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- Gosen Wakashu
Takitsuse no hayakaranu o zo uramitsuru mizu tomo oto ni kikan to omoeba
I bore a grudge that the rapids did not run swift—for even if I cannot see, I would at least hear their sound, hear word of you.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Minahito ni fumi misekeri na Minasegawa sono watari koso mazu wa asakere
So you showed my letter to everyone. Like the River Minase, it is right at that crossing that the water first runs shallow—shallow as your heart.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Toshi fureba waga kurokami mo Shirakawa no mizuhakumu made oinikeru kana
As the years have passed, even my black hair has turned white as the White River, and I who draw its water have grown so old that new teeth sprout again.
Gosen Wakashu - Higaki no Ouna
Kazasu tomo tachi to tachinan nakina oba kotonashigusa no kai ya nakaran
Even if you wear it in your hair, a groundless rumor will rise as it must; I fear that even the plant called No-Trouble would be of no use.
Gosen Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Kaerikuru michi ni zo kesa wa mayouran kore ni nazurau hana naki mono o
This morning I shall surely lose my way on the road back home, for there is no flower that could rival this one.
Gosen Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Ōzora ni yukikau tori no kumoji o zo hito no fumi minu mono to iu naru
They say the cloud-road where birds come and go across the great sky is a path no one ever treads—and so, it seems, my letters go unread.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ki no kuni no Nagusa no hama wa kimi nare ya koto no iukai ari to kikitsuru
Is it you, I wonder, who are that beach of Nagusa in the land of Ki? I heard there was worth in speaking there, as there are shells on its shore—and indeed I have been consoled.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Nami ni nomi nuretsuru mono o fuku kaze no tayori ureshiki ama no tsuribune
Though drenched only by the waves till now, how glad is the fisherman's little boat of the chance the blowing wind has brought it.
Gosen Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Midori naru matsu hodo sugiba ikade ka wa shitaba bakari mo momiji sezaran
Even an evergreen pine, if the waiting stretches on too long, how could it not let at least its lower leaves turn to autumn color?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Omoiide no kemuri ya masan naki hito no hotoke ni nareru konomi miba kimi
Will the smoke of remembrance only rise the thicker when you look upon these seeds of the tree beneath which one became a Buddha, as the one now gone has done?
Gosen Wakashu - Priest Shin'en
Michi nareru konomi tazunete kokorozashi ari to miru ni zo ne o ba mashikeru
When I see how deep your kindness is in seeking out for me these seeds of the tree of the enlightened Way, my weeping only grows the more.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Morosuke
Izuko ni mo mi oba hanarenu kage shi areba fusu toko goto ni hitori ya wa nuru
Wherever I may be, there is a shadow that never leaves me, so on whatever bed I lie, how could I ever be sleeping alone?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kaze shimo ni iro mo kokoro mo kawaraneba aruji ni nitaru ueki narikeri
Through wind and frost, neither its color nor its heart ever changes—this is a tree that resembles its master.
Gosen Wakashu - Priest Shin'en
Yama fukami aruji ni nitaru ueki oba mienu iro to zo iubekarikeru
Since the mountains are so deep, this tree that resembles its master ought rather to be called a color no eye can see.
Gosen Wakashu - Prince Yukiakira
Ōigawa ukaberu fune no kagaribi ni Ogura no yama mo na nomi narikeri
Lit by the flares of the boats floating on the Ōi River, Mount Ogura, the "dim" mountain, turns out to be dim in name alone.
Gosen Wakashu - Ariwara no Narihira
Asukagawa waga mi hitotsu no fuchise yue nabete no yo o mo uramitsuru kana
Like the Asuka River whose deeps and shallows shift, it is only my own rise and fall, yet I have come to resent the whole of the world.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet