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- Shui Wakashu
Okureite naku naru yori wa ashitazu no nado ka yowai o yuzurazariken
Rather than being left behind to cry, why did the crane of the reed beds not give its long years to its master?
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Saneyori
Toshi o hete tachinarashitsuru ashitazu no ika naru kata ni ato todomu ran
O crane of the reeds, who for many years has trodden this ground smooth, in what other quarter will you now leave your footprints?
Shui Wakashu - Atago no Miya
Yukusue no shinobugusa ni mo ari ya tote tsuyu no katami mo okan to zo omou
Thinking it might serve as a token of remembrance in the years to come, I mean to leave with it even a keepsake as slight as a drop of dew.
Shui Wakashu - Kiyohara no Motosuke
Uete miru kusaba zo yo o ba shirasekeru okite wa kiyuru kesa no asatsuyu
The grasses I planted and gaze upon have taught me the nature of this world—the morning dew of today, which settles and vanishes as I rise.
Shui Wakashu - Nakatsukasa
Tsuyu no inochi oshi to ni wa arazu kimi o mata mide ya to omou zo kanashikarikeru
It is not that I grieve for this life, fragile as dew; what saddens me is the thought that I may never see you again.
Shui Wakashu - Yuge no Yoshitoki
Oshikaranu inochi ya sara ni nobinu ran owari no keburi shimuru nobe nite
Will this life, for which I care so little, be stretched out even longer, here on the moor I have claimed as the place for the smoke of my last rites?
Shui Wakashu - Kiyohara no Motosuke
Kagiri naki namida no tsuyu ni musubarete hito no shimo to wa naru ni ya aru ran
My endless tears, like dew that freezes and binds into frost—will I, then, end up as frost, lying below everyone else?
Shui Wakashu - Saeki no Kiyotada
Ukiyo ni wa yuki kakurenade kakikumori furu wa omoi no hoka ni mo aru kana
Unable to go off and hide from this sorrowful world, I live on beneath a clouded sky, as the snow falls—how far this is from anything I had imagined.
Shui Wakashu - Kiyohara no Motosuke
Wabibito wa ukiyo no naka ni ikeraji to omou koto sae kanawazarikeri
For one in despair, even the wish not to go on living in this sorrowful world is something that cannot be granted.
Shui Wakashu - Minamoto no Kageakira
Yo no naka ni aranu tokoro mo eteshigana toshi furinitaru katachi kakusamu
If only I could find a place outside this world, where I might hide this form that has grown old with the years.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yo no naka o kaku iiii no hatehate wa ika ni ya ika ni naramu to suran
We go on saying this and that about the world, and in the end of all ends, what, oh what, will become of it?
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Inishie no tora no tagui ni mi o nageba saka to bakari wa towamu to zo omou
If, like the one long ago who gave his body to the starving tiger, I were to throw myself away, then surely you would at least ask, "Is that so?"
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Haru aki ni omoi midarete wakikanetsu toki ni tsuketsutsu utsuru kokoro wa
Torn between spring and autumn, I cannot tell which is the better, for my heart shifts with every season as it comes.
Shui Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Ōkata no aki ni kokoro wa yoseshikado hana miru toki wa izure to mo nashi
Ordinarily my heart has leaned toward autumn, yet when I look upon the cherry blossoms, I cannot say whether spring or autumn is the finer.
Shui Wakashu - Shōkyōden no Toshiko
Haru wa tada hana no hitoe ni saku bakari mono no aware wa aki zo masareru
Spring is nothing more than blossoms blooming wholeheartedly in single layers; for the deep, quiet pathos of things, autumn is the greater.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Orikara ni izure to mo naki tori no ne mo ikaga sadamemu toki naranu mi wa
The voices of these birds, neither better than the other, each depending on its season: how could I ever decide between them, I who have never had my time?
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Asateru