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- Gosen Wakashu
Koro o hete aiminu toki wa shiratama no namida mo haru wa iro masarikeri
When so long has passed without our meeting, even my tears, like white pearls, take on a deeper color in the spring.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tokihira
Hito kouru namida wa haru zo nurumikeru taenu omoi no wakasu narubeshi
The tears of one who longs grow warm in spring; surely it is the never-dying fire of love that heats them.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Tsurashi to mo ikaga uramin hototogisu waga yado chikaku naku koe wa sede
How can you resent me and call me cruel? Cuckoo, you never once let your voice be heard singing near my house.
Sato goto ni naki koso watare hototogisu sumika sadamenu kimi tazunu tote
The cuckoo cries as it goes from village to village, searching for you, who never settle in any one place.
Gosen Wakashu - Prince Atsuyoshi
Kazu naranu miyamagakure no hototogisu hito shirenu ne o nakitsutsu zo furu
Like a cuckoo of no account, hidden deep in the mountains, I spend my days crying out in a voice no one hears.
Gosen Wakashu - Harumichi no Toshi
Au koto no kataito zo to wa shirinagara tama no o bakari nani ni yoriken
Though I knew that meeting you was a single, unpaired thread, hard to join, why did I twist the cord of my very life toward you?
Gosen Wakashu - Prince Koretada
Omou to wa iu mono kara ni tomosureba wasururu kusa no hana ni ya wa aranu
You say you love me, but are you not, all too easily, a flower of the grass of forgetting?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Uete miru ware wa wasurede adabito ni mazu wasuraruru hana ni zo arikeru
I who planted it and watch over it do not forget; rather, I am the flower that the faithless one forgets first of all.
Ura wakazu mirume karu chō ama no mi wa nani ka Naniwa no kata e shimo yuku
You, a fisher said to gather seaweed in any bay at all—why go especially toward Naniwa?
Gosen Wakashu - Tosa
Kimi o omou fukasa kurabe ni Tsu no kuni no horie mi ni yuku ware ni ya wa aranu
Am I not going to see the canal in the land of Tsu only to compare its depth with the depth of my love for you?
Gosen Wakashu - Taira no Sadafun
Ikade kaku kokoro hitotsu o futashie ni uku mo tsuraku mo nashite misuran
How is it that you take my single heart and split it in two, making me know both sorrow and bitterness?
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Tomosureba tama ni kurabeshi masukagami hito no takara to miru zo kanashiki
It is sad to see the clear mirror I so often likened to a jewel now become another person's treasure.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Iwaseyama tani no shitamizu uchishinobi hito no minu ma wa nagarete zo furu
Like the water flowing hidden in the valley below Iwase Hill, I keep my love secret, and when no one is looking I pass my days in flowing tears.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ureshige ni kimi ga tanomeshi koto no ha wa katami ni kumeru mizu ni zo arikeru
The words you so happily gave me to rely on were only water scooped up in a loose-woven basket, slipping away between us.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yukiyaranu yumeji ni madou tamoto ni wa amatsu sora naki tsuyu zo okikeru
On the sleeves of one who wanders lost along a dream path that never reaches you, there settles a dew that did not come from the sky.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Mi wa hayaku Nara no miyako to narinishi o koishiki koto no mada mo furinu ka
My body long ago grew old like the ancient capital of Nara; has my longing, then, still not grown old?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet