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- Senzai Wakashu
Satsukiyami Futamurayama no hototogisu minetsuzuki naku koe o kiku kana
In the darkness of the Fifth Month I hear the cuckoo of Mount Futamura singing on from peak to peak.
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Toshitada
Tomoshi suru Miyagigahara no shitatsuyu ni shinobu mojizuri kawaku yo zo naki
On Miyagi Plain, where hunters stalk deer by torchlight, the Shinobu-dyed robes of those who hide and wait are soaked by the dew beneath the grasses and never have a night to dry.
Senzai Wakashu - Oe no Masafusa
Satsukiyami sayama no mine ni tomosu hi wa kumo no taema no hoshi ka to zo miru
In the darkness of the Fifth Month, the fires lit for the hunt on the mountain peak look like stars glimpsed through a break in the clouds.
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Akisue
Satsukiyami shigeki hayama ni tatsu shika wa tomoshi ni nomi zo hito ni shiraruru
In the darkness of the Fifth Month, the deer standing on the thickly wooded foothills is known to people only by the light of the hunters' torches.
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Akitsuna
Tomoshi suru hogushi no matsu mo kienaku ni toyama no kumo no akewataruran
Though the pine torches set on the hunters' poles have not yet burned out, why are the clouds over the near hills already brightening into dawn?
Senzai Wakashu - Minamoto no Yukimune
Tomoshi suru hogushi no matsu mo moetsukite kaeru ni mayou shimotsuyami kana
The pine torches on the hunters' poles have burned away, and I lose my way home in the darkness of the waning-moon nights.
Senzai Wakashu - Minamoto no Nakamasa
Yama fukami hogushi no matsu wa tsukinuredo shika ni omoi o nao kakuru kana
The mountains are so deep that the pine torches on the hunters' poles have burned out, yet still I cast the fire of my longing on the deer.
Senzai Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tomoshi suru hogushi o matsu to omoeba ya aimiteshika no mi o ba kauran
Is it because the deer takes the pine torch on the hunters' pole for a lover waiting for it? Longing to meet, it seems to give its life in exchange.
Senzai Wakashu - Kamo no Shigeyasu
Mukashi waga atsumeshi mono o omoiidete minaregao ni mo kuru hotaru kana
As if remembering how I once gathered them long ago, the fireflies come to me with such a familiar air.
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Suemichi
Aware ni mo misao ni moyuru hotaru kana koe tatetsubeki kono yo to omou ni
How moving the firefly is, burning on in steadfast silence, in a world where I would think one might well cry out aloud.
Senzai Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori
Asari seshi mizu no misabi ni tojirarete hishi no ukiha ni kawazu naku nari
The water where birds once foraged is now sealed beneath a film of scum, and on the floating leaves of the water caltrop the river frogs are singing.
Senzai Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori
Natsu fukami Tamae ni shigeru ashi no ha no soyogu ya fune no kayou naruran
Summer has deepened, and the reeds have grown thick at Tamae; their leaves rustle, perhaps because a boat is passing through where I cannot see.
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tadamichi
Hayasegawa mio sakanoboru ukaibune mazu kono yo ni mo ikaga kurushiki
O cormorant boats pushing up the channel of the swift river: setting aside what awaits you in the next life, how hard your labor must be even here in this world!
Senzai Wakashu - Retired Emperor Sutoku
Miru ga nao kono yo no mono to oboenu wa karanadeshiko no hana ni zo arikeru
What, the longer I look, still seems not to belong to this world is the flower of the China pink.
Senzai Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Tokonatsu no hana mo wasurete akikaze o matsu no kage nite kyō wa kurenuru
Forgetting even the ever-summer pinks, I have spent this whole day in the shade of the pines, enjoying a wind as cool as autumn's.
Senzai Wakashu - Prince Tomohira
Haru aki mo nochi no katami wa naki mono o himuro zo fuyu no nagori narikeru
Spring and autumn leave no keepsake behind once they are gone, yet the icehouse, I find, holds what remains of winter.
Senzai Wakashu - Prince-Priest Kakushō