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- Kokin Wakashu
Minasegawa arite yuku mizu nakuba koso tsui ni waga mi o taenu to omowame
The Minase River shows no water, yet water still flows beneath it. Only if that hidden stream were gone would I finally believe that our bond had come to an end.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yoshinogawa yoshiya hito koso tsurakarame hayaku iiteshi koto wa wasureji
Like the name of the Yoshino River, let it be: even if she is cruel to me, I will not forget the words we exchanged long ago, swift and sure as the river's current.
Kokin Wakashu - Oshikochi no Mitsune
Yo no naka no hito no kokoro wa hanazome no utsuroiyasuki iro ni zo arikeru
The hearts of people in love are like a color dyed with flowers, a color that so easily fades.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kokoro koso utate nikukere somezaraba utsurou koto mo oshikaramashi ya
It is my own heart that is so hateful. If it had never been dyed with love for you, would I grieve to see your heart fade? Surely I would not.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Iro miede utsurou mono wa yo no naka no hito no kokoro no hana ni zo arikeru
The thing that fades without any change of color showing is the flower of the human heart in the world of love.
Kokin Wakashu - Ono no Komachi
Ware nomi ya yo o uguisu to nakiwabimu hito no kokoro no hana to chirinaba
When the flower of your heart has scattered, shall I alone weep in grief, finding the world bitter, like the bush warbler that cries over fallen blossoms?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Omou tomo karenamu hito o ikaga semu akazu chirinuru hana to koso mime
However much I love her, what can I do about someone who is bound to drift away? I will look on her as a blossom that scattered before I could tire of gazing at it.
Kokin Wakashu - Sosei Hoshi
Ima wa tote kimi ga karenaba waga yado no hana o ba hitori mite ya shinobamu
If you leave me, saying it is over now, shall I look alone at the flowers of my home and remember you?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Wasuregusa kare mo ya suru to tsure mo naki hito no kokoro ni shimo wa okanamu
I wish frost would settle on the heart of that cold person, so that the forgetting grass growing there might wither away.
Kokin Wakashu - Minamoto no Muneyuki
Wasuregusa nani o ka tane to omoishi wa tsurenaki hito no kokoro narikeri
I used to wonder from what seed the forgetting grass could grow. Now I see it is the heart of someone cold to me.
Kokin Wakashu - Sosei Hoshi
Aki no ta no ine chō koto mo kakenaku ni nani o ushi to ka hito no karuramu
Though I have never said "go away," a word that sounds like the rice of the autumn fields, what can she find so hateful that she leaves me, as the rice is reaped?
Kokin Wakashu - Priest Kengei
Hatsukari no naki koso watare yo no naka no hito no kokoro no aki shi ukereba
Like the first wild geese that cry as they cross the sky, I spend my days in tears, because the autumn that has come to the heart of the one I love, the weariness toward me, is so painful.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Aware tomo ushi tomo mono o omou toki nado ka namida no ito nagaruramu
Whether my thoughts are tender or bitter, why is it that whenever I brood over love my tears flow so endlessly?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Mi o ushi to omou ni kienu mono nareba kakute mo henuru yo ni koso arikere
Though I find my life bitter, it does not vanish just because I think so, and so, even in this state, I have gone on living in this world.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ama no karu mo ni sumu mushi no warekara to ne o koso nakame yo o ba uramiji
Like the tiny creature called warekara that lives in the seaweed fishermen gather, I know it is warekara, my own fault. I may cry aloud, but I will not resent the bond between us.
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Naoiko
Aiminu mo uki mo waga mi no karakoromo omoishirazu mo tokuru himo kana
It is my own fault that we cannot meet and that I suffer, yet the cord of my fine robe, knowing nothing of this, comes untied as if to promise your coming.
Kokin Wakashu - Inaba