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- Manyoshu
Miyoshino no tamamatsu ga e wa hashiki kamo kimi ga mikoto o mochite kayowaku
How dear to me is this lovely branch of pine from Yoshino, coming here and bearing your words to me!
Manyoshu - Princess Nukata
Aki no ta no homuki no yoreru katayori ni kimi ni yorinana kochitaku ari tomo
Just as the ears of rice in the autumn fields all lean to one side, I long to lean wholly toward you, however loudly people may talk.
Manyoshu - Princess Tajima
Okureite koitsutsu arazu wa oishikamu michi no kumami ni shime yue waga se
Rather than stay behind longing for you, I will follow and catch up with you. Tie a marker at every bend in the road, my love.
Manyoshu - Princess Tajima
Hitogoto o shigemi kochitami ono ga yo ni imada wataranu asakawa wataru
Because people's gossip is so thick and so hard to bear, I am crossing this morning a river I have never crossed in all my life.
Manyoshu - Princess Tajima
Masurao ya katakoi semu to nagekedomo shiko no masurao nao koinikeri
Should a man of spirit ever pine in one-sided love? So I lament, and yet this wretched excuse for a man has fallen in love all the same.
Manyoshu - Prince Toneri
Nagekitsutsu masurao no ko no koure koso waga kamiyui no hichite nurekere
It must be because a man of spirit loves me, sighing as he does, that my bound hair has grown damp and come undone.
Manyoshu - Toneri no Otome
Yoshinogawa yuku se no hayami shimashiku mo yodomu koto naku arikosenu kamo
Like the swift shoals of the Yoshino River, may our love flow on without pausing even for a moment—if only it could be so!
Manyoshu - Prince Yuge
Wagimoko ni koitsutsu arazu wa akihagi no sakite chirinuru hana ni aramashi o
Rather than go on longing for you, my love, I would sooner be a bush clover flower of autumn that blooms and then is gone.
Manyoshu - Prince Yuge
Yū saraba shio michikinamu suminoe no asaka no ura ni tamamo karite na
When evening comes the tide will surely rise; let me cut the lovely seaweed now in the bay of Asaka at Suminoe.
Manyoshu - Prince Yuge
Ōbune no hatsuru tomari no tayutai ni monomoi yasenu hito no ko yue ni
Like a great ship rocking where it lies at anchor, my heart has wavered and I have wasted away with longing, all for one who belongs to another.
Manyoshu - Prince Yuge
Takeba nure takaneba nagaki imo ga kami kono koro minu ni kakiiretsuramu ka
Bound up, it slips loose; left down, it is too long—my young wife's hair. In these days I have not seen her, has she combed it up and tied it?
Manyoshu - Novice Mikata
Hito mina wa ima wa nagashi to take to iedo kimi ga mishi kami midaretari tomo
Everyone says it is long now and I should bind it up, but this is the hair you saw, my love, so I will leave it be, even if it is tangled.
Manyoshu - Daughter of Sono no Omi Ikuha
Tachibana no kage fumu michi no yachimata ni mono o zo omou imo ni awazu shite
Like a crossroads where the path through the shade of the orange trees branches every way, my thoughts are scattered and confused, for I cannot meet my wife.
Manyoshu - Novice Mikata
Miyabio to ware wa kikeru o yado kasazu ware o kaeseri oso no miyabio
I had heard you were a man of refinement, yet you gave me no place to stay and sent me home again—what a dull-witted man of refinement!
Manyoshu - Lady Ishikawa
Miyabio ni ware wa arikeri yado kasazu kaeshishi ware zo miyabio ni wa aru
It turns out I am indeed a man of refinement: the one who gave you no lodging and sent you home is the true man of refinement.
Manyoshu - Ōtomo no Tanushi
Waga kikishi mimi ni yoku niru ashi no ure no ashi hiku waga se tsutome tabu beshi
Just as I had heard it said, you drag your legs as feebly as the tips of reeds, my dear—take good care of yourself and get well.
Manyoshu - Lady Ishikawa