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- Kagero Nikki
Yo no naka ni aru waga mi ka wa wabinureba sarani ayame mo shirarezarikeri
Am I one who lives in the world at all? Being so wretched, I can no longer tell one thing from another — nor sweet flag from anything else.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Samushiro no shita matsu koto mo taenureba okamu kata dani naki zo kanashiki
Even the waiting I did in secret beneath the matting is over now; and there is not so much as a place to set it down.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Asamashi ya nodoka ni tanomu toko no ue o uchikaeshikeru nami no kokoro yo
How astonishing that a wave should turn clean over the bed I trusted to lie quiet. What a heart that wave must have.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Kakete dani omoi ya wa seshi yama fukaku iriai no kane ni ne o soemu to wa
Did I ever once so much as imagine it — that deep in the hills I should add a voice of my own to the evening bell?
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Iu yori mo kiku zo kanashiki shikishima no yo ni furusato no hito ya mo ni nari
Sadder than the one who speaks is the one who hears. And what has become of her, grown old in this world, the woman of that old home?
Mi o sutete uki o mo shiranu tabi dani mo yamaji ni mo fukaku omoi koso ire
Even on a journey made in self-abandonment, by one who knows nothing of the hardship, the thoughts go in as deep as the mountain road.
Omoiizuru toki zo kanashiki okuyama no ko no shita tsuyu no itodo shigeki ni
It is the remembering that grieves us, here where the dew beneath the trees of the deep hills falls thicker and ever thicker.
Yo no naka no yo no naka naraba natsukusa no shigeki yamabe mo tazunezaramashi
If the world were still the world a world should be, I should never have come seeking you in hills where the summer grasses grow thick.
Yo no naka wa omoi no hoka ni narutaki no fukaki yamaji o tare shirasekemu
The world turns out other than one looked for — turns to Narutaki; and who was it that told you of so deep a mountain road?
Mono omoi no fukasa kurabe ni kite mireba natsu no shigeri mo mono naranaku ni
I came to match the depth of my own brooding against it; and see — even the summer's thickest growth is nothing beside it.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Mi hitotsu no kaku naru taki o tazunureba sara ni kaeranu mizu mo sumikeri
Seeking out the fall my one self has come to, I find that the water which never returns runs clear here, and dwells here too.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Toyama dani kakarikeru o to shirakumo no fukaki kokoro wa shiru mo shiranu mo
Even the near hills, I thought, had cloud lying on them; and as for the deep heart of the white cloud — those who know it, and those who do not.
Imosegawa mukashi nagara no naka naraba hito no yukiki no kage wa mitemashi
If we were still what we were in the old days, like the river between Imo and Se, I might at least have watched the shapes of people going and coming.
Yoshi ya mi no asemu nageki wa imoseyama naka yuku mizu no na mo kawarikeri
Let it go, then, this grief that I should fade away. The water running between Imo and Se — even its name has changed by now.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Ue shita ni kogaruru koto o tazunureba mune no hoka ni wa ubune narikeri
Searching for what else burns, and moves up and down the river as I do, I find that besides my own breast there are the cormorant boats.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Sode hizuru toki o dani koso nagekishika mi sae shigure no furi mo yuku kana
It was grief enough, those hours when my sleeves were wet; and now my very body, like the cold rain, goes on falling and growing old.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna