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- Shika Wakashu
Towanu ma o uramurasaki ni saku fuji no nani tote matsu ni kakarisomekemu
Resenting the days you do not visit, like wisteria blooming pale purple and clinging to the pine, why did I ever begin to wait for you?
Omoiyare kakehi no mizu no taedae ni nariyuku hodo no kokorobososa o
Think, I beg you, how forlorn I feel as your visits grow ever fewer, like the water in a bamboo pipe that trickles more and more faintly.
Uguisu wa kozutau hana no eda nite mo tani no furusu o omoiwasuru na
Bush warbler, even as you flit among the blossoming branches, do not forget your old nest in the valley.
Uguisu wa hana no miyako mo tabi nareba tani no furusu o wasure ya wa suru
For the bush warbler, even the flowering capital is only a stop on a journey; how could it ever forget its old nest in the valley?
Shika Wakashu - Gyōson
Yo o kasane shimo to tomo ni shi okiireba arishi bakari no yume dani mo mizu
Night after night I lie awake as the frost settles with me, and so I cannot even dream of you as you once were.
Au koto mo waga kokoro yori arishikaba koi wa shinu tomo hito wa uramiji
Since our meeting too began with my own heart's wish, even if I die of this love, I will not resent you.
Shika Wakashu - Minamoto no Kunizane
Kumimiteshi kokoro hitotsu o shirube nite nonaka no shimizu wasure ya wa suru
Guided by the heart I came to know when once I drew from it, how could I ever forget the clear spring in the meadow — or you, with whom I once shared my heart?
Shika Wakashu - Fujiwara no Nakazane
Asajiu ni kesa oku tsuyu no samukeku ni karenishi hito no nazo ya koishiki
The dew that settled this morning on the field of low cogon grass is so cold — why, then, do I so long for the one who has drifted away from me, like the withered grass?
Shika Wakashu - Fujiwara no Mototoshi
Wasuraruru mi wa kotowari to shirinagara omoiaenu wa namida narikeri
I know it is only natural that I should be forgotten, yet my tears, it seems, cannot accept it.
Shika Wakashu - Sei Shōnagon
Ima yori wa toe tomo iwaji ware zo tada hito o wasururu koto o shiru beki
From now on I will not even ask you to visit me; it is I, rather, who should learn how to forget.
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Saritote wa tare ni ka iwamu ima wa tada hito o wasururu kokoro oshieyo
And yet, to whom else could I say this? Now I ask only one thing: teach me the heart that knows how to forget.
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Mada shiranu koto o ba ikaga oshiu beki hito o wasururu mi ni shi araneba
How could I teach you something I have never known? I am not one who forgets the one I love.
Shika Wakashu - Yushi Naishinno-ke no Koben
Ikukaeri tsurashi to hito o Mikumano no urameshi nagara koishikaruramu
How many times have I seen how cold you are — as surely as the shore of Kumano — and resented you, yet still go on longing for you?
Shika Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Yūgure wa matareshi mono o ima wa tada yukuramu kata o omoi koso yare
Evening was once a time when I could not help waiting for you; now I can only think of the direction in which you must be going.
Shika Wakashu - Sagami
Wasuraruru hitome bakari o nageki nite koishiki koto no nakaramashikaba
If only my grief were just the shame of being seen as one forgotten, and there were no longing left in me besides — how much easier it would be.
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Harugasumi kasumeru kata ya Tsu no kuni no honomishimae no watari naruramu
Where the spring haze hangs so dimly in the distance — is that, I wonder, the shore of Mishima Inlet in the land of Tsu, which I can only faintly glimpse?