignificant as I, the years keep piling up. Old age, it turns out, does not shun anyone.
Tama matsuru toshi no owari ni narinikeri kyō ni ya mata mo awamu to suramu
The end of the year has come, when we hold rites for the spirits of the dead. Am I, it seems, to meet this day once more, still among the living?
Shika Wakashu - Sone no Yoshitada