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- Heike Monogatari
Kuretake no kakei no mizu wa kawaredomo
nao sumiakanu miya no uchi kana
The water running through the bamboo pipe is never the same water twice—and still I am not done with living here inside these walls.
Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Sukezane
Aware nari oiki wakagi mo yamazakura
okure sakidachi hana wa nokoraji
A sad thing: old tree and young are alike mountain cherries. One falls first, one after, and not a blossom will be left.
Heike Monogatari - Jien
Tabigoromo yonayona sode o katashikite
omoeba ware wa tōku yukinan
Night after night I shall lie on the single sleeve of my traveling robe; and thinking of it, I see how far away I am going.
Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Sukezane
Hakanashi na aruji wa kumoi ni wakarureba
yado wa keburi to tachinoboru kana
How frail it is—once the master has gone off beyond the clouds, the house he lived in rises away as smoke.
Heike Monogatari - Tsuchimikado In
Furusato o yakeno no hara to kaerimite
sue mo keburi no namiji o zo yuku
Looking back, I see my old home a burnt-out field; and ahead lies a road over the waves, as formless as that smoke.
Heike Monogatari - Minamoto no Yoritomo
Hitokoe wa omoiidete nake hototogisu
Oiso no mori no yowa no mukashi o
Sing out even once, cuckoo, and remember that night long ago in the wood of Oiso, whose name is the word for growing old.
Heike Monogatari - Minamoto no Sanetomo
Ko no uchi mo nao urayamashi yamagara no
mi no hodo kakusu yūgao no yado
I envy even the caged bird, the mountain tit, while I keep myself and all I amount to hidden away in this poor hut.
Heike Monogatari - Minamoto no Sanetomo
Suminareshi furuki miyako no koishisa wa
kami mo mukashi ni omoi shiruran
How I long for the old city where I lived—and the god himself must know that longing, from his own long ago.
Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Ietaka
Yo no naka no usa ni wa kami mo naki mono o
nani inoruran kokorozukushi ni
Against the grief of this world even the gods can do nothing—so what is it you are praying for, wearing your whole heart out in the asking?
Heike Monogatari - Higashi Ichijoin
Saritomo to omou kokoro mo mushi no ne mo
yowarihatenuru aki no kure kana
The hope that somehow it might yet come right, and the crying of the insects—both have worn themselves out now, here at the close of autumn.
Heike Monogatari - Kozaisho
Tsuki o mishi kozo no koyoi no tomo nomi ya
miyako ni ware o omoiizuran
Only the friend who watched the moon with me on this same night last year—is it he, back in the capital, who thinks of me now?
Heike Monogatari - Go-Toba In
Koishi to yo kozo no koyoi no yomosugara
chigirishi hito no omoiiderarete
How I long for the one with whom, all through this same night last year, I talked and exchanged vows—she comes back to me now whether I will it or not.
Heike Monogatari - Minamoto no Yoritomo
Wakete koshi nobe no tsuyu to mo kiezu shite
omowanu sato no tsuki o miru kana
I did not vanish with the dew of the wild grass I came parting through, and here I stand, watching the moon over a village I never looked to see.
Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Sukezane
Kyō made mo areba aru ka no waga mi ka wa
yume no uchi ni mo yume o miru kana
I am alive to this day, if this can be called being alive—and here inside a dream I find I am dreaming yet another dream.
Heike Monogatari - Tsuchimikado In
Hito shirezu sonata o shinobu kokoro o ba
katabuku tsuki ni taguete zo yaru
Unknown to anyone, I send my longing for you westward, entrusting it to the moon as it leans down the sky.
Heike Monogatari - Mibu no Kyo no Naishi no Suke
Mononofu no toritsutaetaru azusayumi
hiite wa hito no kaesu mono ka wa
The catalpa bow handed down among warriors is a thing to be drawn, not a thing to be turned back.
Heike Monogatari - Sugawara no Tamenaga