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- Shin Kokin Wakashu
Ayamegusa tare shinobe to ka ueokite yomogi ga moto no tsuyu to kieken
For whom to remember it by did the child plant this iris, before vanishing like the dew at the roots of the mugwort?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Kayanoin no Yūshide
Kyō kuredo ayame mo shiranu tamoto kana mukashi o kouru ne nomi kakarite
Today has come, yet my sleeves know neither the iris nor any sense of order—for what hangs upon them is not the iris root but only the sound of my weeping for the past.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Jōsaimon'in no Hyōe
Ayamegusa hikitagaetaru tamoto ni wa mukashi o kouru ne zo kakarikeru
On this day when irises are pulled, my sleeves have been pulled into another shape entirely; upon them hangs not the iris root but the sound of my weeping as I long for the past.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Teishi
Samo koso wa onaji tamoto no iro narame kawaranu ne o mo kaketekeru kana
Yes, surely our sleeves are of the same color; and upon them we have both hung the root that does not change, the sound of weeping that does not change.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Seishi
Yoso naredo onaji kokoro zo kayoubeki tare mo omoi no hitotsu naraneba
Though we are separate people, the same heart must pass between us, for neither your grief nor mine is a sorrow borne by one alone.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Sanesuke
Hitori ni mo aranu omoi wa naki hito mo tabi no sora ni ya kanashikaruran
This grief that belongs to no one alone—do the dead, too, feel it as they travel beneath the skies of their last journey?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tameyori
Oku to mishi tsuyu mo arikeri hakanakute kienishi hito o nani ni tatoen
The dew I saw settled there remains after all—so to what can I liken her, who vanished so fleetingly?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Omoiki ya hakanaku okishi sode no ue no tsuyu o katami ni kaken mono to wa
Could I ever have imagined it—that the dew that settled so fleetingly on those sleeves would be something I would wear as a keepsake of the dead?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Shōshi
Asajiwara hakanaku kieshi kusa no ue no tsuyu o katami to omoikakeki ya
In this palace grown into a moor of low reed grass, could I ever have dreamed that I would think of the dew that fleetingly vanished from the grass as a keepsake of the one who is gone?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Taira no Nakako
Sode ni sae aki no yūbe wa shirarekeri kieshi asaji ga tsuyu o kaketsutsu
Not only in my heart but even on my sleeves the sorrow of the autumn evening makes itself known, as the dew of the reed grass that has vanished falls upon them again and again.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Princess Kishi
Akikaze no tsuyu no yadori ni kimi o okite chiri o idenuru koto zo kanashiki
Leaving you behind in this world, a passing lodging like dew before the autumn wind, I go forth from the dust of this world—and that is my sorrow.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Emperor Ichijō
Wakareken nagori no sode mo kawakanu ni oki ya souran aki no yūtsuyu
Your sleeves have not yet dried from the lingering grief of parting with your child—does the autumn evening dew now settle upon them as well?
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kenshi
Okisouru tsuyu to tomo ni wa kie mo sede namida ni nomi mo ukishizumu kana
I do not vanish together with the dew that settles upon my sleeves; instead I only float and sink in my tears, in sorrow.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ominaeshi miru ni kokoro wa nagusamade itodo mukashi no aki zo koishiki
Though I look upon the maidenflowers, my heart finds no comfort, and I long all the more for the autumns of the past.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Saneyori
Nezame suru mi o fukitōsu kaze no oto o mukashi wa sode no yoso ni kikiken
The sound of the wind that blows right through me as I lie awake in the night—in the past I must have heard it as something far removed from my sleeves.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Sode nurasu hagi no uwaba no tsuyu bakari mukashi wasurenu mushi no ne zo suru
As much as the dew on the upper leaves of the bush clover that wets my sleeves, the voices of insects that do not forget the past are sounding.
Shin Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tadazane