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- Kinyo Wakashu
Itsu o itsu to omoitayumite kagerō no kagerō hodo no yo o sugusuramu
Telling myself "someday, someday," I grow careless and let this world slip by, a world as brief as the flicker of a mayfly or a heat haze.
Yo to tomo ni kokoro no uchi ni sumu tsuki o ari to shiru koso haruru narikere
To know that there is a moon dwelling clear within one's heart through all one's days, that indeed is what it means for the clouds to clear.
Kyō mo nao oshimi ya semashi nori no tame chirasu hana zo to omoinasazu wa
Today again I would have grieved over the falling blossoms, had I not told myself that these are flowers scattered for the sake of the Law.
Asamashi ya tsurugi no eda no tawamu made ko wa nani no mi no nareru naruramu
How appalling! What sort of fruit is it that weighs down the branches of the sword tree so? What sort of body has come to this?
Kinyo Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Kusa no ha ni kadode wa shitari hototogisu shide no yamaji mo kaku ya tsuyukeki
I have set out on my journey over the dewy grass. O cuckoo, is the mountain path to the land of the dead as wet with dew as this?
Tayumi naku kokoro o kakuru Mida hotoke hitoyari naranu chikai tagau na
O Amida Buddha, on whom I set my heart without ever slackening, do not break the vow you made of your own free will.
Amidabu to tonauru koe o kaji nite ya kurushiki umi o kogihanaruramu
Is it by using the voice that chants the name of Amida Buddha as an oar that one rows away from the sea of suffering?
Kinyo Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori
Nanasoji ni michinuru shio no hamahisagi hisashiku yo ni mo umorenuru kana
Now that I have reached the full tide of seventy years, I have lain buried in the world for a long time, like the hisagi trees on the beach covered by the rising tide.
Kinyo Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori
Harugasumi tachikakusedomo himekomatsu hikuma no nobe ni ware wa kinikeri
Though the spring haze rises to hide them, I have come to the fields of Hikuma, whose very name speaks of pulling up the little pines.
Kinyo Wakashu - Oe no Masafusa
Yamazakura kozue no kaze no samukereba hana no sakari ni nari zo wazurau
Because the wind blowing through their branches is still cold, the mountain cherries are slow to reach their full bloom.
Haru no hi no nodokeki sora ni furu yuki wa kaze ni midaruru hana ni zo arikeru
The snow falling from the calm sky of a spring day turns out to be blossoms tossed and scattered by the wind.
Kinyo Wakashu - Minamoto no Nakamasa
Shirakumo to mine ni wa miete sakurabana chireba fumoto no yuki to koso mire
On the peaks the cherry blossoms look like white clouds, and when they scatter they look like snow at the foot of the mountain.
Hana nomi ya kurenuru haru no katami tote aoba no shita ni chirinokoruramu
Are the blossoms alone left unfallen beneath the green leaves, as keepsakes of the spring that has come to its end?
U no hana o Otonashigawa no nami ka tote netaku mo orade suginakeru kana
Taking the deutzia blossoms for the waves of the Otonashi River, I passed them by without picking any, to my great regret.
U no hana no aoba mo miezu sakinureba yuki zo hana nomi kawaru narikeri
The deutzia has bloomed so thickly that not a green leaf can be seen; it is snow itself, differing only in being flowers.
Inariyama tazune ya mimashi hototogisu matsu ni shirushi no naki to omoeba
Shall I go seeking the cuckoo on Mount Inari, since I feel that waiting for it brings no reward?