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- Kokin Wakashu
Yume ni dani miyu to wa mieji asana asana waga omokage ni hazuru mi nareba
Not even in your dreams will I let you see me, for each and every morning I am ashamed of the face I find in my mirror.
Kokin Wakashu - Ise
Ishima yuku mizu no shiranami tachikaeri kaku koso wa mime akazu mo aru kana
Like the white waves of water rushing between the rocks, rising and returning again and again, so would I see you over and over—for I can never have enough of you.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ise no ama no asana yūna ni kazuku chō mirume ni hito o aku yoshi mogana
As the fisherfolk of Ise dive morning and evening for sea-pine, I wish there were some way to meet you so often that at last I could have my fill of you.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Harugasumi tanabiku yama no sakurabana miredomo akanu kimi ni mo aru kana
Like the cherry blossoms on a hillside veiled in spring haze, you are one I could gaze upon forever and never tire of seeing.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tomonori
Kokoro o zo warinaki mono to omoinuru miru mono kara ya koishikaru beki
I have come to think my heart a thing beyond all reason: how can I still long for you, even while we are together?
Kokin Wakashu - Kiyohara no Fukayabu
Karehatemu nochi oba shirade natsukusa no fukaku mo hito no omōyuru kana
Not knowing that it will all wither away and we will drift apart, I think of you as deeply as the summer grass grows thick.
Kokin Wakashu - Oshikochi no Mitsune
Asukagawa fuchi wa se ni naru yo nari tomo omoisometemu hito wa wasureji
Even in a world as changeable as the Asuka River, whose deep pools turn to shallows, I will never forget the one I have come to love.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Omou chō koto no ha nomi ya aki o hete iro mo kawaranu mono ni wa aruramu
Is it only the leaves of words—"I love you"—that keep their color unchanged even after autumn, after weariness, has come?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Samushiro ni koromo katashiki koyoi mo ya ware o matsuramu uji no hashihime
Spreading only her own robe on her narrow mat, is she waiting for me again tonight, I wonder—the Maiden of Uji Bridge?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kimi ya komu ware ya yukamu no isayoi ni maki no itado mo sasazu nenikeri
Wavering between "Will you come?" and "Shall I go?", I lay hesitating under the sixteenth-night moon, and fell asleep without even barring my cedar door.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ima komu to iishi bakari ni nagatsuki no ariake no tsuki o machiidetsuru kana
Only because you said "I'll come right away," I waited through the long autumn nights of the ninth month, until at last I saw the pale moon rise toward dawn.
Kokin Wakashu - Sosei
Tsukuyo yoshi yo yoshi to hito ni tsugeyaraba ko chō ni nitari matazu shimo arazu
If I sent word to him, "The moon is lovely, what a lovely night," it would be as good as saying "Come." And yet it is not as though I am not waiting.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kimi kozu wa neya e mo iraji komurasaki waga motoyui ni shimo wa oku tomo
If you do not come, I will not go into my bedchamber—not even if frost settles on the deep purple cords that bind my hair.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Miyagino no motoara no kohagi tsuyu o omomi kaze o matsu goto kimi o koso mate
As the sparse-stemmed bush clover on Miyagi Plain, weighed down by dew, waits for the wind to shake it free, so do I wait for you.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ana koishi ima mo miteshika yamagatsu no kakio ni sakeru yamato nadeshiko
Ah, how I long for her! If only I could see her now—my dear one, like a Yamato pink blooming by the hedge of a mountain dweller's hut.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tsu no kuni no naniwa omowazu yamashiro no towa ni aimimu koto o nomi koso
As in Naniwa of the land of Tsu, I think of nothing else; as in Toba of Yamashiro, all I wish is to be with you forever.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet