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- Shui Wakashu
Oya no oya to omowamashikaba toitemashi waga ko no ko ni wa aranu narubeshi
Had he thought of me as his parent's parent, he would have come to visit; it seems he is not my child's child after all.
Shui Wakashu - Aunt of Minamoto no Shigeyuki
Yama takami yūhi kakurenu asajihara nochi mimu tame ni shime yuwamashi o
Because the mountains are high, the evening sun has hidden itself from the field of low reeds; I should have tied a marker there, so that I might see it again later.
Shui Wakashu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Na nomi shite yama wa Mikasa mo nakarikeri asahi yūhi no sasu o iu kamo
Mount Mikasa is only a name, and the mountain has no hat at all; perhaps they mean the morning and evening sun shining down, as one would put on a hat.
Shui Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Na nomi shite nareru mo miezu Umezugawa iseki no mizu mo moreba narikeri
Umezu River, "Plum Ford," has the name alone, and no plums are seen ripening there; it must be that, like the water through the weir, they leak away.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Na ni wa iedo kuroku mo miezu Urushigawa sasuga ni wataru mizu wa nurumeri
Though it is called Urushi River, "Lacquer River," it does not look black at all; yet, as one might expect, the water one wades through seems warm, as though lacquered.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yo no naka ni ayashiki mono wa ame furedo Ōharagawa no hiru ni zo arikeru
The strangest thing in all the world, I find, is that even while the rain falls, there is a "hiru" in the Ōhara River, a leech that is also "noon."
Shui Wakashu - The Monk Egyo
Kawayanagi ito wa midori ni aru mono o izure ka ake no koromo naru ran
The threads of the riverside willow are green, so which of them, I wonder, will become a robe of scarlet?
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Nakafumi
Shiranami no uchi ya kaesu to matsu hodo ni hama no masago no kazu zo tsumoreru
While I waited, thinking you might strike back like the white waves breaking, my count of wins has piled up like the countless sands upon the shore.
Shui Wakashu - Emperor Murakami
Itsushika to akete mitareba hamachidori ato aru koto ni ato no naki kana
Eager to see, I opened it and looked, but where there should have been tracks like those of plovers on the shore, that is, writing, there are no tracks at all.
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Saneyori
Todomete mo nani ni ka wa sen hamachidori furinuru ato wa nami ni kietsutsu
What use would it be to write it down? Like the plovers' tracks on the shore, old marks are washed away by the waves, time and again.
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Sanesuke
Minasoko no waku bakari ni ya kukuru ran yoru hito mo naki taki no shiraito
Is it diving and winding so that the depths of the water well up below, this white thread of the waterfall that no one twists, that no one comes near?
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Oto ni kiku Tsuzumi no taki o uchimireba tada yamakawa no naru ni zo arikeru
When I took a look at the Drum Falls, so famed by report, I found it was merely a mountain stream sounding away.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Oto ni kiku Koma no watari no urizukuri to nari kaku nari naru kokoro kana
Like the famed melon grower of Koma's ford, whose melons ripen this way and that, yours is a heart that turns into one thing and then another.
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kuniaki
Sadame naku narunaru uri no tsura mite mo tachi ya yorikomu Koma no sukimono
Even seeing the vines of melons ripening one after another without end, or that face of yours, would the gallant of Koma stop by and come to call?
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Asateru
Michinoku no Adachi no hara no Kurozuka ni oni komoreri to kiku wa makoto ka
Is it true, as I hear, that demons lie hidden at the Black Mound on the plain of Adachi in Michinoku?
Shui Wakashu - Taira no Kanemori
Nusubito no Tatsuta no yama ni irinikeri onaji kazashi no na ni ya kegaren
I have gone into the Tatsuta Hills, where robbers rise up; wearing the same sprays in my hair as they, will I be stained with the same name?
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tamenobu