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- Sankashu
Hototogisu omoi mo wakanu hitokoe o kikitsu to ikaga hito ni kataran
How could I tell anyone that I heard the cuckoo, when its single call was so faint I cannot even be sure I heard it?
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu ikabakari naru chigiri nite kokoro tsukusade hito no kikuran
O cuckoo, by what deep bond from a former life do others hear your voice without wearing their hearts out in waiting?
Sankashu - Saigyō
Kataraishi sono yo no koe wa hototogisu ika naru yo ni mo wasuren mono ka
O cuckoo, the voice with which you spoke to me that night: in whatever world I may live, how could I ever forget it?
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu hanatachibana wa niou tomo mi o u no hana no kakine wasure na
O cuckoo, however sweetly the mandarin orange blossoms may be scented, do not forget the hedge of deutzia where I live out my sorrowful life.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu shinobu uzuki mo suginishi o nao koe oshimu samidare no sora
The Fourth Month, when the cuckoo sings only in hushed tones, has passed, and still it withholds its voice under the sky of the early summer rains.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Samidare no harema mo mienu kumoji yori yamahototogisu nakite sugu nari
Through the path of clouds, where no break in the early summer rain can be seen, a mountain cuckoo seems to pass, singing as it goes.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu kiku ni tote shimo komoranedo Hatsuse no yama wa tayori arikeri
I did not come into retreat to hear the cuckoo, yet the mountain of Hatsuse has proved a fine place for hearing it.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Hototogisu nagori arasete kaerishi ga kikisutsuru ni mo narinikeru kana
I came away early to keep a longing for the cuckoo's song alive, but that, it seems, has turned into hearing it and casting it aside.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Sora harete numa no mikasa o otosazu wa ayame mo fukanu satsuki naru beshi
Unless the sky clears and the swollen waters of the marsh go down, this will surely be a Fifth Month in which not even irises are laid upon the eaves.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Sakura chiru yado o kazareru ayame o ba hanashōbu to ya iu bekaruran
Should these irises adorning the temple lodging where the cherry petals fall be called flowering irises, I wonder?
Sankashu - Saigyō
Chiru hana o kyō no ayame no ne ni kakete kusudama to mo ya iu bekaruran
Since the falling blossoms hang upon the roots of today's festival irises, should we not rather call them kusudama, the festival's scented balls?
Ori ni aite hito ni waga mi ya hikaremashi Tsukuma no numa no ayame nariseba
If I were an iris in the marsh of Tsukuma, would people pull me up and seek me out, now that the festival season has come?
Sankashu - Saigyō
Nishi ni nomi kokoro zo kakaru ayamegusa kono yo bakari no yado to omoeba
My heart is hung on the west alone, like the irises upon the eaves, for I think of this dwelling as a lodging for this world only.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Mina hito no kokoro no uki wa ayamegusa nishi ni omoi no hikanu narikeri
The reason all people's hearts are so full of sorrow, I see, is that, like irises left in the mire, their thoughts are never drawn toward the Western Paradise.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Mizu tatau iwama no makomo karikanete munade ni suguru samidare no koro
The water has risen so high among the rocks that the wild rice cannot be cut, and the days of the early summer rains pass with empty hands.
Sankashu - Saigyō
Samidare ni mizu masaru rashi Ujibashi ya kumode ni kakaru nami no shiraito
The waters must be rising with the early summer rains: at Uji Bridge, white threads of waves hang on the spider-leg timbers of its piers.
Sankashu - Saigyō