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- Gosen Wakashu
Naniwagata karitsumu ashi no ashizutsu no hitoe mo kimi o ware ya hedatsuru
Not even by so much as the thin skin inside the reeds they cut and heap on the strand at Naniwa would I ever hold you apart from me.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kanesuke
Waga goto ya kimi mo kouran shiratsuyu no okite mo nete mo sode zo kawakanu
Do you long for me just as I long for you? As white dew settles, whether I rise or lie down, my sleeves never dry.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tsuraku tomo aran to zo omou yoso nite mo hito ya kenuru to kikamahoshisa ni
Bitter though it is, I mean to go on living—for I would so like to hear, even from afar, that you have wasted away and died of love.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kurenu tote nete yuku beku mo aranaku ni tadoru tadoru mo kaeru masareri
Though night has fallen, I am not to be allowed to stay the night, so it is better to go home, even if I must grope my way through the dark.
Gosen Wakashu - Ariwara no Narihira
Warinashi to iu koso katsu wa ureshikere oroka narazu to mienu to omoeba
That you say it is hopeless gives me, in a way, a kind of joy—for I take it to mean you have seen that my love is no trifling thing.
Gosen Wakashu - Prince Motoyoshi
Waga koi o shiran to omowaba Tago no ura ni tatsuran nami no kazu o kazoe yo
If you wish to know my love, go and count the waves that must be rising on the shore at Tago Bay.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Okikaze
Iro naraba utsuru bakari mo sometemashi omou kokoro o e ya wa misekeru
If my love were a color, I would dye it so deeply that it would pass onto you—but how could I ever show you the heart that loves you?
Gosen Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Ashihiki no yamai wa su tomo fumi kayou ato o mo minu wa kurushiki mono o
Even if you are unwell, not to see so much as the trace of your hand in a letter is painful to me.
Gosen Wakashu - Ōe no Asatsuna
Ōkata wa nazo ya waga na no oshikaran mukashi no tsuma to hito ni kataramu
After all, why should I care for my reputation? I will tell everyone you have been my wife since long ago.
Gosen Wakashu - Prince Sadamoto
Hito wa isa ware wa naki na no oshikereba mukashi mo ima mo shirazu to o iwan
I cannot speak for you, but I care too much about being named in baseless rumor, so I will say I have never known you, then or now.
Gosen Wakashu - Ōtsubune
Ato mireba kokoro Nagusa no hamachidori ima wa koe koso kikamahoshikere
Seeing the tracks of your hand, like plovers' prints on the shore of Nagusa, my heart is consoled—and now it is your voice I long to hear.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kawa to mite wataranu naka ni nagaruru wa iwade mono omou namida narikeri
What flows between us, which we take for a river and do not cross, turns out to be the tears I shed in silent longing.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Amagumo ni nakiyuku kari no oto ni nomi kikiwataritsutsu au yoshi mo nashi
Like the cry of wild geese passing through the clouds in the sky, I go on hearing of you only by rumor, with no way to meet you.
Gosen Wakashu - Tachibana no Kin'yori
Suminoe no nami ni wa aranedo yo to tomo ni kokoro o kimi ni yosewataru kana
Though I am no wave of Suminoe, all my days I keep drawing my heart toward you without end.
Gosen Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Minu hodo ni toshi no kawareba au koto no iya harubaru ni omōyuru kana
While we have not met, the year has turned to spring, and our meeting now seems ever more distant.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kyō sugiba shinamashi mono o yume nite mo izuko o haka to kimi ga towamashi
Had this day passed without your letter, I would surely have died—and then, even in a dream, where would you have come to seek me, what place would you have taken as my grave?
Gosen Wakashu - Chūjō no Kōi