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- Shika Wakashu
Oite koso haru no oshisa wa masarikere ima ikutabi mo awaji to omoeba
It is in old age that regret for passing spring grows deepest, for I know I will not meet many more springs.
Oshimu tote koyoi kakioku kotonoha ya ayanaku haru no katami narubeki
Will the words I write tonight in sorrow for spring's passing become, against all reason, the keepsake that spring leaves behind?
Shika Wakashu - Retired Emperor Sutoku
Kyō yori wa tatsu natsugoromo usuku tomo atsushi to nomi ya omoiwataramu
From this day summer begins, and I change into a newly cut summer robe. Thin as it is, shall I still keep thinking only that it is atsushi—hot, and heavy?
Shika Wakashu - Zōki
Yuki no iro o nusumite sakeru unohana wa saete ya hito ni utagawaruramu
The deutzia flowers bloom in a white stolen from the snow itself; so cold and clear is their whiteness that people must surely suspect them of the theft.
Shika Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori
Toshi o hete kakeshi aoi wa kawaranedo kyō no kazashi wa mezurashiki kana
The hollyhock we have hung year after year is just the same as ever, and yet the spray I wear in my hair today feels wonderfully new.
Sakaki toru natsu no yamaji ya tōkaramu yū kakete nomi matsuru kami kana
Is the summer mountain path where they gather sacred sakaki so long? For it is only toward evening, with yū cloth hung upon the branches, that this god is worshipped.
Shika Wakashu - Minamoto no Kanemasa
Mukashi ni mo aranu waga mi ni hototogisu matsu kokoro koso kawarazarikere
I am no longer what I once was, yet my heart that waits for the cuckoo has not changed at all.
Shika Wakashu - Suo no Naishi
Hototogisu naku ne narade wa yo no naka ni matsu koto mo naki waga mi narikeri
Apart from the cuckoo's song, there is nothing left in all this world for me to wait for; such, I have come to see, is what I am.
Kotoshi dani matsu hatsukoe o hototogisu yo ni wa furusade ware ni kikaseyo
This year at least, cuckoo, do not let the world grow tired of the first song I have been waiting for; let me be the first to hear it.
Shika Wakashu - Retired Emperor Kazan
Yamazato no kai koso nakere hototogisu miyako no hito mo kaku ya matsuramu
There is no use, it seems, in living in this mountain glen; do the people in the capital wait for the cuckoo just as I am waiting here?
Shika Wakashu - Dōmyō
Yamabiko no kotauru yama no hototogisu hitokoe nakeba futakoe zo kiku
On a mountain where the echo answers back, when the cuckoo sings once, we hear its song twice.
Shika Wakashu - Nōin
Hototogisu akatsuki kakete naku koe o matanu nezame no hito ya kikuramu
The cuckoo's song that sounds on toward daybreak—is it heard, I wonder, by someone who simply woke from sleep without waiting for it at all?
Matsu hito wa nuru yo mo naki o hototogisu naku ne wa yume no kokochi koso sure
One who waits has no night of sleep at all, and yet the cuckoo's song, when it comes, feels as if heard in a dream.
Nakitsu tomo tare ni ka iwamu hototogisu kage yori hoka ni hito shi nakereba
Even though the cuckoo has sung, whom could I tell? For besides my own shadow, there is no one at all beside me.
Shika Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori
Koya no ike ni ouru ayame no nagaki ne wa hiku shiraito no kokochi koso sure
The long roots of the irises growing in Koya Pond, when pulled up, feel just like white threads being drawn out.
Shika Wakashu - Taikenmon-in no Horikawa
Yomosugara tataku kuina wa ama no to o akete nochi koso oto sezarikere
The water rail that kept knocking all night long fell silent once the door of heaven had opened and day had dawned.