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- Shika Wakashu
Tsuki ni koso mukashi no koto wa oboekere ware o wasururu hito ni misebaya
It is the moon that brings back the past to me; how I wish I could show it to the one who has forgotten me.
Nagaraeba omoide ni semu omoiideyo kimi to Mikasa no yama no ha no tsuki
If I live on, I will keep it as a memory; and you, too, remember it — the moon over the ridge of Mount Mikasa that we saw together.
Ōsaka no seki no sugihara shita harete tsuki no moru ni zo makasetarikeru
The cedar grove at Ōsaka Barrier is bright down to its floor; the guarding of the barrier, it seems, has been left to the moonlight stealing through.
Shika Wakashu - Oe no Masafusa
Tsurezure to aretaru yado o nagamureba tsuki bakari koso mukashi narikere
As I idly gaze at my ruined dwelling, only the moon remains as it was in the old days.
Fukaku irite sumabaya to omou yama no ha o ikanaru tsuki no izuru naruramu
I long to go deep into the mountains and live there — what kind of moon, I wonder, rises over that mountain ridge?
Onoga mi no onoga kokoro ni kanawanu o omowaba mono wa omoishirinamu
If you consider that your own self does not obey your own heart, you will surely come to understand how things are.
Shika Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Ayamegusa kari ni mo kuramu mono yue ni neya no tsuma to ya hito no miruramu
Though you come only lightly, as one comes to cut sweet flag, do people see me as your wife, like the eaves' edge of a bedchamber where the sweet flag hangs?
Shika Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Hito shirezu mono omou koto wa narainiki hana ni wakarenu haru shi nakereba
I have grown used to brooding in secret over my sorrows, for there has never been a spring without parting from the blossoms.
Shika Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Omowarenu sora no keshiki o miru kara ni ware mo shigururu kannazuki kana
No sooner do I see a sky that seems to care nothing for me than I too fall into tears like the showers of the tenth month.
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Adabito wa shigururu yowa no tsuki nare ya sumu tote e koso tanomu majikere
Is a fickle lover the moon on a showery night? Though it shines clear — though he comes to stay — it can never be relied upon.
Shika Wakashu - Taikenmon-in no Horikawa
Taga sato ni kataraikanete hototogisu kaeru yamaji no tayori naruramu
In whose village did you fail to find someone to talk with, cuckoo, that you stop here only in passing on your way back along the mountain road?
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yoshi saraba tsurasa wa ware ni naraikeri tanomete konu wa tare ka oshieshi
Very well — let us say you learned your coldness from me. But promising to come and then not coming — who taught you that?
Shika Wakashu - Sei Shōnagon
Kazukikemu tamoto wa ame ni ikaga seshi nururu wa satemo omoishire kashi
The sleeve you held over your head — how did it fare in the rain? Now, at least, you ought to understand what it means to be wet through.
Fukaku shimo tanomazaranamu kimi yue ni yuki fumiwakete yonayona zo yuku
Please don't rely on me too deeply — and yet, for your sake, night after night I make my way through the snow to you.
Shika Wakashu - Sone no Yoshitada
Yo no hito no mada shiranu ma no usugōri miwakanu hodo ni kie ne to zo omou
Like thin ice that the world has not yet noticed, I wish it would melt away before anyone can make it out.
Shika Wakashu - Akazome Emon
Aki wa mina omou koto naki ogi no ha mo sue tawamu made tsuyu wa okumeri
In autumn, it seems, all things grieve: even the leaves of the reeds, which have no cares, bear so much dew that their tips bend.
Shika Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu