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- Shika Wakashu
Kimi ga yo ni abukumagawa no soko kiyomi chitose o hetsutsu sumamu to zo omou
The Abukuma River, whose very name speaks of meeting my lord's reign, runs clear to its bed; so through a thousand years I mean to stay pure as its waters and to dwell on in this reign.
Shika Wakashu - Fujiwara no Michinaga
Mezurashiku kyō tachisomuru tsuru no ko wa chiyo no mutsuki o kasanu beki kana
How wondrous: this child, like a crane chick that today first stands, for whom swaddling clothes are first being cut, will surely layer garment upon garment across a thousand ages.
Shika Wakashu - Ise no Taifu
Sugikinishi hodo o ba sutetsu kotoshi yori chiyo no kazu tsumu Sumiyoshi no matsu
All the years gone by have been cast away uncounted; from this year on, the pine of Sumiyoshi begins anew to heap up the count of a thousand ages.
Shika Wakashu - Onakatomi no Yoshinobu
Kimi ga yo wa shirakumo kakaru Tsukubane no mine no tsuzuki no umi to naru made
May my lord's reign endure until the ridges that run on from Tsukuba's peak, where white clouds hang, have turned into the sea.
Shika Wakashu - Nōin
Sakakiba o te ni torimochite inoritsuru kami no yo yori mo hisashikara namu
We have prayed holding sacred sakaki leaves in our hands; may it endure even longer than the age of the gods.
Shika Wakashu - Akazome Emon
Akade nomi kaeru to omoeba sakurabana oru beki haru zo tsukisezarikeru
Since I always go home unsated by the blossoms, the springs in which to break off cherry boughs will never come to an end.
Shika Wakashu - Nakatsukasa
Matsushima no iso ni mureiru ashitazu no ono ga samazama mieshi chiyo kana
The cranes among the reeds, flocking on the rocky shore of Matsushima, each displayed in its own way a life of a thousand ages.
Shika Wakashu - Kiyohara no Motosuke
Hitotose o kurenu to nani ka oshimu beki tsukisenu chiyo no haru o matsu ni wa
Why should I grieve that one year has drawn to its close, when what I await is the spring of a thousand ages that will never end?
Shika Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kintō
Tare ni to ka ike no kokoro mo omou ramu soko ni yadoreru matsu no chitose wa
For whom, I wonder, does even the heart of the pond believe they are kept, these thousand years of the pine lodged as a reflection in its depths?
Shika Wakashu - Egyō
Kimi ga yo no hisashikaru beki tameshi ni ya kami mo uekemu Sumiyoshi no matsu
Did even the gods plant it, I wonder, as a pattern for how long my lord's reign is to last, this pine of Sumiyoshi?
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Sumiyoshi no arahitogami no hisashisa ni matsu mo ikutabi oikawaru ramu
Over the long ages of Sumiyoshi's living god, how many times, I wonder, have even the pines, emblems of a thousand years, died back and grown anew?
Shika Wakashu - Minamoto no Tsunenobu
Miyako nite obotsukanasa o narawazu wa tabine o ikani omoiyaramashi
Had I not already grown used, here in the capital, to the uneasy feeling of not knowing how you fare, how could I ever imagine what it is like for you to sleep out on the road?
Morotomo ni tatamashi mono o michinoku no koromo no seki o yoso ni kiku kana
I should have set out on that journey together with you, yet now I only hear of the Barrier of Koromo in Michinoku as something that has nothing to do with me.
Shika Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Yorokobi o kuwae ni isogu tabi nareba omoedo e koso todomezarikere
Since this is a journey you hurry on to add still more to your good fortune, I could not bring myself to hold you back, however much I wished to.
Shika Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori
Tomariite matsubeki mi koso oinikere aware wakare wa hito no tame ka wa
It is I, staying behind and bound to wait for your return, who have grown old. Ah, is parting something that belongs only to the one who leaves? No, it weighs most on the one left behind.
Kaerikomu hodo o mo shirazu kanashiki wa yo o nagatsuki no wakare narikeri
What makes it so sad, not knowing even when you will come back, is that ours is a parting in the Long Month, when the nights stretch on and on.