- Top
- -
- Kokin Wakashu
Honohano to akashi no ura no asagiri ni shimagakure yuku fune o shi zo omou
As dawn breaks faintly over the bay of Akashi, a boat glides into the morning mist and disappears behind an island, and my heart goes out to it.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Karagoromo kitsutsu narenishi tsuma shi areba harubaru kinuru tabi o shi zo omou
Like a fine robe worn so long that it has grown soft against the skin, I have a wife I have grown close to back in the capital, and so I cannot stop thinking of how far this journey has carried me.
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Narihira
Na ni shi owaba iza koto towamu miyakodori waga omou hito wa ari ya nashi ya to
If you truly carry the name of the capital, then let me ask you, capital bird: the one I love so dearly, is she still well, or is she gone?
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Narihira
Kita e yuku kari zo naku naru tsurete koshi kazu wa tarade zo kaeru beranaru
I hear the wild geese crying as they fly back north. They came here together, but it seems they are going home with one of their number missing.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yama kakusu haru no kasumi zo urameshiki izure miyako no sakai naru ramu
How I resent the spring haze that hides the mountains from me. Which of those hills, I wonder, marks the border of the capital?
Kokin Wakashu - Oto
Kiehatsuru toki shi nakereba koshiji naru shirayama no na wa yuki ni zo arikeru
Because its snow never melts away entirely, the name of White Mountain on the Koshi road must have come from that snow after all.
Kokin Wakashu - Oshikochi no Mitsune
Ito ni yoru mono naranaku ni wakareji no kokorobosoku mo omōyuru kana
It is not as if my heart were thread twisted fine, and yet on this road of parting it feels so thin and forlorn.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Yo o samumi oku hatsushimo o haraitsutsu kusa no makura ni amata tabi nenu
Because the nights are so cold, I have brushed away the first frost again and again, and slept on a pillow of grass through many nights of this journey.
Kokin Wakashu - Oshikochi no Mitsune
Yūzukuyo obotsukanaki o tamakushige futami no ura wa akete koso mime
The light of the evening moon is too faint to see by, so I will wait for the dawn and then, like opening a fine comb box, gaze upon the bay of Futami.
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kanesuke
Karikurashi tanabatatsume ni yado karamu ama no kawara ni ware wa kinikeri
I have spent the whole day hunting until dusk. Tonight I will ask the Weaver Maid for a place to stay, for I find I have come all the way to the banks of the River of Heaven.
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Narihira
Hitotose ni hitotabi kimasu kimi mateba yado kasu hito mo araji to zo omou
The Weaver Maid waits for her beloved, who comes only once a year, so I doubt she will lend her lodging to anyone else.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Aritsune
Kono tabi wa nusa mo toriaezu tamukeyama momiji no nishiki kami no manimani
This journey came so suddenly that I could not prepare an offering. So on Mount Tamuke I offer instead this brocade of autumn leaves; may the gods accept it as they please.
Kokin Wakashu - Sugawara no Michizane
Tamuke ni wa tsuzuri no sode mo kiru beki ni momiji ni akeru kami ya kaesamu
As an offering I ought to cut off even the sleeve of my patched monk's robe, but the gods, already sated with the splendor of autumn leaves, might well send it back to me.
Kokin Wakashu - Sosei
Kokoro kara hana no shizuku ni sobochitsutsu ukuhizu to nomi tori no naku ramu
It is by its own choice that the bird soaks itself in the drops falling from the blossoms—so why does it cry nothing but "How wretched! I never get dry"?
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Toshiyuki
Kubeki hodo toki suginure ya machiwabite naku naru koe no hito o toyomuru
Perhaps because the time when it ought to have come has already passed, the cuckoo's voice, crying as though it could wait no longer, stirs everyone who hears it.
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Toshiyuki
Nami no utsu se mireba tama zo midarekeru hirowaba sode ni hakanakaramu ya
Looking at the shallows where the waves break, I see jewels scattered everywhere. If I were to gather them, would they simply vanish, fleeting, in my sleeve?
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Shigeharu