- Top
- -
- Shui Wakashu
Inishie o ika de ka to nomi omou mi ni koyoi no yume o haru ni nasaba ya
I, who think only of how I might somehow return to the days of old, would make tonight's dream into the spring that once was mine.
Shui Wakashu - Minamoto no Keishi
Wasuraruru toki shi nakereba haru no ta o kaesugaesu zo hito wa koishiki
Since there is never a time I can forget, as the spring field is turned over again and again, so again and again I long for that person.
Shui Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Azusayumi haru no arata o uchikaeshi omoiyaminishi hito zo koishiki
As the neglected field of spring is turned over again, so I long once more for the one I thought I had ceased to love.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kano oka ni hagi karu onoko nawa o nami neru ya neriso no kudakete zo omou
On yonder hill, a man cutting bush clover, having no rope, twists brushwood into a binding until it breaks apart; just so my heart breaks with longing.
Shui Wakashu - Oshikochi no Mitsune
Haru kureba yanagi no ito mo tokenikeri musubÅretaru waga kokoro kana
Now that spring has come, even the threads of the willow have come undone, yet my heart remains knotted in gloom.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Izukata ni yoru to ka wa mimu aoyagi no ito sadamenaki hito no kokoro o
Toward which side should I expect it to lean, that heart of my beloved, as utterly unsettled as the threads of the green willow?
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Makimuku no Hibara no kasumi tachikaeri kaku koso wa mime akanu kimi kana
As the haze over the cypress fields of Makimuku rises again and again, so would I see you again and again like this, you of whom I never tire.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nagameyaru yamabe wa itodo kasumitsutsu obotsukanasa no masaru haru kana
The mountains I gaze toward are ever more veiled in haze, and this spring my anxiety at not knowing how you fare only grows.
Shui Wakashu - Daughter of Fujiwara no Kiyotada
Waga seko o kimase no yama to hito wa iedo kimi mo kimasanu yama no na narashi
People call it the mountain of "Come to me, my husband," but since you do not come, it seems it is a mountain only in name.
Shui Wakashu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Waga seko o Narashi no oka no yobukodori kimi yobikaese yo no fukenu toki
O calling bird of Narashi Hill, call my husband back to me before the night grows late.
Shui Wakashu - Yamabe no Akahito
Konu hito o Matsuchi no yama no hototogisu onaji kokoro ni ne koso nakarure
O cuckoo of Mount Matsuchi, where I wait for one who does not come, with the same heart as yours I cannot help but cry aloud.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Shinonome ni naki koso watare hototogisu mono omou yado wa shiruku ya aruran
At daybreak the cuckoo goes crying across the sky; is a house where someone broods so plain for it to see?
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Tataku tote yado no tsumado o aketareba hito mo kozue no kuina narikeri
Thinking someone was knocking, I opened the side door of my house, but no one had come; it was only a water rail calling from the treetops.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Natsugoromo usuki nagara zo tanomaruru hitoe naru shimo mi ni chikakereba
Though thin as a summer robe, I find myself relying on it all the same, for being a single layer it lies all the closer to me.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Karite hosu Yodo no makomo no ame fureba tsukane mo aenu koi mo suru kana
Like the wild rice cut and drying at Yodo, which cannot be bundled when the rain falls, so is this love of mine too tangled to gather up.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Minazuki no tsuchi sae sakete teru hi ni mo waga sode hime ya imo ni awazu shite
Even under the Sixth Month sun that blazes until the very earth cracks, would my sleeves ever dry? Not while I cannot meet my beloved.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet