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- Kinyo Wakashu
Kayabuki no ko ya wasuraruru tsuma naramu hisashiku hito no otozure mo senu
Is this, like a reed-thatched hut, what a forgotten wife becomes? For so long now there has been no visit, no word from you.
Waga koi no omou bakari no iro ni ideba iwade mo hito ni miemashi mono o
If my love would show its color as deeply as I feel it, then even without a word you would surely see it.
Hototogisu kumoi no yoso ni narishikaba ware zo nagori no sora ni nakareshi
Since the cuckoo has gone far off beyond the clouds, it was I who found myself crying into the sky it left behind.
Kinyo Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kinzane
Mizu no omo ni furu shirayuki no kata mo naku kie ya shinamashi hito no tsurasa ni
Like white snow falling onto the water and vanishing without a trace, should I just fade away, for the coldness of your heart?
Matsu hito no ōzora wataru tsuki naraba nururu tamoto ni kage wa mitemashi
If the one I wait for were the moon crossing the wide sky, I could at least see your light reflected in my tear-soaked sleeves.
Kinyo Wakashu - Yoen
Au koto mo Nagoe ni asaru ashigamo no ukine o naku to hito wa shirazu ya
With no chance of meeting, like the reed ducks foraging in the inlet of Nago, I sleep adrift in sorrow and cry; do you not know it?
Kinyo Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tadamichi
Sa nomi ya wa waga mi no uki ni nashihatete hito no tsurasa o uramizarubeki
Must I lay everything on my own unhappy lot and never once resent the coldness of your heart?
Na ni tateru Awade no ura no ama dani mo mirume wa kazuku mono to koso kike
Even the divers of Awade Bay, whose very name means not meeting, dive for sea-pine weed, I have heard; yet I have no chance even to see you.
Ima hito no kokoro o Miwa no yama nite zo suginishi kata wa omoishiraruru
Now that I have seen your heart, as at Mount Miwa with its cedars, the days gone by come home to me with full force.
Mezurashi ya iwama ni yodomu wasuremizu ikuka o sugite omoiizuramu
How rare this is! Like water forgotten, pooled among the rocks, I wonder how many days had to pass before you thought of me again.
Tamasaka ni au yo wa yume no kokochi shite koishi mo nado ka utsutsu naruramu
The rare nights we meet feel like a dream, so why is it that only my longing is so real?
Kinyo Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Koiwaburu kimi ni au chō koto no ha wa itsuwari sae zo ureshikarikeru
Words that tell me I may meet you, for whom I pine, bring me joy even when they are lies.
Yomo no umi no uraura goto ni asaredomo ayashiku mienu ikeru kai kana
Though I search every bay of the seas on all four sides, strangely I cannot find it anywhere: the shell that would make life worth living.
Tamasaka ni nami no tachiyoru uraura wa nani no mirume no kai ka arubeki
On shores where the waves come in only now and then, what sea-pine weed, what shells could there be? What good is such a rare meeting?
Asamashiku namida ni ukabu waga mi kana kokoro karuku wa omowazarishi o
How shocking, this self of mine set afloat on my tears, though it was never lightly that I loved.
Na kiku yori kanete mo utsuru kokoro kana ika ni shite ka wa aubekaruramu
From the moment I heard your name, my heart turned to you, as a chrysanthemum changes its hue; how, I wonder, will I ever meet you?