- Top
- -
- Manyoshu
Ika naramu toki ni ka imo o mugurau no kitanaki yado ni iri imasetemu
When will the day come, I wonder, that I can welcome you, my dear, into this humble house overgrown with weeds?
Manyoshu - Ōtomo no Tamura no Ōiratsume
Uchiwatasu taketa no hara ni naku tazu no ma naku toki nashi aga kouraku wa
Like the cranes crying across the wide plain of Taketa, without pause and at every hour, so I long for you.
Manyoshu - Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
Hayakawa no se ni iru tori no yoshi o nami omoite arishi aga ko wa mo aware
Like a bird in the shoals of a swift river with nothing to hold on to, you sat brooding with no one to turn to, my child, my poor dear child.
Manyoshu - Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
Kamusabu to ina ni wa arazu hata ya hata kaku shite nochi ni sabushikemu kamo
It is not that I refuse you because I have grown old; yet I wonder, if I yield, whether I will not be lonelier afterward.
Manyoshu - Ki no Iratsume
Tama no o o awao ni yorite musuberaba arite nochi ni mo awazarame ya mo
If we tie the cord that strings our jewels, twisted firm into foam-cord, could we fail to meet again, even after time has passed?
Manyoshu - Ki no Iratsume
Momotose ni oishita idete yoyomu tomo ware wa itowaji koi wa masu tomo
Even if you lived to a hundred, your old tongue poking out and your body tottering, I would never shun you; my love for you would only grow.
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Hitoeyama henareru mono o tsukuyo yomi kado ni idetachi imo ka matsuramu
Though a single range of mountains lies between us, the moon is so fair that my wife may be standing at her gate waiting for me.
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Michi tōmi koji to wa shireru mono kara ni shika zo matsuramu kimi ga me o hori
She knows you will not come, the road being so long, yet she must be waiting just so, longing to see your face.
Manyoshu - Fujiwara no Iratsume
Miyakoji o tōmi ka imo ga kono koro wa ukeite nuredo ime ni miekonu
Is it because the road from the capital is so long that these days, though I pray before sleeping, my wife does not come into my dreams?
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Ima shirasu kuni no miyako ni imo ni awazu hisashiku narinu yukite haya mina
Here at the Kuni capital, where our sovereign now reigns, it has been so long since I saw my wife; I want to go and see her soon.
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Hisakata no ame no furu hi o tada hitori yamabe ni oreba ibusekarikeri
On a day of falling rain, sitting all alone by the mountains, how gloomy and heavy my heart is.
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Hitome ōmi awanaku nomi zo kokoro sae imo o wasurete waga omowanaku ni
It is only because so many eyes are watching that we do not meet; it is not that my heart has forgotten you.
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Itsuwari mo nitsukite zo suru utsushiku mo makoto wagimoko ware ni koime ya
Even lies are told to sound plausible; do you, my love, truly and in earnest long for me?
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Ime ni dani miemu to ware wa hodokedomo ai shi omowaneba ube miezu aramu
Hoping you will at least appear in my dreams, I untie my cords before sleeping; but since you do not love me in return, no wonder you do not appear.
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Koto towanu ki sura ajisai morotora ga neri no murato ni azamukaekeri
Even a tree that cannot speak changes color like the hydrangea; so I have been deceived by the polished words of Morotora and his like.
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi
Momochitabi kou to iu tomo morotora ga neri no kotoba wa ware wa tanomaji
Though they tell me a hundred or a thousand times that you long for me, I will no longer trust the polished words of Morotora and his like.
Manyoshu - Otomo no Yakamochi