- Top
- -
- Senzai Wakashu
Ika ni semu Ise no hamaogi migakurete omowanu iso no nami ni kuchinaba
What am I to do? If, like the beach reeds of Ise hidden beneath the water, I should rot away in the waves of an unlooked-for shore...
Senzai Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshishige
Maki no to o miyama oroshi ni tatakarete tou ni tsukete mo nururu sode kana
My door of cedar is beaten by the wind sweeping down from the deep hills, and each time it seems someone has come to call, my sleeves grow wet with tears.
Senzai Wakashu - Minamoto no Toshiyori
Oyamakuni no io ni taku hi no arinashi ni tatsu keburi mo ya kumo to naruran
The smoke that rises from a fire so faint it scarcely seems to burn, in a hut in Oyamakuni, does even that become a cloud?
Senzai Wakashu - Tachibana no Morinaga
Yamazato no shiba oriori ni tatsu keburi hito mare nari to sora ni shiru kana
The smoke of brushwood broken and burned rises only now and then in the mountain village, and from the sky I know how few the people are.
Senzai Wakashu - Nijō Taikōtaigōgū no Higo
Aki hatsuru kareno no mushi no koe taeba ari ya nashi ya o hito no toe kashi
When the voices of the insects in the withered fields at autumn's end fall silent, I wish someone would ask whether I am still alive or not.
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Mototoshi
Kono yo ni wa sumubeki hodo ya tsukinuran yo no tsune narazu mono no kanashiki
Has the time I am to live in this world already run out? Beneath this clear moon, I feel a sadness unlike any I have known.
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Michinobu
Inochi araba ikasama ni sen yo o shiranu mushi dani aki wa naki ni koso nake
If I should go on living, what am I to do? Even the insects, who know nothing of the world, cry and cry when autumn comes.
Senzai Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Kazu narade kokoro ni mi o ba makasenedo mi ni shitagau wa kokoro narikeri
Being of no account, I cannot let my body follow my heart's will, yet I find it is my heart that follows where my body's lot leads.
Senzai Wakashu - Murasaki Shikibu
Aware tomo tare ka wa ware o omoiidemu aru yo ni dani mo tou hito mo nashi
When I am gone, who will remember me and think of me with pity? Even while I am alive in this world, no one comes to call.
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kanefusa
Furusato no itama no kaze ni nezameshite tani no arashi o omoi koso yare
Woken in the night by the wind through the boards of the old home you left behind, I could only imagine the storm blowing through your valley.
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Sadayori
Tanikaze no mi ni shimu goto ni furusato no konomoto o koso omoiyaritsure
Each time the valley wind pierced me to the bone, it was I who thought of the old home and of you, my child, beneath its trees.
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kintō
Inishie wa omoikakeki ya torikawashi kaku kin mono to nori no koromo o
Long ago, could we ever have imagined that we would one day exchange these robes of the Law and both wear them like this?
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Michinaga
Onaji toshi chigirishi areba kimi ga kiru nori no koromo o tachiokure me ya
Since we were bound to be born in the same year, how could I fall behind you in cutting and donning the robes of the Law you wear?
Senzai Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kintō
Mukashi mishi matsu no kozue wa sore nagara mugura no kado o sashitekeru kana
The tops of the pines I saw long ago are just as they were, yet now the gate is shut and overgrown with tangled weeds.
Senzai Wakashu - Ben no Menoto
Yamazato no kakehi no mizu no kōreru wa oto kiku yori mo sabishikarikeri
The frozen water of the bamboo pipe in your mountain village is lonelier still than hearing the sound of its flowing.
Senzai Wakashu - Prince Sukehito
Yamazato no sabishiki yado no sumika ni mo kakehi no mizu no tokuru o zo matsu
Even in my lonely dwelling in the mountain village, I wait for the water in the bamboo pipe to thaw.
Senzai Wakashu - Princess Satoko