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- Yamato Monogatari
Kuretake no yoyo no miyako to kiku kara ni kimi wa chitose no utagai mo nashi
Hearing that this is called the capital of many reigns, as the bamboo has many joints, I have no doubt at all that a thousand years are yours.
Kaku sakeru hana mo koso are waga tame ni onaji haru to ya iubekarikeru
There are flowers that have come into bloom like this — and yet, for my part, can I call this the same spring at all?
Tamasaka ni tou hito araba wata no hara nageki ho ni agete inu to kotaeyo
If by some rare chance anyone comes asking after me, tell them that she hoisted her grief like a sail and went out across the open sea.
Oku tsuyu no hodo o mo matanu asagao wa mizu zo nakanaka arubekarikeru
The morning glory will not wait even the time it takes for dew to settle. Better, then, not to have seen it at all.
Tsutsumedomo kakurenu mono wa natsumushi no mi yori amareru omoi narikeri
Though I wrap it round, what will not stay hidden is the summer insect's fire — a longing that spills out beyond the body that holds it.
Iitsutsu mo yo wa hakanaki o katami ni wa aware to ikade kimi ni miemashi
Even as we sit talking, the world is a fleeting thing. How, then, am I to let you see the tenderness we feel for one another?
Sato wa iu yama ni wa sawagu shirakumo no sora ni hakanaki mi to ya narinamu
In the villages they talk of it; up in the hills there is uproar. Am I to become like white cloud, a body adrift in empty air?
Asaborake waga mi wa niwa no shimo nagara nani o tane ni te kokoro oikemu
At first light I am nothing but frost on the garden ground — and even so, from what seed did this heart of mine spring up?
Magaki suru Hida no takumi no tatsukioto no ana kashigamashi nazo ya yo no naka
The Hida carpenters building the fence — the clatter of their adzes. How it grates. Why must the world be like this?
Nani bakari fukaku mo arazu yo no tsune no Hie o toyama to miru bakari nari
It is not deep at all. It is only that from here one looks on Hiei — the Hiei everyone speaks of — as an outer hill.
Noboriyuku yama no kumoi no tōkereba hi mo chikaku naru mono ni zo arikeru
As I climb, the cloud-line on the mountain is still far off; and so the sun, and the day itself, come nearer with every step.
Nogaru tomo tare ka kizaramu nureginu ame no shita ni shi sumamu kagiri wa
Though a man flees, who can keep from wearing the soaked robe, so long as he goes on living under the rain — under this heaven?
Hito no oya no kokoro wa yami ni aranedomo ko o omou michi ni madoinuru kana
A parent's heart is not darkness, and yet on the path of thinking about one's child, how easily it loses its way.
Uchitokete kimi wa netsuramu ware wa shimo tsuyu no okiite koi ni akashitsu
You will have slept at your ease, I suppose. I, for my part, lay awake while the dew settled, and passed the whole night in longing.
Shiratsuyu no okifushi tare o koitsuramu ware wa kikiowazu Isonokami nite
Rising and lying down amid the white dew, for whom was all that longing? I shall not take it as meant for me — I am too old a thing for that.
Okuyama ni kokoro o irete tazunezu wa fukaki momiji no iro o mimashi ya
If I had not gone into the deep hills with my whole heart set on the search, would I ever have seen the deep colour of those autumn leaves?