- Top
- -
- Gosen Wakashu
Seki koete awazu no mori no awazu tomo shimizu ni mieshi kage o wasuru na
Even if you cross the barrier toward the woods of Awazu and we meet no more, do not forget the face you saw reflected in the clear spring there.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Chikakereba nani ka wa shirushi ausaka no seki no hoka zo to omoitaenan
What good is it that you are near? I will tell myself you are beyond the Barrier of Meeting Hill and give up my longing altogether.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ima wa tote kozue ni kakaru utsusemi no kara o mimu to wa omowazarishi o
I never imagined that, saying this is the end, I would be looking at what you left behind, like the empty shell of a cicada clinging to the treetop.
Gosen Wakashu - Daughter of Taira no Nakaki
Wasuraruru mi o utsusemi no karakoromo kaesu wa tsuraki kokoro narikeri
It is I who am forgotten, and yet you send back this robe like an empty cicada shell. It was your heart, after all, that was cold.
Gosen Wakashu - Minamoto no Kiyoki
Kage ni dani mie mo ya suru to tanomitsuru kai naku koi o masu kagami kana
I had hoped that at least your reflection might appear in it, but in vain: this clear mirror only made my longing grow.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ashihiki no yamada no sōzu uchiwabite hitori kaeru no ne o zo nakinuru
Like a scarecrow standing in a mountain paddy, I stood there forlorn, and going home alone, I cried aloud like the frogs that croak in the fields.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tane wa aredo au koto kataki iwa no ue no matsu nite toshi o furu wa kai nashi
The seed may be there, but meeting is as hard as the rock where the pine takes root, and to spend the years only waiting like that pine is of no use at all.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hitasura ni itoihatenuru mono naraba yoshino no yama ni yukue shirareji
If you have come to loathe me completely, then I will go into the mountains of Yoshino, where no one will know what has become of me.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tokihira
Waga yado to tanomu yoshino ni kimi shi iraba onaji kazashi o sashi koso wa seme
If you go into Yoshino, the place I count on as my own refuge, then I too will wear the same sprig in my hair and be there with you.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Kurenai ni sode o nomi koso sometekere kimi o uramuru namida kakarite
Only my sleeves have been dyed crimson, soaked by the tears I shed in bitterness toward you.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kurenai ni namida utsuru to kikishi o ba nado itsuwari to waga omoiken
I had heard that tears turn crimson—why, then, did I ever think that was a lie?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kurenai ni namida shi koku wa midori naru sode mo momiji to miemashi mono o
If your tears were truly a deep crimson, even your green sleeves would look like autumn leaves. Yet they do not.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Inishie no nonaka no shimizu miru kara ni sashikumu mono wa namida narikeri
As soon as I saw it, like the clear spring in the moor from days of old, what welled up within me to be drawn was nothing but my tears.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Amagumo no haruru yo mo naku furu mono wa sode nomi nururu namida narikeri
What keeps falling, with never a night when the clouds in the sky clear away, is the tears that soak only my sleeves.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Au koto no kata futagarite kimi kozu wa omou kokoro no tagau bakari zo
If, saying your direction is blocked, you make meeting so difficult and do not come, then my heart that longs for you will only turn away, as one turns aside on a journey.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tokiwa ni to tanomeshi koto wa matsu hodo no hisashikarubeki na ni koso arikere
When you promised your love would be evergreen, it was only like the name of the pine—it meant the long, long time I would have to wait.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet