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- Yamato Monogatari
Shirakumo no kono kata ni shimo oriiru wa amatsukaze koso fukite kitsurashi
That the white cloud has come down and settled here, on this shoulder of mine, must be because a wind out of heaven blew it to me.
Omouramu kokoro no uchi wa shiranedomo naku o miru koso kanashikarikere
What is in her heart I do not know; and yet just to see her weeping is a sorrowful thing.
Akade nomi fureba narubeshi awanu yo mo au yo mo hito o aware to zo omou
It must be because I never have enough of you: on the nights we meet and the nights we do not, you are dear to me.
Takimono no kuyuru kokoro wa arishikado hitori wa taete nerarezarikeri
There was a smouldering in me, like incense, and a regret with it. And alone, I could not sleep at all.
Sawagu naru uchi ni mo mono wa omou nari waga tsurezure o nani ni tatoemu
Even in all that bustle, it seems, one still finds time to brood. Then what am I to compare this empty leisure of mine to?
Kari ni nomi kuru kimi matsu to furiidetsutsu naku Shigayama wa aki zo kanashiki
Waiting for you, who come only as the hunt comes and only for a while, the hill of Shiga cries out; and autumn there is a sorrow.
Kakurenu no soko no shitagusa mi kakurete shirarenu koi wa kurushikarikeri
Like the grass at the bottom of a hidden pond, keeping itself out of sight, a love that no one knows of is a hard thing.
Mikakure ni kakuru bakari no shitagusa wa nagakaraji to mo omooyuru kana
Grass at the bottom, just long enough to keep itself hidden β such a thing will not last long, or so it seems to me.
Hito o toku Akutagawa chΕ tsu no kuni no naniwa tagawanu kimi ni zo arikeru
Akutagawa, the river in Tsu whose very name says that you tire of a person fast: your name does not differ from it at all.
Konu hito o matsu no ha ni furu shirayuki no kie koso kaere awanu omoi ni
The white snow falling on the pine, on my waiting for one who will not come, melts clean away in the fire of a love unanswered.
Shikikaezu arishi nagara ni kusamakura chiri nomi zo iru harau hito nami
Not laid again, still as it was that night, the grass pillow: nothing settles on it now but dust, for there is no one to sweep it.
Kusamakura chiri harai ni wa karakoromo tamoto yutaka ni tatsu o mate kashi
To sweep the dust from that grass pillow, wait until I have had a robe cut in the Chinese fashion, with sleeves ample enough for the work.
Karakoromo tatsu o matsu ma no hodo koso wa waga shikitae no chiri mo tsumorame
In the very while that I wait for your robe to be cut, the dust on the bedding I have spread will go on gathering.
Mikari suru Kurikomayama no shika yori mo hitori nuru mi zo wabishikarikeru
More wretched even than the deer of Kurikoma, where the hunt goes out, is this body of mine that lies down to sleep alone.
Yowa ni idete tsuki dani mizu wa au koto o shirazugao ni mo iwamashi mono o
Going out at night β if only I had not seen the moon, I could have talked about it with the face of one who knows nothing.
Hanasusuki kimi ga kata ni zo nabiku meru omowanu yama no kaze wa fukedomo
The pampas plumes bend towards you, it would seem, and nowhere else β though the wind blows on them out of a hill I never thought of.