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- Yamato Monogatari
Korizuma no ura ni kazukamu ukimiru wa nami sawagashiku ari koso wa seme
The drifting seaweed you would dive for in the bay of the unrepentant will have the waves breaking noisily around it.
Kite miredo kokoro mo yukazu furusato no mukashi nagara no hana wa chiredomo
I have come and looked, and my heart is not eased — though in this old place the flowers are falling just as they always did.
Wasureji to tanomeshi hito wa ari to kiku iishi koto no ha izuchi inikemu
The one who told me he would not forget, and made me hope — he is well, I hear. Then where have the words he spoke gone?
Kurikoma no yama ni asa tatsu kiji yori mo kari ni wa awaji to omoishi mono o
More warily than the pheasant taking wing at dawn from Kurikoma means to keep clear of the hunt, I meant to keep clear of a passing love.
Omou hito ame to furikuru mono naraba waga moru toko wa kaesazaramashi
If the one I love came down to me the way this rain comes down, I would not be turning over the leaking bed I keep.
Wasuraruru mi o ba omowazu chikaiteshi hito no inochi no oshiku mo aru kana
For myself, forgotten, I have no thought at all. But the life of the man who swore it before the gods — that I cannot help but mourn.
Yoshi omoe ama no hirowanu utsusegai munashiki na o ba tatsubeshi ya kimi
Then think of me, and be done with it. An empty shell the diving women will not stoop for — should you let a name stand with nothing at all inside it?
Kyō yori wa ogi no yakehara kakiwakete wakana tsumi ni to tare o sasowamu
From today I shall push my way through the burnt reed-fields to gather young herbs. And who is there I should ask to come with me?
Kataoka ni warabi moezu wa tazunetsutsu kokoroyari ni ya wakana tsumamashi
If no bracken has come up on the hillside, then I shall go looking, and looking again, and pick young herbs to divert myself.
Yamazato ni ware o todomete wakareji no yuki no manimani fukaku naruramu
You have left me here in the hill village, and along the road that parted us, as you go and as the snow falls, it must be deepening.
Yamazato ni kayou kokoro mo taenubeshi yuku mo tomaru mo kokorobososa ni
Even the heart that travels to that hill village will surely give out. The one who goes and the one who stays are both alone with their fear.
Ki no kuni no Muro no kōri ni yuku hito wa kaze no samusa mo omoishirareji
One going down to the district of Muro in Kii will hardly come to know what a cold wind is.
Ki no kuni no Muro no kōri ni yukinagara kimi to fusuma no naki zo wabishiki
Down to the district of Muro in Kii I go — and even so, having no quilt to share with you is a bleak business.
Kore naranu koto o mo ōku tagaureba uramimu kata mo naki zo wabishiki
There are so many other promises you fail to keep besides this one, that I am left with no direction — no way at all — to resent.
Ikade nao ajiro no hio ni koto towamu nani ni yorite ka ware o towanu to
Somehow, even now, I would put the question to the icefish held at the weir: on what account does he not come to me?
Ajiro yori hoka ni wa hio no yoru mono ka shirazu wa Uji no hito ni toe kashi
Do the icefish come anywhere but to the weir? If you do not know, go and ask the people of Uji.