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- Kokin Wakashu
Iro mo naki kokoro o hito ni someshi yori utsurowamu to wa omōenaku ni
Ever since I dyed my colorless heart in your hue, I have never imagined that it could fade.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Mezurashiki hito o mimu to ya shika mo senu waga shitahimo no tokewataruramu
Is it that I will see my rare and dear one again? For though I have done nothing to untie them, the cords of my underrobe keep coming loose.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kagerō no sore ka aranu ka harusame no furu hi to nareba sode zo nurenuru
Like a heat shimmer, I cannot tell whether it is you or not; yet whenever the spring rain falls, bringing back the one I knew of old, my sleeves are wet with tears.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Horie kogu tananashi obune kogikaeri onaji hito ni ya koiwatarinamu
Like a small plankless boat rowing back and forth along the Horie channel, must I keep returning to love the very same person, again and again?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Watatsumi to arenishi toko o imasara ni harawaba sode ya awa to ukinamu
My bed has run to ruin, become a sea of tears; if I were to sweep it clean now, after all this time, would my sleeves not float away like foam?
Kokin Wakashu - Ise
Inishie ni nao tachikaeru kokoro kana koishiki koto ni monowasure sede
My heart keeps returning to the past; when it comes to what I long for, it never forgets a thing.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Omoiidete koishiki toki wa hatsukari no nakite wataru to hito shirurame ya
When I remember you and long for you, I wander past your house weeping, like the first wild geese crying as they cross the sky—do you know it at all?
Kokin Wakashu - Ōtomo no Kuronushi
Tanomekoshi koto no ha ima wa kaeshitemu waga mi furureba okidokoro nashi
I return to you now the words that once led me to trust you; I have grown old and stale in your eyes, and there is no longer any place to keep them.
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Yoruka
Ima wa tote kaesu koto no ha hiroiokite onoga mono kara katami to ya mimu
You return my letters, saying "it is over now"; I gather them up and keep them—though they were once my own words, must I now look on them as keepsakes of you?
Kokin Wakashu - Minamoto no Yoshiari
Tamahoko no michi wa tsune ni mo madowanamu hito o tou tomo ware ka to omowamu
May you always lose your way on the road—for then, even if you set out to visit someone else and came to me instead, I could believe it was me you meant to see.
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Yoruka
Mate to iwaba nete mo yukanamu shiite yuku koma no ashi ore mae no tanahashi
If I ask you to wait, then sleep a while before you leave; and if you insist on going, may the plank bridge before my house break your horse's leg!
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ausaka no yūtsukedori ni araba koso kimi ga yukiki o nakunaku mo mime
If only I were the mulberry-bannered cock of Ōsaka Barrier, I could at least watch you come and go, crying all the while.
Kokin Wakashu - Kan'in
Furusato ni aranu mono kara waga tame ni hito no kokoro no arete miyuramu
You are no old, deserted village, so why does your heart seem so desolate toward me?
Kokin Wakashu - Ise
Yamagatsu no kakio ni haeru aotsuzura hito wa kuredomo kotozute mo nashi
Like the green vines creeping along a mountain dweller's hedge that people come to gather, others come and go—but from you there is not even a message.
Kokin Wakashu - Utsuku
Ōzora wa koishiki hito no katami ka wa mono omou goto ni nagameraruramu
The vast sky is no keepsake of the one I long for—so why is it that whenever I am lost in thought, I find myself gazing up at it?
Kokin Wakashu - Sakai no Hitozane
Au made no katami mo ware wa nani semu ni mite mo kokoro no nagusamanaku ni
What good to me is a keepsake meant to last until we meet again? Looking at it brings my heart no comfort.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet