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- Kagero Nikki
Oshiekeru tsuki wa nishi e zo yuku saki wa ware nomi koso wa shiru bekarikere
Let me teach you: the moon goes west, and always west. As for where you are bound, that is a thing only I could be said to know.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Ari to dani yoso nite mo mimu na ni shi owaba ware ni kikase yo mimiraku no shima
If only I might see her, even from far off, and know that she is there still — if that is truly your name, then let me hear her, Isle of Mimiraku.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Izuko to ka oto ni nomi kiku mimiraku no shimagakure ni shi hito o tazunemu
And where is it, this Mimiraku we know only by report? How shall I go seeking one who has passed behind that island?
Te furene to hana wa sakari ni narinikeri todome okikeru tsuyu ni kakarite
No hand has touched them, and yet the flowers have come into full bloom — living still on the dew she left behind her.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Hachisuba no tama to naruramu musubu ni mo sode nure masaru kesa no tsuyu kana
Dew that will become a jewel upon the lotus leaf: as I gather it, as I knot the surplice, my sleeves grow wetter still with this morning's dew.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Omoiki ya kumo no hayashi ni uchisutete sora no keburi ni tatamu mono to wa
Did I ever think that he would be left behind in that wood of cloud, and rise as smoke into the sky above it? I never did.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Fujigoromo nagasu namida no kawamizu wa kishi ni mo masaru mono ni zo arikeru
The river of tears that carries the mourning robe away runs higher than its banks — higher than in the days when I wore it.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Ima wa tote hikiizuru koto no ne o kikeba uchikaeshite mo nao zo kanashiki
Hearing the koto sounded now that the season of mourning is past, I find that however often the strings are struck again, the sorrow does not lift.
Naki hito wa otozure mo sede koto no o o tachishi tsukihi zo kaeri kinikeru
The dead neither sound nor come; only the month and day on which the strings were cut have come round to us again.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Hikitomuru mono to wa nashi ni ōsaka no seki no kuchime no ne ni zo sobotsuru
There was no holding her back; and at the sound of the barrier at Ōsaka, at its worn and rotted grain, my sleeves are soaked through.
Omoiyaru ōsakayama no seki no ne wa kiku ni mo sode zo kuchime tsukinuru
The sound of the barrier at Ōsaka, where my thoughts follow her: I hear it, and my sleeves have worn through and rotted with weeping.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Kagiri ka to omoitsutsu koshi hodo yori mo nakanaka naru wa wabishikarikeri
Harder than the road I travelled thinking it might be the end is this state of being neither one thing nor the other.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Ware mo sazo nodokeki toko no ura narade kaeru namiji wa ayashikarikeri
I felt it so as well. It was no quiet Bay of Toko, no calm bed; and the wave-road by which you went home troubled me.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Aui to ka kikedomo yoso ni tachibana no
Hollyhock, they call it — the day of meeting, they call it; and yet there stands the orange tree, off at a distance from me.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Kimi ga tsurasa o kyō koso wa mire
Your unkindness is what, today of all days, I see plainly.
Ayamegusa oinishi kazu o kazoetsutsu hiku ya satsuki no sechi ni mataruru
Counting up the years the sweet flag has grown, and drawing as one draws its roots, how keenly I await the banquet of the fifth month.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna