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- Gosen Wakashu
Sumiyoshi no kishi no shiranami yoruyoru wa ama no yosome ni miru zo kanashiki
Like the white waves that draw near the shore of Sumiyoshi night after night, I come close, yet can only gaze from afar like a fisher looking on—and that is sad.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kimi kou to nurenishi sode no kawakanu wa omoi no hoka ni areba narikeri
My sleeves, soaked with longing for you, never dry—because the fire of my love, against all expectation, burns somewhere outside them.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Awazarishi toki ika narishi mono tote ka tada ima no ma mo mineba koishiki
How did I ever live in the days before we met? Now if I do not see you even for a moment, I long for you.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yo no naka ni shinoburu koi no wabishiki wa aite no nochi no awanu narikeri
What makes a hidden love in this world so painful is not being able to meet again after we have once met.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Koi o nomi tsune ni Suruga no yama nareba Fuji no ne ni nomi nakanu hi wa nashi
Since I do nothing but love, I am like the mountains of Suruga, and there is not a day when I do not cry aloud, as if from the peak of Fuji.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kimi ni yori waga mi zo tsuraki tamadare no mizu wa koishi to omowamashi ya wa
It is because of you that I suffer so; had I not glimpsed you through the jeweled blinds, would I ever have known this longing?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ima zo shiru akanu wakare no akatsuki wa kimi o koiji ni nururu mono to wa
Now I know that at the dawn of a parting that leaves one unsatisfied, one is drenched on the muddy road of longing for you.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yoso ni furu ame to koso kike obotsukana nani o ka hito no koiji to iuran
I hear the rain fell somewhere else—how vague it all is! What, then, do you mean by the muddy road of love?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Taehatsuru mono to wa mitsutsu sasagani no ito o tanomeru kokorobososa yo
Though I can see it will snap in the end, I rely on a thread as frail as a spider's—how forlorn I feel.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Uchiwatashi nagaki kokoro wa Yatsuhashi no kumode ni omou koto wa taeseji
My heart, stretching long like a bridge laid across, may branch in all directions like the spider-leg streams of Yatsuhashi, but it will never break.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Omou hito omowanu hito no omou hito omowazaranan omoishirubeku
You whom I love but who do not love me—may the one you love not love you back, so that you too may learn what it is to love in vain.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kogarashi no mori no shitakusa kaze hayami hito no nageki wa oisoinikeri
Like the undergrowth of Kogarashi Wood stirred by the fierce wind, your grief, it seems, has only grown thicker.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Wakare o ba kanashiki mono to kikishikado ushiroyasuku mo omōyuru kana
I had heard that partings are full of sorrow, yet now, strangely, I feel at ease, with nothing left behind to trouble me.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nakitamuru tamoto kōreru kesa mireba kokoro tokete mo kimi o omowazu
Seeing this morning my sleeves frozen with the tears I wept and stored there, I cannot let my heart thaw and think of you fondly.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Mi o wakete aramahoshiku zo omōyuru hito wa kurushi to iikeru mono o
I find myself wishing I could split myself in two, though people have said that such a thing brings only pain.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kumoi nite hito o koishi to omou kana ware wa ashibe no tazu naranaku ni
Here among the clouds I find myself longing for you, though I am no crane from the reedy shore.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet