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- Gosen Wakashu
Ōmiji o shirube nakute mo miteshi gana seki no konata wa wabishikarikeri
I long to see the road to Ōmi, the road to meeting, even with no guide to lead me. How miserable it is to stay on this side of the barrier.
Gosen Wakashu - Minamoto no Nakamasa
Michi shirade yami ya wa shinanu ausaka no seki no anata wa umi to iu nari
Not knowing the way, could it not simply end here? They say that beyond the barrier of Ōsaka lies the sea—a sea of sorrow.
Gosen Wakashu - Shimotsuke
Tsurenaki o omoishinobu no sanekazura hate wa kuru o mo itou narikeri
I bore her coldness and kept loving her, but in the end, as one draws in a trailing vine, she has come to hate even my coming to her.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Imasara ni omoiideji to shinoburu o koishiki ni koso wasurewabinure
I try to hold back, resolved not to think of you now, after all this time, yet it is longing itself that makes it impossible to forget.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Saneyori
Waga tame wa miru kai mo nashi wasuregusa wasuru bakari no koi ni shi araneba
For me, there is no use in looking at the grass of forgetting, for mine is not a love that could ever be forgotten.
Gosen Wakashu - Ki no Haseo
Aimite mo tsutsumu omoi no wabishiki wa hitoma ni nomi zo ne wa nakarekeru
What pains me about this love I must keep hidden even when we meet is that only when no one is near do I find myself crying aloud.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Ariyoshi
Oyamada no nawashiromizu wa taenu tomo kokoro no ike no ii wa hanataji
Even if the water for the seedbeds in the little hill field runs dry, I will not pull the sluice from the pond of my heart, nor will I cast you off with a word.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Chiyo hemu to chigiriokiteshi himematsu no nezashisometeshi yado wa wasureji
I will never forget the house where the little pine, pledged to live a thousand years, first began to put down roots.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kore o miyo hito mo susamenu koi su tote ne o naku mushi no nareru sugata o
Look at this: the shape that has become of an insect that cried its heart out for a love no one would ever heed.
Gosen Wakashu - Minamoto no Shigemitsu
Aimite wa nagusamu ya to zo omoishi ni nagori shimo koso koishikarikere
I had thought that seeing you would bring me some comfort, but it is the lingering trace you leave behind that makes me long for you all the more.
Gosen Wakashu - Sakanoue no Koreyuki
Waga koi no kazu o kazoeba amanohara kumori futagari furu ame no goto
If I tried to count the thoughts of my love, they would be as countless as the drops of rain that fall when the whole wide sky is clouded over and closed in.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Toshiyuki
Uchikaeshi mimaku zo hoshiki furusato no yamato nadeshiko iro ya kawareru
How I long to see it once again. The Yamato pink in the village I once knew so well—has its color changed by now?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yamabiko no koe ni tatete mo toshi wa henu waga monoomoi o shiranu hito kike
Though I have cried out my love aloud like a mountain echo, the years have gone by without an answer. You who do not know the sorrow of my love, hear me now.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Nakahira
Tamamo karu ama ni wa aranedo watatsumi no sokoi mo shirazu iru kokoro kana
I am no diver who gathers the fine seaweed, and yet my heart plunges into the sea of love without knowing where its depths end.
Gosen Wakashu - Ki no Tomonori
Miru mo naku me mo naki umi no iso ni idete kaerugaeru mo uramitsuru kana
I went out to a rocky shore with no seaweed and no sea grass, where I could neither see you nor meet your eyes, and coming back again and again like the returning waves, I gazed at the bay and grieved.
Gosen Wakashu - Ki no Tomonori
Korizuma no ura no shiranami tachiidete yoru hodo mo naku kaeru bakari ka
Undeterred, you set out again like the white waves rising on Suma Bay, yet like waves that draw back before they can reach the shore, do you only go home without staying even a night?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet