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- Gosen Wakashu
Hi o hete mo kage ni miyuru wa tamakazura tsuraki nagara mo taenu narikeri
Though the days go by, your image still appears before me; like a trailing vine that never breaks, my love goes on despite your coldness.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Takasago no matsu o midori to mishi koto wa shita no momiji o shiranu narikeri
I thought the pine of Takasago was forever green only because I did not know of the autumn leaves turning red beneath it.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Toki wakanu matsu no midori mo kagiri naki omoi ni wa nao iro ya moyuran
Even the green of the pine, which knows no seasons, may still flare into color in the fire of a boundless love.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Mizutori no hakanaki ato ni toshi o hete kayou bakari no e ni koso arikere
Through traces as fleeting as the tracks of water birds, we have let the years go by—ours has been a bond in which only letters pass to and fro, like birds across an inlet.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nami no ue ni ato ya wa miyuru mizutori no ukite henuran toshi wa kazu ka wa
Can any track be seen on the surface of the waves? The years that you, like a water bird, have spent afloat in sorrow—are they even worth the counting?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nagareyoru sese no shiranami asakereba tomaru inafune kaeru narubeshi
Because the white waves that flow over the shallows are so shallow, even the rice boat that might have stayed will surely turn back—as my heart turns back from your shallow love.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Mogamigawa fukaki ni mo aezu inafune no kokoro karoku mo kaeru naru kana
Like a rice boat on the Mogami that cannot bear its depths and turns back, your heart, it seems, so lightly turns away from my deep love.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Sadakata
Hanasusuki ho ni izuru koto mo naki mono o mataki fukinuru aki no kaze kana
Our love has not yet shown itself, like pampas grass that has not put forth its plumes, and already the autumn wind—the wind of your weariness—has begun to blow.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Mata sarishi aki wa kinuredo mishi hito no kokoro wa yoso ni nari mo yuku kana
The autumn that once departed has come back again, yet the heart of the one I used to meet keeps drifting further and further away.
Gosen Wakashu - Daughter of Taira no Nakaki
Kimi o omou kokoronagasa wa aki no yo ni izure masaru to sora ni shiranan
Let the sky decide which is longer: the long nights of autumn, or the length of my heart that thinks of you.
Gosen Wakashu - Minamoto no Koreshige
Kagamiyama akete kitsureba akigiri no kesa ya tatsuran aumi chō na wa
Because I came home after dawn had opened like a mirror on Mirror Mountain, has the rumor of "Ōmi"—that we met—risen like the autumn mist this morning?
Gosen Wakashu - Sakanoue no Tsunekage
Eda mo naku hito ni oraruru ominaeshi ne o dani nokose ueshi waga tame
Maiden flower, broken off by others until not a branch remains—leave me at least your roots, for I am the one who planted you.
Gosen Wakashu - Taira no Mareyo
Aki no ta no karisome fushi mo shitekeru ka itazura ine o nani ni tsumamashi
Like the reaping of an autumn field, I have spent the night in a makeshift sleep. On what am I to stack this wasted sleep, like sheaves of useless rice?
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Narikuni
Akikaze no fuku ni tsukete mo towanu kana ogi no ha naraba oto wa shitemashi
Even with the autumn wind blowing, you do not come to see me. If you were a leaf of the reed, you would at least have rustled in the wind.
Gosen Wakashu - Nakatsukasa
Kimi mizute ikuyo henuran toshitsuki no furu to tomo ni mo otsuru namida ka
How many ages have passed without my seeing you? With every passing month and year, my tears keep falling.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nakanaka ni omoikakete wa karakoromo mi ni narenu o zo uramu beranaru
Having set my heart on you to no purpose, I seem to resent that, like a Chinese robe that never settles on the body, I cannot grow close to you.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet