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- Kinyo Wakashu
Hayaki se ni tatanu bakari zo mizuguruma ware mo ukiyo ni meguru to o shire
Water wheel, the only difference is that I do not stand in the rushing shallows; know that I too go round and round in this sorrowful world.
Kinyo Wakashu - Gyōson
Tsukaetsuru konomi no hodo o kazoureba aware kozue ni narinikeru kana
When I count the years this body of mine has served, I find, alas, that like fruit grown at the tips of the branches, I have come to the end of my days.
Kinyo Wakashu - Fujiwara no Yorimune
Sugikikeru tsukihi no hodo mo shiraretsutsu konomi o miru mo aware naru kana
I come to feel how many months and days have gone by, and looking at this fruit, and at you yourself, I am deeply moved.
Kusamakura sa koso wa tabi no toko narame kesa shimo okite kaeru beshi ya wa
This may be no more than a bed on your journey, yet must you rise and go home on this, of all mornings?
Nokiba utsu mashiro no taka no ebukuro ni okie mo sasade kaeshitsuru kana
I sent back the bait bag of the pure white hawk tethered at the eaves without so much as a morsel of lure inside.
Tagui naku yo ni omoshiroki tori nareba yukashikarazu to tare ka omowamu
Since it is a bird without equal in all the world, who could think they had no wish to see it?
Tori no ko no mada kai nagara aramaseba oba to iu mono wa oiidezaramashi
Had the chick remained inside its shell, those things called tail feathers would never have grown out.
Kinyo Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Higurashi no koe bakari suru shiba no to wa irihi no sasu ni makasete zo miru
At my brushwood door, where nothing is heard but the voice of the evening cicada, I leave it open to the setting sun as it streams in, and gaze.
Kinyo Wakashu - Fujiwara no Akisue
Toshi fureba waga itadaki ni oku shimo o kusa no ue to mo omoikeru kana
As the years passed, the frost that settled on the crown of my head I had thought was only frost lying on the grass.
Kinyo Wakashu - Fujiwara no Nakazane
Urayamashi kumo no kakehashi tachikaeri futatabi noboru michi o shiraba ya
How I envy you! I wish I knew the way you found to return and climb once more the ladder that reaches into the clouds.
Omoiki ya kumoi no tsuki o yoso ni mite kokoro no yami ni madou beshi to wa
Did I ever think that I would watch the moon above the palace from afar and wander lost in the darkness of a parent's heart?
Mi no usa mo tou hitokoto ni sekaretsutsu kokorozukushi no michi wa tomarinu
Even the grief of my lot was held back by the single kind word you sent, and my journey to Tsukushi, that road of a troubled heart, has been called off.
Kinyo Wakashu - Hanazono no Sadaijin-ke no Kodaishin
Nenuru yo no kaesa wakashiku mieshikado waga chigaureba koto nakarikeri
On the night I slept, the road home looked ill-omened in my dream, but because I turned the dream aside, nothing happened.
Kinyo Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hikage ni wa nakina tachikeri omigoromo kite miyo to koso iu bekarikere
At the rites where the sun-shade vines are worn, a groundless rumor has arisen; I ought to have told them to put on the ritual robes and come see for themselves.
Naki kage ni kakekeru tachi mo aru mono o saya tsuka no ma ni wasurehatekeru
There is the tale of a sword hung up before the spirit of the dead, yet you, in a fleeting moment, have forgotten everything.
Kinyo Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori
Mishi hito wa hitori waga mi ni sowanedomo okurenu mono wa namida narikeri
Of those I once knew, not a single one remains at my side, yet the one thing that never falls behind me is my tears.
Kinyo Wakashu - Gyōson