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- Yamato Monogatari
Ueshi ueba aki naki toki ya sakazaramu hana koso chirame ne sae kareme ya
Planted, and planted well, it will fail to flower only in a season with no autumn. The blossom may fall; but will the root die too?
Ayame kari kimi wa numa ni zo madoikeru ware wa no ni idete karu zo wabishiki
Cutting sweet flag, you must have wandered about the marshes; while I went out into the fields to cut — and to hunt — and it was hard going.
Tsurezure to itodo kokoro no wabishiki ni kyō wa towazute kurashitemu to ya
Idle here, and more forlorn in my heart than ever — and today, do you mean to let the day pass without once coming?
Tsui ni yuku michi to wa kanete kikishikado kinō kyō to wa omowazarishi o
I had long heard that this is the road we all go in the end. But that it should be yesterday or today, I never thought.
Mizu mo arazu mi mo senu hito no koishiki wa ayanaku kyō ya nagame kurasamu
Not that I did not see you, nor that I saw you; and longing for someone seen so, shall I spend today gazing out to no purpose?
Mi mo mizu mo tare to shirite ka koiraruru obotsukanami no kyō no nagame ya
Seen or not seen — and knowing me for whom, do you say you long? A day of gazing out, and nothing certain in it.
Ina ya kiji hito ni naraseru karigoromo waga mi ni fureba uki ka mo zo tsuku
No, I shall not wear it. That hunting robe, which you let another wear soft — if it touches me, a bitter scent will cling.
Hito kokoro ushimitsu ima wa tanomaji yo yume ni miyu ya to ne zo suginikeru
I have seen your heart, and seen it hard; the third watch of the ox, and I shall hope no more. — I slept, to see whether you would come to me in dreams, and the hour went by.
Minahito wa hana no koromo ni narinu nari koke no tamoto yo kawaki dani seyo
All men, I am told, have put on their flowered robes again. And you, sleeve of moss — at the very least, dry.
Kagirinaki kumoi no yoso ni wakaru tomo hito o kokoro ni okurazarame ya
Though I am parted from you by the whole width of that far cloud-country, am I not sending my heart after you all the same?
Iwa no ue ni tabine o sureba ito samushi koke no koromo o ware ni kasanan
Sleeping out here on the bare rock I find it very cold. Lend me, will you, that robe of moss of yours.
Yo o somuku koke no koromo wa tada hitoe kasaneba utoshi iza futari nen
This robe of moss, worn by one who has left the world, is a single fold. Undoubled it is cold comfort — come, let the two of us sleep in it.
Oritsureba tabusa ni kegaru tate nagara miyo no hotoke ni hana tatematsuru
To break it off would be to soil it with the hand. So, standing as it stands, I offer the flower to the Buddhas of the three worlds.
Shirakumo no yadoru mine ni zo okurenuru omoi no hoka ni aru yo narikeri
On the peak where the white clouds rest I have been left behind; and this is a world quite outside anything I intended.
Aoyagi no ito naranedomo harukaze no fukeba katayoru wagami narikeri
I am no green willow-thread; and yet when the spring wind blows, this self of mine turns out to be one that leans to one side.
Isasame ni fuku kaze ni ya wa nabikubeki nowaki sugushishi kimi ni ya wa aranu
Should you lean before a wind that blows so lightly and so briefly — you, who have weathered the great autumn gales?