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- Kokin Wakashu
Ashihiki no yama no manimani kakurenamu uki yo no naka wa aru kai mo nashi
I will hide myself away, going deeper and deeper into the mountains; in this sorrowful world there is no point in living.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yo no naka no ukeku ni akinu okuyama no konoha ni fureru yuki ya kenamashi
I am weary of the sorrows of this world. Shall I simply vanish, like the snow fallen on the leaves deep in the mountains?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Yo no ukime mienu yamaji e iramu ni wa omou hito koso hodashi narikere
If I would enter the mountain path where I need not see the world's bitterness, it is the one I love who is the fetter holding me back.
Kokin Wakashu - Mononobe no Yoshina
Yo o sutete yama ni iru hito yama nite mo nao uki toki wa izuchi yukuramu
You who have given up the world and entered the mountains: when things become painful even there, where will you go?
Kokin Wakashu - Oshikochi no Mitsune
Imasara ni nani oiizuramu take no ko no uki fushi shigeki yo to wa shirazu ya
Why should this little bamboo shoot come forth now? Does it not know that this is a world as full of bitter moments as bamboo is of joints?
Kokin Wakashu - Oshikochi no Mitsune
Yo ni fureba koto no ha shigeki kuretake no uki fushi goto ni uguisu zo naku
Living in this world, I am beset by people's talk, thick as the leaves of the bamboo; at every bitter turn I cry, as the warbler sings at every joint of the bamboo.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ki ni mo arazu kusa ni mo aranu take no yo no hashi ni waga mi wa narinu beranari
Like bamboo, which is neither tree nor grass, I seem to have become something at the very edge of a joint, belonging nowhere in this world.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Waga mi kara uki yo no naka to nazuketsutsu hito no tame sae kanashikaruramu
It is because of my own lot that I call this a bitter world; so why is it that I grieve even for other people?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Omoiki ya hina no wakare ni otoroete ama no nawa taki isari semu to wa
Did I ever imagine that, cast off to the distant provinces and brought so low, I would be hauling in ropes and fishing like the fisherfolk?
Kokin Wakashu - Ono no Takamura
Wakuraba ni tou hito araba suma no ura ni moshio taretsutsu wabu to kotae yo
If by chance anyone asks after me, tell them that on the shore of Suma I spend my days in misery, dripping with the brine of the salt-makers and with my own tears.
Kokin Wakashu - Ariwara no Yukihira
Amabiko no otozureji to zo ima wa omou ware ka hito ka to mi o tadoru yo ni
I have come to think that no one will visit me now, no more than an echo answers of itself, for I am so dazed these days that I hardly know whether I am myself or someone else.
Kokin Wakashu - Ono no Harukaze
Uki yo ni wa kado saseri tomo mienaku ni nado ka waga mi no idegate ni suru
It does not seem that this bitter world has shut its gate on me; why then do I find it so hard to leave?
Kokin Wakashu - Taira no Sadabumi
Ari hatenu inochi matsu ma no hodo bakari uki koto shigeku omowazu mogana
For the short time I have left, waiting for this life that cannot last to end, I wish I did not have to brood so constantly on painful things.
Kokin Wakashu - Taira no Sadabumi
Tsukubane no ko no moto goto ni tachi zo yoru haru no miyama no kage o koitsutsu
On Mount Tsukuba I stop beneath one tree after another for shelter, all the while longing for the shade of the spring mountain, the kindness of the Crown Prince's palace.
Kokin Wakashu - Miyaji no Kiyoki
Hikari naki tani ni wa haru mo yoso nareba sakite toku chiru monoomoi mo nashi
In a valley the sun never reaches, spring is a stranger, and so I have none of the grief of flowers that bloom and quickly fall.
Kokin Wakashu - Kiyohara no Fukayabu
Hisakata no uchi ni oitaru sato nareba hikari o nomi zo tanomu beranaru
Since I live in a village named for the katsura tree that grows within the moon, it seems I rely on nothing but the moon's light, that is, on Your Majesty's kindness.
Kokin Wakashu - Ise