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- Manyoshu
Momijiba no chiriyuku nae ni tamazusa no tsukai o mireba aishi hi omoyu
Just as the colored leaves are falling, when I see a messenger bearing letters, I remember the days when she and I would meet.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Kozo miteshi aki no tsukuyo wa teraseredo aimishi imo wa iya toshisakaru
The autumn moon we saw last year shines just as before, yet she who watched it with me drifts ever farther away as the years go by.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Fusumaji o hikide no yama ni imo o okite yamaji o yukeba ikeri tomo nashi
Having left my wife on Hikide Hill, as I walk the mountain path I no longer feel that I am alive.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Kozo miteshi aki no tsukuyo wa wataredomo aimishi imo wa iya toshisakaru
The autumn moon we saw last year crosses the sky once more, yet she who watched it with me drifts ever farther away as the years go by.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Fusumaji o hikide no yama ni imo o okite yamaji omou ni ikeru tomo nashi
Having left my wife on Hikide Hill, when I think of that mountain path I no longer feel that I am alive.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Ie ni kite waga ya o mireba tamadoko no hoka ni mukikeri imo ga komakura
When I come home and look into our room, there on our fine bed my wife's wooden pillow lies turned away, facing outward.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Sasanami no shigatsu no kora ga makariji no kawase no michi o mireba sabushi mo
When I look at the path along the river shallows by which the maiden of Shiga harbor in Sasanami departed from this world, how lonely it seems!
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Sora kazou ōtsu no ko ga aishi hi ni ōni mishikaba ima zo kuyashiki
On the day I met the maiden of Ōtsu, I looked at her only idly; now how bitterly I regret it!
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Tsuma mo araba tsumite tagemashi sami no yama no no e no uhagi suginikerazu ya
Had his wife been with him, she would have picked it and fed it to him—but the starwort on the meadows of Mount Sami, has it not already passed its prime?
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Okitsunami kiyoru ariso o shikitae no makura to makite naseru kimi kamo
On the rugged shore where the waves roll in from the open sea, you have made your pillow, and there you lie sleeping.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Kamoyama no iwane shi makeru ware o kamo shirani to imo ga machitsutsu aruramu
Not knowing that I lie here with my head pillowed on the rocks of Mount Kamo, my wife must still be waiting for me to come home.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Kyō kyō to waga matsu kimi wa ishikawa no kai ni majirite ari to iwazu ya mo
You for whom I have waited, thinking "today, surely today"—do they not say you lie in the valley of the Ishikawa, mingled with its earth?
Manyoshu - Yosami no Otome
Tada no ai wa aikatsumashiji ishikawa ni kumo tachiwatare mitsutsu shinowamu
To meet you face to face is no longer possible. Let clouds rise and spread over the Ishikawa—I will gaze on them and remember you.
Manyoshu - Yosami no Otome
Aranami ni yorikuru tama o makura ni oki ware koko ni ari to tare ka tsugenamu
I have laid beside my pillow the jewels the rough waves bring ashore—but who will go and tell her that I am lying here?
Manyoshu - Tajihi no Mahito
Amazakaru hina no arano ni kimi o okite omoitsutsu areba ikeru tomo nashi
I have left you in a wild field of the far provinces, remote beneath the sky, and as I keep thinking of you, I no longer feel that I am alive.
Imo ga na wa chiyo ni nagaremu himeshima no komatsu ga ure ni koke musu made ni
This maiden's name will be handed down for a thousand ages, until moss has grown on the tips of the young pines of Himeshima.
Manyoshu - Kawabe no Miyahito