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- Yamato Monogatari
Waga yado o itsuka wa kimi ga narashiba no narashigao ni wa ori ni okosuru
When was it you grew so familiar with my house, that you should send for a branch of it with such an easy face?
Kashiwagi ni hamori no kami no mashikeru o shirade zo orishi tatari nasaru na
I did not know that the god who guards the leaves was dwelling in that oak, and so I broke the branch. May no curse come of it.
Yoiyoi ni koishisa masaru karigoromo kokorozukushi no mono ni zo arikeru
Night after night the longing grows in me. This hunting robe turns out to be a thing that spends a man's whole heart.
Michinoku no Adachi no yama mo morotomo ni koeba wakare no kanashikaraji o
If we had crossed the mountains of Adachi in Michinoku together, the parting would not have been a sad one.
Kamogawa no se ni fusu ayu no io torite nede koso akase yume ni mietsu ya
Taking the sweetfish as they lay asleep in the Kamo shallows, I stayed awake all night. Did I appear in your dreams?
Shinozuka no umaya umaya to machiwabishi kimi wa munashiku nari zo shinikeru
Station, station at Shinozuka — and station by station I waited and waited for you, who had already come to nothing.
Sakinioi kaze matsu hodo no yamazakura hito no yo yori wa hisashikarikeri
Blossoming and then waiting only for the wind — these mountain cherries turn out, after all, to last longer than a human life.
Haruharu no hana wa chiru tomo sakinubeshi mata aigataki hito no yo zo uki
Spring after spring the flowers scatter, and still they will surely bloom again. It is a human life, never to be met with again, that is hard to bear.
Ike wa nao mukashi nagara no kagami nite kage mishi kimi ga naki zo kanashiki
The pond is still a mirror, just as it always was; and it is that you who looked into it are gone that makes the sorrow of it.
Wakarubeki koto mo aru mono o hinemosu ni matsu tote sae mo nagekitsuru kana
There is the parting itself to grieve over — and now a whole day spent waiting for it turns out to be one more thing to grieve for.
Yado chikaku utsushite ueshi kai mo naku machidō ni nomi miyuru hana kana
For all the trouble of moving it close to the house, it has come to nothing. This is a tree I do nothing but wait for.
Kimi ga yuku Koshi no Shirayama shirazu tomo yuki no manimani ato wa tazunemu
Though I do not know Shirayama in Koshi, where you are bound, I shall follow as the snow goes and look for your footprints.
Koyoi koso namida no kawa ni iru chidori nakite kaeru to kimi wa shirazu ya
Tonight of all nights, a plover that has waded into the river of tears goes home crying. And you — do you not know it?
Nagaki yo o Akashi no ura ni yaku shio no kemuri wa sora ni tachi ya noboranu
Through the long night I keep watch till dawn at Akashi, where they burn the salt. Does that smoke not rise and stand against the sky?
Taketori ga yoyo ni nakitsutsu todomekemu kimi wa kimi ni to koyoi shimo yuku
The old bamboo-cutter wept night after night, they say, and tried to keep her. And tonight, tonight of all nights, she goes to her lord.
Uchitsuke ni madou kokoro to kiku kara ni nagusameyasuku obooyuru kana
A heart that lost its way all of a sudden — merely hearing of it, I think it will be soon and easily comforted.