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- Kokin Wakashu
Au made no katami tote koso todomekeme namida ni ukabu mokuzu narikeri
You must have left this behind as a keepsake until we meet again—yet it is no more than scraps of seaweed floating on my tears.
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Okikaze
Katami koso ima wa ada nare kore naku wa wasururu toki mo aramashi mono o
It is this keepsake that has now become my enemy; without it, there might have come a time when I could forget.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tsuki ya aranu haru ya mukashi no haru naranu waga mi hitotsu wa moto no mi ni shite
Is the moon not last year's moon? Is the spring not the spring of old? Only I myself remain just as I was, while everything else seems to have changed.
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Narihira
Hanasusuki ware koso shita ni omoishika ho ni idete hito ni musubare ni keri
Like pampas grass, I was the one who loved you in secret, deep in my heart, yet you came out into the open like a plume of grass and are now bound to someone else.
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Nakahira
Yoso ni nomi kikamashi mono o otowagawa wataru to nashi ni minaresomekemu
I should have been content to hear of you only from afar. Why, without ever meaning to cross the Otowa River, did I come to know you so well?
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kanesuke
Waga gotoku ware o omowamu hito mo gana sate mo ya uki to yo o kokoromimu
If only there were someone who loved me as I love another. Then I would test whether the bond between lovers is still so painful.
Kokin Wakashu - Oshikochi no Mitsune
Hisakata no amatsu sora ni mo sumanaku ni hito wa yoso ni zo omou beranaru
I do not live in the distant sky of heaven, and yet she seems to think of me as someone far away and apart from her.
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Motokata
Mite mo mata mata mo mimaku no hoshikereba naruru o hito wa itou beranari
Each time I see you I want to see you again and again, and it seems that this very intimacy is what you have come to dislike.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kumo mo naku nagitaru asa no ware nare ya itowarete nomi yo o ba henuramu
Am I like a calm morning with no clouds in the sky? As that sky is utterly clear, so I have spent my life being utterly disliked.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tomonori
Hanagatami menarabu hito no amata areba wasurarenuramu kazu naranu mi wa
Like the close-set weave of a flower basket, you have so many women to compare that you must have forgotten me, someone who hardly counts at all.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ukime nomi oite nagaruru ura nareba kari ni nomi koso ama wa yorurame
Since this is a bay where only drifting seaweed grows and floats away, the fisherman comes only to reap it, stopping by in passing. So too he visits me, whose lot is only sorrow, just for a fleeting while.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ai ni aite mono omou koro no waga sode ni yadoru tsuki sae nururu kao naru
In these days when I am lost in thoughts of love, even the moon that lodges in my tear-soaked sleeve seems to wear a face wet with tears.
Kokin Wakashu - Ise
Aki narade oku shiratsuyu wa nezame suru waga tamakura no shizuku narikeri
The white dew that settles even though it is not autumn turns out to be the drops of tears falling on the arm I pillow my head on when I wake in the night.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Suma no ama no shioyaki goromo osa o arami madō ni are ya kimi ga kimasanu
The robes worn by the salt-makers of Suma are coarsely woven, their threads far apart. Is it because our bond, too, has grown so loose that you no longer come to me?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yamashiro no yodo no wakakomo kari ni dani konu hito tanomu ware zo hakanaki
How foolish I am to rely on someone who will not come even for a passing visit, as men come to reap the young water-oats of Yodo in Yamashiro.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Aimineba koi koso masare minasegawa nani ni fukamete omoisomekemu
Because we cannot meet, my longing only grows. Our bond is shallow as the Minase River, where no water shows, so why did I let my love begin so deeply and dye my heart so dark?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet