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- Kokin Wakashu
Wabibito no sumu beki yado to miru nae ni nageki kuwawaru koto no ne zo suru
Just as I was thinking this must be a house where some unhappy soul lives, I heard the sound of a koto that only deepened the sorrow.
Kokin Wakashu - Yoshimine no Munesada
Hito furusu sato o itoite koshikadomo nara no miyako mo uki na narikeri
I came here to escape a place where people are grown tired of and cast aside, but even the old capital of Nara, I find, has a name for sorrow.
Kokin Wakashu - Nijō
Yo no naka wa izure ka sashite waga naramu yuki tomaru o zo yado to sadamuru
In this world, which place can I point to and call my own? Wherever I happen to stop on my way, that is where I make my lodging.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ōsaka no arashi no kaze wa samukeredo yukue shiraneba wabitsutsu zo nuru
The storm wind at Ōsaka Pass is cold, but since I do not know where to go, I lie down to sleep here in misery.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kaze no ue ni arika sadamenu chiri no mi wa yukue mo shirazu narinu beranari
Like dust borne on the wind, never settling anywhere, I seem to be drifting off to I know not where.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Asukagawa fuchi ni mo aranu waga yado mo se ni kawari yuku mono ni zo arikeru
My house is no deep pool of the Asuka River, yet it too, I find, has changed, as pools turn to shallows, into coin.
Kokin Wakashu - Ise
Furusato wa mishi goto mo arazu ono no e no kuchishi tokoro zo koishikarikeru
The capital I have come home to is not as I remember it. It is the place where time slipped by until the axe handle rotted, where we played go, that I long for.
Kokin Wakashu - Ki no Tomonori
Akazarishi sode no naka ni ya irinikemu waga tamashii no naki kokochi suru
Did my soul slip into your sleeve, which I could not bear to leave? I feel as if it has gone out of me.
Kokin Wakashu - Michinoku
Nayotake no yo nagaki ue ni hatsushimo no okiite mono o omou koro kana
The nights are long, like the long sections of a pliant bamboo, and besides, I stay up like the first frost settling, lost in brooding these days.
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tadanobu
Kaze fukeba okitsu shiranami tatsutayama yowa ni ya kimi ga hitori koyuramu
When the wind blows, the white waves rise out at sea; over Mount Tatsuta, whose name recalls their rising, are you crossing alone, my love, in the middle of the night?
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Taga misogi yūtsukedori ka karakoromo tatsuta no yama ni orihaete naku
For whose purification rite is this rooster adorned with mulberry-bark cloth? On Mount Tatsuta it keeps crowing, its voice drawn out long, like cloth woven on and on.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Wasuraremu toki shinobe to zo hamachidori yukue mo shiranu ato o todomuru
Saying, "When I am forgotten, remember me by this," I leave behind these traces of my brush, like the footprints of the shore plovers who know not where they will go.
Kokin Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kannazuki shigure furiokeru nara no ha no na ni ou miya no furukoto zo kore
These are the ancient words of the capital that bears the name of nara, the oak leaves on which the showers of the tenth month have fallen: that is, of Nara.
Kokin Wakashu - Fun'ya no Arisue
Ashitazu no hitori okurete naku koe wa kumo no ue made kikoetsuganamu
I pray that the cry of the crane among the reeds, left behind alone by its flock, will be heard and carried all the way up above the clouds.
Kokin Wakashu - Oe no Chisato
Hito shirezu omou kokoro wa harugasumi tachiidete kimi ga me ni mo mienamu
I wish that this heart of mine, which longs in secret, would rise and come forth like the spring haze, so that it might be seen even by your eyes.
Kokin Wakashu - Fujiwara no Katsumine
Yamakawa no oto ni nomi kiku momoshiki o mi o haya nagara miru yoshi mogana
Now I hear of the palace only by report, as one hears a mountain stream by its sound alone. If only there were a way for me to see it again, just as I was in former days.
Kokin Wakashu - Ise