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- Izayoi Nikki
Machikeri na mukashi mo koeshi Miyajiyama onaji shigure no meguriau yo o
So it had been waiting: Miyaji Hill, which I crossed once long ago, waiting for the season to come round again and meet the same winter showers.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Nushi ya tare yama no susono ni yado shimete atari sabishiki take no hitomura
Who is the master here, who has taken this ground at the foot of the hill for a home, where nothing stands about but a single stand of bamboo?
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Sumiwabite tsuki no miyako o ideshikado ukimi hanarenu ariake no kage
Weary of living there, I left the capital of the moon; and yet the light of the dawn moon will not leave this sorrowing self.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Tabibito no onaji michi ni ya idetsuramu kasa uchikitaru ariake no tsuki
Has it come out on the same road as the travellers, this dawn moon that has put on a rain-hat of cloud?
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Waga tame ya nami mo Takashi no hama naramu sode no minato no nami wa yasumade
Is it for my sake that the waves run so high at Takashi, the shore whose name is height? For the waves in the harbour of my sleeves never settle.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Shirahama ni sumi no iro naru shimatsudori fude mo oyobaba e ni kakitemashi
Ink-black birds on a white beach, the cormorants of the islands; if only my brush were equal to it, I would set them down in a painting.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Kamome iru susaki no iwa mo yoso narazu nami no kakekosu sode ni minarete
The rocks of the spit where the gulls settle are no strangers to me; my sleeves know well enough what it is to have the waves break over them.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Hamamatsu no kawaranu kage o tazunekite mishi hito nami ni mukashi o zo tou
I have come seeking the unchanging shade of the pines of Hamamatsu, and since those I once knew are gone, it is the trees I ask about the old days.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Mizu no awa no ukiyo ni wataru hodo o miyo hayase no obune sao mo yasumezu
Look at us crossing this world as fleeting as foam on water: a small boat on the swift shallows, and the pole never once at rest.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Tare ka kite Mitsuke no sato to kiku kara ni itodo tabine no sora osoroshiki
Who came and found this place, that it should be called Mitsuke, the Found? No sooner do I hear the name than the sky over my traveller's bed grows more fearful still.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Koekurasu fumoto no sato no yūyami ni matsukaze okuru Saya no Nakayama
I spent the whole day crossing it, and now, into the dusk of the village at its foot, Saya no Nakayama sends down the sound of wind in the pines.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Kumo kakaru Saya no Nakayama koenu to wa miyako ni tsugeyo ariake no tsuki
Tell them in the capital that I have crossed it, the cloud-hung pass of Saya no Nakayama: tell them, moon still lingering at dawn.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Wataramu to omoi ya kakeshi Azumaji ni ari to bakari wa Kikugawa no mizu
Did I ever set my heart on crossing it? The Kikugawa, of which I had heard only that it lay somewhere on the eastern road.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Omoiizuru miyako no koto wa Oigawa iku se no ishi no kazu mo oyobaji
The things I remember of the capital: not even the stones in all the shallows of the Oi River could match them for number.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Waga kokoro utsutsu to mo nashi Utsu no yama yume ni mo tōki mukashi kou tote
My heart cannot tell waking from anything else, here on Mount Utsu, longing for a past that stays distant even in dreams.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni
Tsuta kaede shigurenu hima mo Utsu no yama namida ni sode no iro zo kogaruru
Ivy and maple: even in the hours when no shower falls on Mount Utsu, my sleeves are burnt to that same colour by my tears.
Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni