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- Gosen Wakashu
Harugasumi hakanaku tachite wakaru tomo kaze yori hoka ni tare ka toubeki
Even if you leave me, rising and drifting away like the spring haze, who but the wind would come to call on you?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Me ni mienu kaze ni kokoro o taguetsutsu yaraba kasumi no wakare koso seme
If you will send your heart along with the unseen wind to keep me company, then I will take my leave, as the haze departs.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Fukamidori someken matsu no enishi araba usuki sode ni mo nami wa yoseten
If there is a bond between us like the branches of the pine, dyed deep green and never changing, then surely the waves will come to my sleeves too, pale as they are.
Gosen Wakashu - Prince Sadamoto
Matsuyama no sue kosu nami no enishi araba kimi ga sode ni wa ato mo tomaraji
If our bond is like the waves that sweep over the top of Mount Matsuyama, fickle and faithless, then not even a trace of them will linger on your sleeves.
Gosen Wakashu - Tosa
Fukaku omoi sometsu to iishi koto no ha wa itsuka akikaze fukite chirinuru
Those words I spoke, that my heart was deeply dyed with love for you—when did an autumn wind of weariness ever blow and scatter them?
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tokihira
Hito o nomi uramuru yori wa kokoro kara kore imazarishi tsumi to omowamu
Rather than blaming him alone, let me think it my own doing—my fault for not having shunned this when I could.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ashihiki no yamashita shigeku yuku mizu no nagarete kaku shi towaba tanomamu
Like the water that flows ceaselessly at the foot of the mountain, if you will keep on visiting me like this for years to come, then I will put my trust in you.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Wabihatsuru toki sae mono no kanashiki wa izuko o shinobu kokoro naruran
Even now, when I have grieved myself to the end, I still feel a nameless sorrow—what part of him can my heart still be longing for?
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Inase tomo iihanatarezu uki mono wa mi o kokoro tomo senu yo narikeri
I cannot answer you plainly, neither no nor yes. What is truly painful is this world, where I cannot do with myself as my heart would wish.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Kozu ya aran ki ya sen to nomi kawagishi no matsu no kokoro o omoiyaranan
Will you not come, or will you come after all—that is all I think of. Please imagine the heart of one who waits like the pine on the riverbank.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Shiite yuku koma no ashi oru hashi o dani nado waga yado ni watasazariken
If only I had built, at least, a bridge at my house that would break the legs of your horse as you insist on leaving—why did I never do it?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Toshi o hete ikeru kai naki waga mi o ba nani ka wa hito ni ari to shiraren
I have lived on for years with no reason to be alive. Why should I let anyone know that I am still in this world?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Asari suru toki zo wabishiki hito shirezu naniwa no ura ni sumau waga mi wa
It is when I go out foraging that I feel most wretched—I who live unknown to all on the bay of Naniwa.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nagametsutsu hito matsu yoi no yobukodori izukata e to ka yukikaeruramu
In the evening, as I sit lost in thought waiting for him, the calling bird cries out—where can it be going to, and coming back from?
Gosen Wakashu - Mother of the Priest Kantan
Hitogoto no tanomigatasa wa naniwa naru ashi no uraba no uramitsubeshi na
Your words are so hard to rely on that, like the reeds of Naniwa turning up their leaves in the wind, I am sure to end up showing you my resentment.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Hito hakaru kokoro no kuma wa kitanakute kiyoki nagisa o ikade sugiken
With the hidden corners of your heart so soiled by deceit, how could you ever have passed along those pure shores of Ise?
Gosen Wakashu - Shosho no Naishi