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- Kagero Nikki
Waga sode wa hiku to nurashitsu ayamegusa hito no tamoto ni kakete kawakase
I have wetted my own sleeve in drawing it up — this sweet flag. Hang it on your sleeve, then, and let it dry there.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Hikitsuramu tamoto wa shirazu ayamegusa ayanaki sode ni kakezu mo aranamu
Of the sleeve you say you wetted I know nothing. Do not, I beg you, hang the sweet flag on a sleeve that can make no sense of it.
Ware zo geni tokete nurame ya hototogisu mono omoi masaru koe to naruramu
Truly, could I have lain down with my heart at ease? The cuckoo's calling, I think, would only turn out a voice that deepens brooding.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Natsuyama no ko no shita tsuyu no fukakereba katsu zo nageki no iro moenikeru
The dew beneath the trees of the summer hills lies so deep that already the color of my sighing has kindled and burned through.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Tsuyu ni nomi iro moenureba koto no ha o iku shio to ka wa shiru bekaruramu
If it is only the dew that has burned the color in, how am I to know through how many dyings these leaves of words have passed?
Yūsare no neya no tsumazuma nagamureba tezukara nomi zo kumo mo kakinuru
Gazing at evening at the corners of my bedroom, I see that even the spider draws its thread, and writes it, with its own hand only.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Kumo no kaku ito zo ayashiki kaze fukeba sora ni midaruru mono to shirushiru
How strange a thing is the thread the spider draws — and writes — knowing all the while that when the wind blows it will be scattered on the air.
Tsuyu ni te mo inochi kaketaru kumo no i ni araki kaze o ba tare ka fusegamu
Though it be no more than a dewdrop, the spider's web has its life staked on it; and who is there to keep the rough wind from it?
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Tajima no ya kugui no ato o kyō mireba yuki no shirahama shiroku te wa miji
Looking today at the tracks the swan left in Tajima, I say: like snow on a white beach, I will not have them stay white.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Kotowari ya iwade nagekishi toshitsuki mo furu no yashiro no kamisabinikemu
You are quite right. The years I spent grieving and saying nothing have gone as old and holy as the shrine at Furu itself.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Yume bakari mite shi bakari ni madoitsutsu akuru zo osoki ama no tozashi wa
Having seen you for no more than the space of a dream, I go on bewildered; and slow indeed it is to open — that gate of heaven.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Samo koso wa katsuragiyama ni naretarame tada hitokoto ya kagiri narikeru
No doubt you have grown quite familiar with the ways of Katsuragi. Was it a single word, then, and that the end of the matter?
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Kai nakute toshi henikeri to nagamureba tamoto mo hana no iro ni koso shime
Thinking how the years have gone by and come to nothing, I gaze — and find that even my sleeves have taken the color of these flowers.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Toshi o hete nadoka ayanaku sora ni shimo hana no atari o tachi wa somekemu
After all these years, why should you have stood there so absently beside the flowers, and let yourself be cut and dyed their color?
Migakure no hodo to iu tomo ayamegusa nao shita karamu omoi au ya to
Though you may call it a season of lying hidden in the water, I would still cut below the flag and see whether our hearts agree.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Shita karamu hodo o mo shirazu makomogusa yo ni oisomeji hito wa karu tote mo
Not even knowing when it is to be cut below, the wild rice will never come up into the world, though someone should cut for it.