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- Sarashina Nikki
Miyakoniwa matsuramumonoo hototogisu kyōhinemosuni nakikurasukana
In the capital they must still be waiting for it—yet here the cuckoo has spent the whole of this day crying the hours away.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Yamafukaku tarekaomoiwa okosubeki tsukimiruhitowa ōkaramedomo
Deep in these mountains, who would send a thought our way? There must be many who look up at the moon, but that is another thing.
Fukakiyoni tsukimiruoriwa shiranedomo mazuyamazatozo omoiyararuru
When someone looks up at the moon late in the night, though they may know nothing of life in the hills, it is a mountain village their thoughts turn to first.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Akinoyono tsumakoikanuru shikanonewa tōyamanikoso kikubekarikere
The belling of a stag on an autumn night, unable to hold in his longing for his mate—that was a voice meant to be heard from distant hills.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Madahitome shiranuyamabeno matsukazemo otoshitekaeru monotokosokike
Even the pine wind on a hillside no one has yet come to know is said to make some sound before it turns and goes—and yet you went back without a word.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Omoishiru hitonimisebaya yamazatono akinoyofukaki ariakenotsuki
How I would like to show this to someone who understands such things—the late-night moon of autumn, still in the sky over this mountain village.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Nawashirono mizukagebakari mieshitano karihatsurumade nagainishikeri
Those fields where nothing showed but the shine of water on the seedbeds have been reaped clean—so long a stay I have made of it.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Mizusaezo sumitaenikeru konohachiru arashinoyamano kokorobososani
Even the water has ceased to run clear and to dwell here—for the loneliness of these hills where the storm strips the leaves away.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Chigiriokishi hananosakario tsugenukana haruyamadakonu hanayaniowanu
You do not send the word you promised, when the blossom should be at its height. Has spring not yet reached you? Have the flowers not opened?
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Takenohano soyoguyogotoni nezameshite nanitomonakini monozokanashiki
Each rustle of the bamboo leaves, each night of them, wakes me, and for no reason I can name a sadness comes.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Izukotomo tsuyunoawarewa wakarejio asajigaharano akizokanashiki
Wherever one is, the sadness the dew brings can hardly differ—and yet it is the autumn of that field of low reeds that grieves me.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Asakuraya imawakumoini kikumonoo naokinomaroga nanorioyasuru
Asakura—your name is heard now up among the clouds of the palace, and yet do you still call it out, as they did at the hall of unbarked logs?
Omoukoto kokoronikanau minariseba akinowakareo fukakushiramashi
Were I a man whose wishes came to pass as he would have them, I might have known this autumn parting in all its depth.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue
Kaketekoso omowazarishika konoyonite shibashimokimini wakarubeshitowa
It never once crossed my mind that in this world I should be parted from you, even for a little while.
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume
Chigusanaru kokoronaraini akinonono hanaminiikuto kimiomirukana
It is the habit of a heart that turns to a thousand different flowers that makes you see me as someone off to view the autumn fields in bloom.
Akioikani omoiizuramu fuyufukami arashinimadou oginokarehawa
How must it be remembering the autumn—that withered reed leaf, tossed and broken by the storm, now that the winter has grown deep?
Sarashina Nikki - Sugawara no Takasue no Musume