classic waka stream

  • Top
  • -
  • Shin Kokin Wakashu

Ureshisa mo aware mo ika ni kotaemashi furusatobito ni towaremashikaba

Had someone from our old home in the capital asked after us, how would we have answered with both our joy and our sorrow?

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet

show detail

Kamikaze ya Isuzugawa nami kazu shirazu sumubeki miyo ni mata kaerikon

Like the countless waves of the Isuzu River in the land of the divine wind, I will come back again and again to this reign that is bound to flow ever clear.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kintsugu

show detail

Nagameba ya Kamiji no yama ni kumo kiete yūbe no sora o iden tsukikage

How I long to gaze upon it—the moonlight that will rise across the evening sky once the clouds have melted from Mount Kamiji.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Go-Toba In

show detail

Kamikaze ya toyomitegura ni nabiku shide kakete aogu to iu mo kashikoshi

In the divine wind, paper streamers flutter on the rich offering wands—yet even to say that I hold the god in my heart and look up to him is a thing too awesome to speak.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Go-Toba In

show detail

Miyabashira shitatsu iwane ni shikitatete tsuyu mo kumoranu hi no mikage kana

With the shrine's pillars set firm upon the bedrock deep below, how the sun's sacred light shines, without a trace of cloud.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Saigyō

show detail

Kamijiyama tsuki sayaka naru chikai arite ame no shita o ba terasu narikeri

Just as the moon shines clear over Mount Kamiji, there is a clear divine vow, and by it all the land beneath heaven is illumined.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Saigyō

show detail

Sayaka naru Washi no takane no kumoi yori kage yawaraguru Tsukiyomi no mori

From the sky above the lofty Vulture Peak, the clear moon softens its light as it shines down upon the grove of Tsukiyomi.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Saigyō

show detail

Yawaraguru hikari ni amaru kage nare ya Isuzu kawara no aki no yo no tsuki

Is it that its radiance overflows even the softened light? The moon of an autumn night above the banks of the Isuzu River.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Jien

show detail

Tachikaeri mata mo mimaku no hoshiki kana Mimosusogawa no seze no shiranami

How I long to turn back and see them once more—the white waves breaking on every shoal of the Mimosuso River.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Minamoto no Masasada

show detail

Kamikaze ya Isuzu no kawa no miyabashira ikuchiyo sume to tachihajimeken

The shrine pillars by the Isuzu River in the land of the divine wind—were they first raised with the wish that the god dwell there, and the river run clear, for countless ages?

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Shunzei

show detail

Kamikaze ya tamagushi no ha o torikazashi uchi to no miya ni kimi o koso inore

In the land of the divine wind, I take up the leaves of the sacred sprig and hold them high, and at the Inner and Outer Shrines it is for you, my lord, that I pray.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Shun'e

show detail

Kamikaze ya Yamada no hara no sakakiba ni kokoro no shime o kakenu hi zo naki

Not a day goes by that I do not hang the sacred rope of my heart upon the sakaki leaves of Yamada Plain.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Echizen

show detail

Isuzugawa sora ya madaki ni aki no koe shitatsu iwane no matsu no yūkaze

By the Isuzu River, has the sky already brought, too soon, the voice of autumn? It is the evening wind through the pines rooted in the bedrock deep below.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Ōnakatomi no Akichika

show detail

Chihayaburu Kashii no miya no ayasugi wa kami no misogi ni tateru narikeri

The sacred cedar of the Kashii Shrine, I now see, stands there for the purification rites of the god.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet

show detail

Sakakiba ni sono iukai wa nakeredomo kami ni kokoro o kakenu ma zo naki

Though it is of no use to voice my plea on these sakaki leaves, there is not a moment when my heart is not set upon the god.

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Jōsei

show detail

Toshi o hete uki kage o nomi Mitarashi no kawaru yo mo naki mi o ika ni sen

For years I have seen only my sorrowful reflection in the Mitarashi stream; what am I to do with myself, whose lot never changes?

Shin Kokin Wakashu - Taira no Nakako

show detail