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- Shin Kokin Wakashu
Ima wa ware matsu no hashira no sugi no io ni tozubeki mono o koke fukaki sode
Now I ought to shut myself away in a cedar hut with pillars of pine—I, whose sleeves are deep with moss.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Princess Shokushi
Shikimi tsumu yamaji no tsuyu ni nurenikeri akatsuki oki no sumizome no sode
Gathering star-anise on the mountain path before dawn, I find them soaked with dew—the sleeves of my ink-black robe.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Kojiju
Wasureji no hito dani towanu yamaji kana sakura wa yuki ni furikawaredomo
Not even the one who swore never to forget comes up this mountain path—though the falling cherry blossoms have long since turned to falling snow.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Yoshitsune
Kage yadosu tsuyu nomi shigeku narihatete kusa ni yatsururu furusato no tsuki
Only the dew that holds its light has grown thick everywhere, until the moon of the old village looks shabby among the grasses.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Asukai Masatsune
Keburi taete yaku hito mo naki sumigama no ato no nageki o tare ka koruran
The smoke has ceased and no one is left to fire the charcoal kiln—who now will cut the logs of grief left behind?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Kamo no Shigeyasu
Yasoji amari nishi no mukae o machikanete sumiarashitaru shiba no iori zo
Past eighty now, waiting and waiting for the welcome from the Western Paradise, I have let this brushwood hut fall to ruin.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Sainichi
Yamazato ni toikuru hito no kotogusa wa kono sumai koso urayamashikere
The words ever on the lips of those who visit my mountain village are always the same: "How I envy you such a dwelling."
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Jien
Ono no e no kuchishi mukashi wa tōkeredo arishi ni mo aranu yo o mo furu kana
The old tale of the axe handle that rotted away is far in the past—yet I, too, live on in a world utterly changed from what it was.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Princess Shokushi
Ika ni sen shizu ga sonou no oku no take kakikomoru tomo yo no naka zo kashi
What am I to do? Though I shut myself away like the bamboo at the back of a humble garden, it is still the world—as bamboo is still made of joints.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Shunzei
Akekure wa mukashi o nomi zo shinobugusa hazue no tsuyu ni sode nurashitsutsu
Morning and evening I long only for the past, like the fern of longing, wetting my sleeves again and again with the dew on its leaf tips.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Hafuribe no Narinaka
Oka no be no sato no aruji o tazunureba hito wa kotaezu yamaoroshi no kaze
When I seek out the master of the village by the hill, no one answers—only the wind blowing down from the mountain.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Jien
Furuhata no soba no tatsu ki ni iru hato no tomo yobu koe no sugoki yūgure
A dove perched in a tree on the cliff by an abandoned field calls to its companion—how desolate the evening is.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Saigyō
Yamagatsu no kataoka kakete shimuru no no sakai ni tateru tama no oyanagi
At the border of the field a mountain peasant has staked out along the slope of the hill stands a willow, its slender branches hanging like threads strung with jewels.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Saigyō
Shigeki no o iku hitomura ni wakenashite sara ni mukashi o shinobikaesan
I will part the overgrown field into clumps, and once more call back to mind the days of long ago.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Saigyō
Mukashi mishi niwa no komatsu ni toshi furite arashi no oto o kozue ni zo kiku
The little pine in the garden I once saw has grown old with the years, and now I hear the roar of the storm in its high branches.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Saigyō
Suminareshi waga furusato wa kono goro ya asaji ga hara ni uzura nakuran
My old home, where I lived so long—these days, I wonder, has it become a field of low reeds where quail cry?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Gyōson