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- Gosen Wakashu
Kosa masaru namida no iro mo kai zo naki misubeki hito no konoyo naraneba
The color of my tears grows ever deeper, yet it is all in vain, for the one I should show them to is no longer of this world.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Sumiyoshi no kishi ni kiyosuru okitsunami manaku kakete mo omoyuru kana
Like the waves from the open sea that break without pause on the shore of Sumiyoshi, you are always in my heart, never out of my thoughts.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Suminoe no me ni chikakaraba kishi ni ite nami no kazu o mo yomubeki mono o
If Suminoe were close enough to see, I would sit on the shore and count the very waves—but as it is, I cannot know whether your thoughts are as unceasing as you say.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Koite hemu to omou kokoro no warinasa wa shinite mo shire yo wasuregatami ni
Know, even after I am dead, the helpless longing of a heart that resolved to go on living in love—let it be a keepsake you cannot forget.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Moshi mo ya to aimimu koto o tanomazu wa kaku furu hodo ni mazu zo kenamashi
If I had not clung to the hope that we might meet someday, I would surely have faded away first in all this time that has passed.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tokihira
Au to dani katami ni miyuru mono naraba wasururu hodo mo aramashi mono o
If even our meeting could be seen by each of us as a keepsake, there might be a moment when I could forget—but there is not.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Oto ni nomi koe o kiku kana ashihiki no yamashitamizu ni aranu mono kara
I hear your voice only in rumor, though you are not some hidden stream flowing beneath the mountain trees.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Aki tote ya ima wa kagiri no tachinuran omoi ni aenu mono nara naku ni
Is it because it is autumn—because you have tired of me—that the mist of "this is the end" has risen? It is not as if my love were more than you could bear.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Mishi yume no omoiideraruru yoigoto ni iwanu o shiru wa namida narikeri
Every evening when the dream I once dreamed comes back to me, it is only my tears that know what I leave unsaid.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Shiratsuyu no okite aiminu koto yori wa kinu kaeshi tsutsu nenan to zo omou
Rather than stay awake like the settling white dew and never see you, I think I will turn my robe inside out and go to sleep.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Koto no ha wa nagenaru mono to iinagara omowanu tame wa kimi mo shiruran
People say that words are flimsy things, and yet surely you know as well as I that one does not send them to someone one does not care for.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Shiranami no uchiizuru hama no hamachidori ato ya tazunuru shirube naruran
Like the tracks of plovers on the beach where white waves break, might these traces of my brush be the guide that leads me to you?
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Asatada
Ōshima ni mizu o hakobishi hayafune no hayaku mo hito ni aimiteshi kana
Like the swift boat that carried water out to Ōshima, I long to meet my love as swiftly as I can.
Gosen Wakashu - Ōe no Asatsuna
Hitaburu ni omoi na wabi so furusaruru hito no kokoro wa sore zo yo no tsune
Do not lose yourself in grief. That a person's heart grows stale and drifts away is simply the way of the world.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tokihira
Yo no tsune no hito no kokoro o mada mineba nani ka kono tabi kenubeki mono o
I had never yet known the heart that changes as the world's way has it—why else would I now feel as though I might fade away?
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Sumizome no kurama no yama ni iru hito wa tadoru tadoru mo kaeri kinanan
You who go into Kurama, mountain as dark as ink-dyed robes, even if you must grope your way step by step, please come back to me.
Gosen Wakashu - Daughter of Taira no Nakaki