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- Shin Kokin Wakashu
Kakinagasu koto no ha o dani shizumu na yo mi koso kakutemo yamakawa no mizu
At least do not let these words I have written sink away, though I myself am sunk like the water of a mountain stream.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Yukiyoshi
Mireba mazu itodo namida zo morokazura ika ni chigirite kakehanarekemu
When I see it, before all else my tears fall all the more readily; by what bond from a former life have I come to be so far removed from this garland of hollyhock and laurel?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Kamo no Chomei
Onajiku wa are na inishie omoide no nakereba totemo shinobazu mo nashi
If it is all the same, let me have memories of days gone by; for even without them, it is not that I do not long for the past.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Minamoto no Suekage
Izuku ni mo sumarezu wa tada sumade aramu shiba no iori no shibashi naru yo ni
If I can settle nowhere, I will simply stay unsettled, for this world is brief and makeshift, like a hut of brushwood.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Saigyō
Tsuki no yuku yama ni kokoro o okuriirete yami naru ato no mi o ika ni semu
I have sent my heart into the mountain where the moon is setting; what am I to do with this self, left behind in the dark?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Saigyō
Omou koto nado tou hito no nakaru ramu aogeba sora ni tsuki zo sayakeki
Why is there no one to ask what I brood over? When I look up, the moon is shining clear in the sky.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Jien
Ika ni shite ima made yo ni wa ariake no tsukisenu mono o itou kokoro wa
How is it that I have lingered in this world until now like the moon at dawn, when the heart that loathes it never comes to an end?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Jien
Ukiyo ideshi tsukihi no kage no megurikite kawaranu michi o mata terasu ramu
The day on which you left the sorrowful world has come round again, and like the light of sun and moon it must shine once more on the path from which you have never strayed.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Jien
Hito shirezu sonata o shinobu kokoro o ba katabuku tsuki ni tagutete zo yaru
My heart, secretly yearning toward where you are, I send along with the moon as it sinks westward.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Prince-Priest Shōnin
Michinoku no iwade shinobu wa ezo shiranu kakitsukushite yo tsubo no ishibumi
What you keep hidden and unspoken—like Iwade and Shinobu of Michinoku—I cannot possibly know. Write it all down, as on the inscribed stone of Tsubo.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Minamoto no Yoritomo
Kyō made wa hito o nagekite kurenikeri itsu mi no ue ni naramu to su ramu
Until today I have spent my days grieving for others; when will it come to be my own turn?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Ōe no Yoshitoki
Michishiba no tsuyu ni arasou waga mi kana izure ka mazu wa kiemu to su ramu
My life vies with the dew on the wayside grass in frailty; which of us, I wonder, will vanish first?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Saneyori
Nani to ka ya kabe ni ou naru kusa no na yo sore ni mo tagū waga mi narikeri
What is it called, the grass that is said to grow on walls? It is that name my life resembles.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Seishi
Koshikata o sanagara yume ni nashitsureba samuru utsutsu no naki zo kanashiki
When I take all my past days to have been nothing but a dream, how sad it is that there is no reality to wake into.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Sukezane
Chitose furu matsu dani kutsuru yo no naka ni kyō to mo shirade tateru ware kana
In a world where even a pine that lives a thousand years decays, here I stand, not knowing that today may be my last.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Shōkū
Kazu narade yo ni Suminoe no miotsukushi itsu o matsu tomo naki mi narikeri
Counting for nothing, I dwell in the world like a channel marker at Suminoe, spending myself, yet I am one with no time to wait for.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori