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- Kokin Wakashu
Akatsuki no shigi no hanegaki momohagaki kimi ga konu yo wa ware zo kazu kaku
At dawn the snipe preens its feathers over and over, a hundred times over, but on the nights you do not come, it is I who keep marking down the count.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tamakazura ima wa tayu to ya fuku kaze no oto ni mo hito no kikoezaruramu
Is our bond now to break off, like a trailing vine? Not even a whisper of news about you reaches me, faint as the sound of the blowing wind.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Waga sode ni madaki shigure no furinuru wa kimi ga kokoro ni aki ya kinuramu
The early showers have already fallen upon my sleeve. Could it be that autumn has come to your heart, and you have grown weary of me?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yama no i no asaki kokoro mo omowanu ni kage bakari nomi hito no miyuramu
My love is not shallow like the water of a mountain spring, so why is it that I see only your reflection, and never you yourself?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Wasuregusa tane toramashi o au koto no ito kaku kataki mono to shiriseba
I should have gathered seeds of the forgetting grass, had I known that meeting you would be this hard.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kouredomo au yo no naki wa wasuregusa yumeji ni sae ya oishigeruramu
Though I long for you, there is no night on which we meet. Has the forgetting grass grown so thick that it covers even the path we walk in dreams?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yume ni dani au koto kataku nariyuku wa ware ya i o nenu hito ya wasururu
Even in dreams it is growing harder to meet you. Is it because I cannot sleep, or because you have forgotten me?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Morokoshi mo yume ni mishikaba chikakariki omowanu naka zo harukekarikeru
Even distant China seemed near when I saw it in a dream. It is a bond where love is not returned that truly lies far away.
Kokin Wakashu - Priest Kengei
Hitori nomi nagame furuya no tsuma nareba hito o shinobu no kusa zo oikeru
Because I live alone, lost in thought as I watch the long rains fall from the eaves of this old house, the fern of longing, named for remembering you, has grown there.
Kokin Wakashu - Sada no Noboru
Waga yado wa michi mo naki made arenikeri tsurenaki hito o matsu to seshi ma ni
My home has fallen into such ruin that no path can be seen, all while I was waiting for someone so cold to me.
Kokin Wakashu - Henjō
Ima komu to iite wakareshi ashita yori omoi kurashi no ne o nomi zo naku
Since the morning we parted, when you said, "I'll come again soon," I have spent the whole day thinking of you, crying out like the evening cicada.
Kokin Wakashu - Henjō
Kome ya to wa omou mono kara higurashi no naku yūgure wa tachimataretsutsu
Though I tell myself you surely will not come, each evening when the cicadas cry I find myself rising to wait for you all the same.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Imashi wa to wabinishi mono o sasagani no koromo ni kakari ware o tanomuru
I had grieved and given up, thinking it was over, yet a spider clinging to my robe makes me hope once more that you will come.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ima wa koji to omou mono kara wasuretsutsu mataruru koto no mada mo yamanu ka
Though I think you will not come anymore, I keep forgetting it and find myself waiting again. Will this waiting never stop?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tsukiyo ni wa konu hito mataru kakikumori ame mo furanamu wabitsutsu mo nemu
On moonlit nights I cannot help waiting for someone who will not come. Let the sky cloud over and the rain fall, and then, grieving as I am, I will go to sleep.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Uete inishi akita karu made miekoneba kesa hatsukari no ne ni zo nakinuru
You planted the rice and went away, and even now that the autumn fields are being harvested you have not come to see me. This morning, as the first wild geese cried, I too cried aloud.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet