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- Gosen Wakashu
Tsune mo naki natsu no kusaba ni oku tsuyu o inochi to tanomu semi no hakanasa
Trusting the dew that settles on the ever-changing summer grass to be its very life—how fleeting is the cicada.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yaemugura shigeki yado ni wa natsumushi no koe yori hoka ni tou hito mo nashi
At this house overgrown with tangled weeds, no one comes to call but the voices of the summer insects.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Utsusemi no koe kiku kara ni mono zo omou ware mo munashiki yo ni shi sumaeba
No sooner do I hear the cicada's voice than I fall to brooding—for I too go on living in this hollow world.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ikaga semu Ogura no yama no hototogisu obotsukanashi to ne o nomi zo naku
What am I to do? On dusky Mount Ogura the cuckoo cries of its unease, doing nothing but crying aloud.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Morotada
Hototogisu akatsukigata no hitokoe wa uki yo no naka o sugusu narikeri
The cuckoo's single call in the dark before dawn is what carries me through this weary world.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hito shirezu waga shimeshi no no tokonatsu wa hana sakinu beki toki zo kinikeru
Unknown to anyone, I marked this moor as mine, and now the time has come for its everlasting pink to bloom.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Waga yado no kakine ni ueshi nadeshiko wa hana ni sakanamu yosoetsutsu mimu
I hope the pinks I planted along the hedge at my house will come into flower—I will gaze on them and see in them the one I love.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tokonatsu no hana o dani miba koto nashi ni sugusu tsukihi mo mijikakarinan
If I could see even just the flowers of the everlasting pink, then the months and days I pass with nothing happening would surely seem short.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tokonatsu ni omoisomete wa hito shirenu kokoro no hodo wa iro ni mienan
Since I first began to love you, as constant as the everlasting pink, and my heart was dyed with it, surely the depth of my secret heart will show in its color.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Iro to ieba koki mo usuki mo tanomarezu yamato nadeshiko chiru yo nashi ya wa
As for color, neither deep nor pale can be trusted. Even the Yamato pink—is there ever a time when it does not fall?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nadeshiko wa izure tomo naku nioedomo okurete saku wa aware narikeri
The pinks, each and every one, glow with beauty, yet the one that blooms last of all is the dearest to my heart.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tadahira
Nadeshiko no hana chirigata ni narinikeri waga matsu aki zo chikaku narurashi
The pinks are now about to scatter—the autumn I have been waiting for must be drawing near.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yoi nagara hiru ni mo aranan natsu nareba machikurasu ma no hodo nakaru beku
Let it be evening even in the daytime—for it is summer, and so the hours I spend waiting all day long might grow shorter.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Natsu no yo no tsuki wa hodo naku akenureba ashita no ma o zo kakochiyosetsuru
On a summer night the moon is gone so soon with the dawn that I lay the blame on the hours of morning.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kasasagi no mine tobikoete naki yukeba natsu no yo wataru tsuki zo kakururu
When the magpie flies over the peak and goes off singing, the moon crossing the summer night sky slips out of sight.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Aki chikami natsu hateyukeba hototogisu naku koe kataki kokochi koso sure
With autumn drawing near and summer coming to its end, I feel the cuckoo's song has grown hard to hear.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet