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- Kokin Wakashu
Tsurezure no nagame ni masaru namidagawa sode nomi nurete au yoshi mo nashi
As I brood in idleness, my tears swell like a river fed by long rains; they soak only my sleeves, and I have no way at all to meet you.
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Toshiyuki
Asami koso sode wa hitsurame namidagawa mi sae nagaru to kikaba tanomamu
Your river of tears must be shallow, since it only wets your sleeves. If I hear that it has swept away your very body, then I will rely on your heart.
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Narihira
Yorube nami mi o koso tōku hedatetsure kokoro wa kimi ga kage to nariniki
With no way to draw near, I have kept my body far away; yet my heart has already become your shadow, never leaving your side.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Itazura ni yukite wa kinuru mono yue ni mimaku hoshisa ni izanawaretsutsu
Though I only go and come back again for nothing, I am drawn out time after time by the longing to see you.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Awanu yo no furu shirayuki to tsumorinaba ware sae tomo ni kenubeki mono o
If the nights without you were to pile up like falling white snow, I too would surely melt away and vanish along with it.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Aki no no ni sasa wakeshi asa no sode yori mo awade koshi yo zo hichi masarikeru
Wetter than my sleeves on the morning I pushed through dewy bamboo grass in the autumn fields were my sleeves on the night I came home without meeting you.
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Narihira
Mirume naki waga mi o ura to shiraneba ya karenade ama no ashi tayuku kuru
Is it because he does not know that I am like a bay where no sea-pine grows, with no chance of meeting, that the fisherman keeps coming, never giving up, until his legs grow weary?
Kokin Wakashu - Ono no Komachi
Awazu shite koyoi akenaba haru no hi no nagaku ya hito o tsurashi to omowamu
If this night should break into dawn without our meeting, will I, like the long days of spring, go on thinking you cruel for a long, long time?
Kokin Wakashu - Minamoto no Muneyuki
Ariake no tsurenaku mieshi wakare yori akatsuki bakari uki mono wa nashi
Ever since that parting, when the lingering moon of dawn looked so cold and indifferent, nothing has been as painful to me as the dark hour before daybreak.
Kokin Wakashu - Mibu no Tadamine
Au koto no nagisa ni shi yoru nami nareba uramite nomi zo tachikaerikeru
I am a wave washing onto a shore where no meeting comes, so, like a wave that only glimpses the bay, I turn back full of resentment.
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Motokata
Kanete yori kaze ni sakidatsu nami nare ya au koto naki ni madaki tatsuramu
Is it like a wave that rises before the wind has even blown, that, though we have not yet met, rumors of us rise so soon?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Michinoku ni ari to iu naru natorigawa naki na torite wa kurushikarikeri
Like the Natori River, said to flow in distant Michinoku, whose very name means "taking a name," to be saddled with a rumor I have not earned has proved so painful.
Kokin Wakashu - Mibu no Tadamine
Ayanakute madaki nakina no tatsutagawa watarade yamamu mono naranaku ni
For no reason at all, a baseless rumor has already risen, like the Tatsuta River, though it is not as if I mean to give up without ever crossing it.
Kokin Wakashu - Miharu no Arisuke
Hito wa isa ware wa nakina no oshikereba mukashi mo ima mo shirazu to o iwamu
I cannot say how you feel, but I grudge having my name stained by baseless rumor, so I shall say I never knew you, not in the past and not now.
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Motokata
Korizuma ni mata mo nakina wa tachinubeshi hito nikukaranu yo ni shi sumaeba
Never learning my lesson, I will surely see a baseless rumor rise again, since I go on living in this world unable to think ill of anyone I love.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hito shirenu waga kayoiji no sekimori wa yoiyoi goto ni uchi mo nenanamu
Oh, that the gatekeeper guarding the secret path I take to you would nod off to sleep, if only a little, night after night.
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Narihira