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- Kokin Wakashu
Tamoto yori hanarete tama o tsutsumame ya kore namu sore to utsuse mimu kashi
What but a sleeve could ever wrap such jewels? "This is the very jewel," you may say—so take it into your sleeve and see for yourself.
Kokin Wakashu - Mibu no Tadamine
Ana ume ni tsune naru beku mo mienu kana koishikaru beki ka wa nioitsutsu
Ah, how sad—to my eyes it hardly seems a thing that could last forever, even as the scent I am bound to miss keeps drifting sweetly on.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kazukedomo nami no naka ni wa sagurarete kaze fuku goto ni ukishizumu tama
Though I dive down after it, I can only grope blindly in the waves; with every gust of wind, the jewel rises and sinks again.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Ima ikuka haru shi nakereba uguisu mo mono wa nagamete omou beranari
Only a few days of spring remain, and so even the warbler seems to gaze absently, lost in melancholy thought.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Au kara mo mono wa nao koso kanashikere wakaremu koto o kanete omoeba
The very moment we meet, everything grows all the sadder—because I already foresee the parting that is bound to come.
Kokin Wakashu - Kiyohara no Fukayabu
Ashihiki no yama tachihanare yuku kumo no yadori sadamenu yo ni koso arikere
Like the clouds that part from the mountain and drift away, never settling on a place to rest, so too, I have come to see, is this world.
Kokin Wakashu - Ono no Shigekage
Miyoshino no Yoshino no taki ni ukabiizuru awa o ka tama no kiyu to mitsuramu
The foam that rises and floats at the falls of lovely Yoshino—did people see it as jewels that melt away?
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tomonori
Aki wa kinu ima ya magaki no kirigirisu yona yona nakamu kaze no samusa ni
Autumn has come. Now the crickets in the brushwood fences will cry night after night in the chill of the wind.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kaku bakari au hi no mare ni naru hito o ikaga tsurashi to omowazaru beki
When the days we meet have grown this rare, how could I not find such a person cruel?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hitome yue nochi ni au hi no harukeku wa waga tsuraki ni ya omoinasaremu
If, because of watchful eyes, the day we next meet lies far away, will you come to believe that it is I who am heartless?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Chirinureba nochi wa akuta ni naru hana o omoishirazu mo madou chō kana
These are flowers that, once fallen, become nothing but dust and litter—yet, knowing nothing of this, the butterfly flutters about them, lost in its longing.
Kokin Wakashu - Henjō
Ware wa kesa ui ni zo mitsuru hana no iro o ada naru mono to iu bekarikeri
This morning I saw it for the very first time: the color of this flower is what we ought to call fleeting and inconstant.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Shiratsuyu o tama ni nuku ya to sasagani no hana ni mo ha ni mo ito o mina eshi
As if meaning to thread the white dewdrops into strands of jewels, the spider has stretched its silk over every flower and every leaf.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tomonori
Asatsuyu o wake sobochitsutsu hana mimu to ima zo noyama o mina e shirinuru
Pushing through the morning dew and soaked through, eager to see the flowers, I have now at last wandered over every hill and field and come to know them all.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tomonori
Ogurayama mine tachinarashi naku shika no enikemu aki o shiru hito zo naki
The deer that cries on Mount Ogura, treading its peaks smooth with its wanderings—how many autumns it has lived through, no one knows.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Aki chikō no wa narinikeri shiratsuyu no okeru kusaba mo iro kawariyuku
The fields, I see, have drawn close to autumn: even the grass leaves where the white dew lies are turning to new colors.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tomonori