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- Ise Monogatari
Kimi ga atari mitsutsu o oramu Ikomayama
kumo na kakushi so ame wa furu tomo
I shall sit gazing toward where you are; O Mount Ikoma, let not the clouds conceal you, even if rain should fall.
Kimi komu to iishi yo goto ni suginureba
tanomanu mono no koitsutsu zo furu
Each night you said you would come has passed in vain; though I no longer rely upon your promise, I still pass my days in longing for you.
Aratama no toshi no mitose o machiwabite
tada koyoi koso niimakura sure
After waiting in vain through three long years, this very night I shall take a new pillow with another.
Azusayumi mayumi tsukiyumi toshi o hete
waga seshi ga goto uruwashimi seyo
Azusa bow, true-bow, and zelkova bow—through the passing years, cherish him with the same devotion as you once did me.
Azusayumi hikedo hikanedo mukashi yori
kokoro wa kimi ni yorinishi mono o
Azusa bow—whether you draw it or not, from long ago my heart has leaned toward you and never turned away.
Ai omowade karenuru hito o todomekane
waga mi wa ima zo kiehatenuru
Though I loved him, I could not detain the one who left without loving me the same, and now my life has faded away.
Aki no no ni sasa wakeshi asa no sode yori mo
awade nuru yo zo hijimasarikeru
More than my sleeves, wet with dew as I part the bamboo grass in autumn fields at dawn, are the nights I lie without meeting you drenched in tears.
Mirume naki waga mi o ura to shiraneba ya
karenade ama no ashi tayuku kuru
Not knowing, perhaps, that I am like a shore where no miru seaweed grows and thus nothing to see, the fisherman comes on, dragging his weary feet without ceasing.
Omooezu sode ni minato no sawagu kana
morokoshibune no yorishi bakari ni
Unaware even to myself, at my sleeves there is a tumult like a harbor stirred to waves, only because a great Chinese ship has drawn near.
Ware bakari mono omou hito wa mata mo araji to
omoeba mizu no shita ni mo arikeri
I thought that there was surely no one so given to anxious thought as I, yet beneath the surface of the basin’s water there was another.
Minakuchi ni ware ya miyuramu kawazu sae
mizu no shita nite morogoe ni naku
Am I perhaps seen there at the mouth where the water flows in? Even the frogs, beneath the water, raise their voices together; so I too weep in unison with you.
Nadote kaku ōgo katami ni narinikemu
mizu morasaji to musubishi mono o
Why has it come to pass that meeting has thus become so hard to gain, though we had bound our vow so firmly as if to let not even water leak through?
Hana ni akanu nageki wa itsu mo seshikadomo
kyō no koyoi ni niru toki wa nashi
At the sight of blossoms I have always lamented, never satisfied, wishing to gaze on them forever; yet never before has there been a night like this one.
Au koto wa tama no o bakari omooete
tsuraki kokoro no nagaku miyuramu
Meeting you seems but like the cord between the gems, so brief it appears, while your unfeeling heart, in not coming to me, seems to stretch on without end.
Tsumi mo naki hito o ukeeba wasuregusa
ono ga ue ni zo ou to iu naru
If one lays a curse upon a person without sin, they say that forget-grass will grow upon oneself, and one will be forgotten by others.
Inishie no shizu no odamaki kurikaeshi
mukashi o ima ni nasu yoshi mogana
Just as the rustic weaver’s spool of old is wound back again, I wish there were some way to make the past into the present.