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- Shika Wakashu
Asamashi ya kimi ni kisu beki sumizome no koromo no sode o waga nurasu kana
How cruel! The sleeves of the black mourning robe that you should have worn for me are the ones I now soak with my tears.
Shika Wakashu - Minamoto no Akinaka
Kozo no haru chirinishi hana mo sakinikeri aware wakare no kakaramashikaba
The blossoms that fell last spring have bloomed again; ah, if only partings like ours were the same.
Shika Wakashu - Akazome Emon
Izuru iki no iru o matsu ma mo kataki yo o omoishiruramu sode wa ika ni zo
You must know it now — this world in which life is hard to hold even in the moment between a breath going out and coming in. And how are your sleeves, wet with tears?
Shika Wakashu - Retired Emperor Sutoku
Namida nomi tamoto ni kakaru yo no naka ni mi sae kuchinuru koto zo kanashiki
In this world where only tears fall upon my sleeves, it grieves me that even my body should rot away.
Oriori no tsurasa o nani ni nagekikemu yagate naki yo mo aware arikeri
Why did I grieve so over your coldness, time after time? Now that you are gone, I see that even then there was tenderness.
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hito o tou kane no koe koso aware nare itsu ka waga mi ni naramu to suramu
How deeply the bell tolling for someone's death moves me; when, I wonder, will it be tolling for me?
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kuyashiku mo misomekeru kana nabete yo no aware to bakari kikamashi mono o
How I regret ever having set eyes on you! Otherwise I would have heard of your death only as one of the world's ordinary sorrows.
Kakute nomi yo ni ariake no tsuki naraba kumo kakushite yo amakudaru kami
If I must linger on in this world like the moon left in the dawn sky, then hide me in the clouds, O god who descends from heaven.
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nagaki yo no kurushiki koto o omoe kashi nani nagekuramu kari no yadori ni
Think rather of the sufferings of the long world to come; why grieve so over this passing lodging?
Omoedomo imu tote iwanu koto nareba sonata ni mukite ne o nomi zo naku
Though it fills my thoughts, it is something one must not say aloud for fear of ill omen; so I turn toward where you are and can only weep aloud.
Shika Wakashu - Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
Akugaruru mi no hakanasa wa momotose no nakaba sugite zo omoishiraruru
The frailty of this wandering self — only now, past the midpoint of a hundred years, have I come to know it in my bones.
Shika Wakashu - Minamoto no Akinaka
Tsuyu no mi no kiete hotoke ni naru koto wa tsutomete nochi zo shiru bekarikeru
That this dewdrop self will vanish and become a Buddha is something one can know only after the early morning — only after devoted practice.
Shika Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yoso ni nado hotoke no michi o tazunuramu waga kokoro koso shirube narikere
Why do people seek the Buddha's path somewhere outside themselves? It is one's own heart that is the guide.
Shika Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tadamichi
Ikade ware kokoro no tsuki o arawashite yami ni madoeru hito o terasamu
If only I could somehow bring forth the moon within my heart and shine its light on those who wander lost in darkness.
Shika Wakashu - Fujiwara no Akisuke
Yo no naka no hito no kokoro no ukigumo ni soragakure suru ariake no tsuki
Behind the drifting, sorrowful clouds in the hearts of the people of this world, the moon of dawn hides itself away in the sky.
Shika Wakashu - Tōren
Kimi ga yo wa kumori mo araji Mikasayama mine ni asahi no sasamu kagiri wa
Your reign, my lord, shall never be clouded, so long as the morning sun shines on the summit of Mount Mikasa.
Shika Wakashu - Oe no Masafusa