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- Yamato Monogatari
Fuetake no hitoyo mo kimi to nenu toki wa chigusa no koe ni ne koso nakarure
A single night — one joint of the bamboo flute — without you beside me, and I cannot help crying aloud in a thousand voices.
Chiji no ne wa kotoba no fuki ka fuetake no kochiku no koe mo kikoe konaku ni
A thousand voices — is it only words you are blowing? For I do not hear the flute called Kochiku, whose very name says come this way.
Aimite wa wakaruru koto no nakariseba katsugatsu mono wa omowazaramashi
If it were not that meeting must be followed by parting, I would not be brooding over this and that.
Ikanareba katsugatsu mono o omouramu nagori mo naku zo ware wa kanashiki
How is it that you can brood over this and that by halves? For my part there is nothing left over at all: I am grief itself.
Kusa no ha ni kakareru tsuyu no mi nareba ya kokoro ugoku ni namida otsuramu
Is it because this body of mine is a drop of dew on a leaf that the least movement of the heart sends the tears down?
Haru no no ni midori ni haeru sanekazura waga kimizane to tanomu ikani zo
In the spring fields the sanekazura shines out green among the rest. So I would have you first of all — what do you say?
Yukusue no sukuse mo shirazu waga mukashi chigirishi koto wa omooyu ya kimi
Not knowing what the years would bring you, I made you promises once, long ago. Do they come back to you at all?
Kasasagi no wataseru hashi no shimo no ue o yowa ni fumiwake koto sara ni koso
Over the frost that lies on the bridge the magpies spread, at dead of night, I have come treading — and came for this and nothing else.
Waga yado no hitomura susuki urawakami musubi toki ni wa madashikarikeri
The clump of pampas grass in my garden is still too green at the tips; the time for tying it has not yet come.
Mubatama no waga kurokami wa Shirakawa no mizu wa kumu made narinikeru kana
This black hair of mine, black as the lily's berry, has come to this: drawing water at the White River, and my teeth gone with it.
Shika no ne wa ikura bakari no kurenai zo furiizuru kara ni yama no somuramu
How deep a crimson can a stag's voice be, that with each call he sends out the mountainside turns redder?
Watatsumi no naka ni zo tateru saoshika wa aki no yamabe ya soko ni miyuramu
The stag standing there in the middle of the sea — is it that the autumn hills can be seen there, down on that floor?
Hito o matsu yado wa kuraku zo narinikeru chigirishi tsuki no uchi ni mieneba
The house where I wait for you has grown dark, since within the month we agreed on — within the moon — you have not shown yourself.
Akikaze no kokoro ya tsuraki hanasusuki fukikuru kata o mazu somukuramu
Is the heart of the autumn wind so hard? The pampas plumes turn their backs, before anything else, on the quarter it blows from.
Haru wa tada kinō bakari o uguisu no kagireru goto mo nakanu kyō kana
As though it had set itself a limit — spring runs only to yesterday — the warbler does not sing at all today.
Teru tsuki o yumihari to shimo iu koto wa yamabe o sashite ireba narikeri
We call the bright moon a drawn bow because it takes aim at the mountain rim and then looses itself, and goes in.