- Top
- -
- Gosen Wakashu
Karibito no tazunuru shika wa inabino ni awade nomi koso aramahoshikere
The deer the hunter seeks would rather stay on Inabi Plain saying no, and never once be found.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Oyamada no mizu naranaku ni kaku bakari nagaresomete wa taen mono ka wa
I am not like the water of a little hillside field; once it has begun to flow as it does now, how could it ever run dry?
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Morosuke
Tsuki ni dani matsu hodo ōku suginureba amemoyo ni koji to omōyuru kana
Even on moonlit nights so many hours have passed in waiting for you; on a rainy night like this, I can only think you will not come.
Gosen Wakashu - Imaki, Daughter of Fujiwara no Korehira
Omoitsutsu mada iisomenu waga koi o onaji kokoro ni shirasete shigana
Longing all the while, I have not yet begun to speak of my love; how I wish I could make you know it with the same heart that I feel.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Asukagawa kokoro no uchi ni nagarureba soko no shigarami itsuka yodoman
Since the Asuka River you speak of flows within my heart, when could any weir set on its bed ever make its current stall?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Fuji no ne o yoso ni zo kikishi ima wa waga omoi ni moyuru keburi narikeri
I used to hear of the peak of Fuji as a thing far removed from me; now I know its smoke is the smoke that burns from the fire of my own longing.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Asayori
Shirushi naki omoi to zo kiku fuji no ne mo kagoto bakari no keburi naruran
I hear that yours is a fire of longing that yields nothing; I suppose the smoke of Fuji's peak, too, is smoke that rises only as a pretext.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Iisashite todomeraru naru ikemizu no nami izukata ni omoiyoruran
Like the water of a pond held back, your words, I hear, have been cut off midway; toward which shore will the ripples of your heart now drift?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Shirareji na waga hito shirenu kokoro mote kimi o omoi no naka ni moyu to wa
You will never know it: that with a heart no one has seen, I am burning in the fire of my love for you.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Au hakari nakute nomi furu waga koi o hitome ni kakuru koto no wabishisa
With no means to meet, like having no pole to carry a load, my love has only passed the days; how wretched it is to have it hung upon the eyes of others as an excuse.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Natsugoromo mi ni wa naru tomo waga tame ni usuki kokoro wa kakezu mo aranan
Even if you grow used to me as a summer robe grows used to the body, please do not drape over me a heart as thin as that summer cloth.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ika ni shite koto katarawan hototogisu nageki no shita ni nakeba kai nashi
How can we ever talk together, cuckoo? If you only cry beneath the boughs of grief, as I weep, it is of no use.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Omoitsutsu henikeru toshi o shirube nite narenuru mono wa kokoro narikeri
Longing all the while, I let the passing years be my guide, and what has grown familiar with you is my heart alone.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ware naranu hito suminoe no kishi ni idete naniwa no kata o uramitsuru kana
Since another man, not I, has come to live with you, I went out on the shore of Suminoe and, gazing toward the flats of Naniwa, nursed my bitterness.
Gosen Wakashu - Minamoto no Hitoshi
Nigoriyuku mizu ni wa kage no mieba koso ashi mayou e o todomete mo mime
If your image still showed in water that grows ever muddier, I might keep this flute here, like a cove where the reeds are tossed, and look on it; but it does not.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Sugawara ya fushimi no sato no areshi yori kayoishi hito no ato mo taeniki
Ever since the village of Fushimi in Sugawara fell into ruin, even the footprints of the one who used to come have vanished.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet