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- Kokin Wakashu
Tsure mo naki hito o kou tote yamabiko no kotae suru made nagekitsuru kana
Loving one so cold, I have lamented so loudly that even the mountain echo has answered me.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yuku mizu ni kazu kaku yori mo hakanaki wa omowanu hito o omou narikeri
More futile even than writing numbers on flowing water is to love someone who does not love me back.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hito o omou kokoro wa ware ni aranebaya mi no madou dani shirarezaruramu
Is it because the heart that loves you no longer dwells in me that I cannot even tell that I myself am lost in love?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Omoiyaru sakai haruka ni nari ya suru madou yumeji ni au hito no naki
Has the distance between us grown so great, for all my longing? On the dream path where I wander, there is no one I can meet.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yume no uchi ni aimimu koto o tanomitsutsu kuraseru yoi wa nemu kata mo nashi
All day I lived trusting that I would meet you in a dream, yet now that night has come, I do not know how to fall asleep.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Koishine to suru waza narashi mubatama no yoru wa sugara ni yume ni mietsutsu
It must be a scheme to make me die of love: all night long, through the jet-black dark, you keep appearing in my dreams.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Namidagawa makura nagaruru ukine ni wa yume mo sadaka ni miezu zo arikeru
In this sorrowful, drifting sleep, with a river of tears flowing over my pillow, not even my dreams could be seen clearly.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Koi sureba waga mi wa kage to narinikeri saritote hito ni sowanu mono yue
Since I fell in love, I have wasted away to a mere shadow; and yet I cannot cling to you as a shadow clings.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kagaribi ni aranu waga mi no nazo mo kaku namida no kawa ni ukite moyuramu
I am no cresset fire, so why should I float like this upon a river of tears and yet burn with the flame of love?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kagaribi no kage to naru mi no wabishiki wa nagarete shita ni moyuru narikeri
The sorrow of this body, become like the reflection of a cresset on the water, is that even as it flows with tears, it goes on burning beneath the surface.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hayaki se ni mirume oiseba waga sode no namida no kawa ni uemashi mono o
If the seaweed called mirume, the chance to meet, could grow in rapid streams, I would plant it in the river of tears that flows down my sleeves.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Okibe ni mo yoranu tamamo no nami no ue ni midarete nomi ya koiwatarinamu
Like the fine seaweed that drifts toward neither the offing nor the shore, tossed and tangled on the waves, must I go on loving, my heart forever in turmoil?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ashigamo no sawagu irie no shiranami no shirazu ya hito o kaku koimu to wa
Like the white waves rising in the cove where the reed-ducks clamor, does she not know, I wonder, how deeply I love her?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hito shirenu omoi o tsune ni Suruga naru Fuji no yama koso waga mi narikere
Mount Fuji in Suruga, forever burning with a fire unknown to others, is none other than my own self.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tobu tori no koe mo kikoenu okuyama no fukaki kokoro o hito wa shiranamu
Like the deep mountains where not even the calls of flying birds can be heard, my heart is deep, and I wish the one I love would come to know it.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ōsaka no yūtsukedori mo waga gotoku hito ya koishiki ne nomi nakuramu
Is the barrier cock of Osaka, like me, longing for someone, that it does nothing but cry aloud?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet