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- Shika Wakashu
Aki no no no hana miru hodo no kokoro o ba yuku to ya iwamu tomaru to ya iwamu
While I gaze at the flowers of the autumn fields, should I say my heart is moving on, or that it has stayed behind?
Shika Wakashu - Akazome Emon
Kamigaki ni kakaru to naraba asagao mo yū kakuru made niowazarame ya
If it twines on the sacred fence of the shrine, how could even the morning glory fail to bloom until evening, when the sacred cotton strips are hung?
Nushi ya tare kiru hito nashi ni fujibakama mireba nogoto ni hokorobinikeri
Who could their owner be? Though no one wears them, the purple "trousers" of the boneset have burst open at the seams in every field I see.
Shika Wakashu - Ryūgen
Asana asana tsuyu omoge naru hagi ga e ni kokoro o sae mo kakete miru kana
Morning after morning, on the bush clover branches bowed with heavy dew, I hang even my heart as I gaze upon them.
Shika Wakashu - Suo no Naishi
Ogi no ha ni koto tou hito mo naki mono o kuru aki goto ni soyo to kotauru
No one comes to speak to the reed leaves, and yet each time autumn comes they rustle "soyo," as if answering, "Yes, it is so."
Aki no no no kusamura goto ni oku tsuyu wa yoru naku mushi no namida narubeshi
The dew that settles on every clump of grass in the autumn fields must be the tears of the insects crying through the night.
Shika Wakashu - Sone no Yoshitada
Yaemugura shigereru yado wa yomosugara mushi no ne kiku zo toridokoro naru
My dwelling overgrown with tangled weeds has only one merit: all night long I can listen to the insects sing.
Naku mushi no hitotsu koe ni mo kikoenu wa kokorogokoro ni mono ya kanashiki
That the crying insects do not sound like one voice: is it because each of them grieves in its own heart?
Shika Wakashu - Izumi Shikibu
Furusato ni kawarazarikeri suzumushi no Narumi no nobe no yūgure no koe
It is no different from what I heard at home: the evening voice of the bell crickets ringing on the plain of Narumi.
Akikaze ni tsuyu o namida to naku mushi no omou kokoro o tare ni towamashi
In the autumn wind the insects cry, taking the dew as their tears. Whom could I ask what feelings fill their hearts?
Ōsaka no sugima no tsuki no nakariseba ikuki no koma to ikade shiramashi
Were it not for the moonlight shining through the cedars at Ōsaka Barrier, how could we ever know how many horses were coming?
Shika Wakashu - Oe no Masafusa
Kiku hito no nado yasukaranu shika no ne wa waga tsuma o koso koite nakurame
Why should those who hear it be so troubled? Surely the deer cries only out of longing for its own mate.
Akihagi o kusa no makura ni musubu yo wa chikaku mo shika no koe o kiku kana
On a night when I bind autumn bush clover into a pillow of grass, I hear the cry of the deer close beside me.
Aki fukami hana ni wa kiku no seki nareba shitaba ni tsuki mo moriakashikeri
As autumn deepens, the chrysanthemum is the last barrier of the flowering season, and so even the moonlight slipped down to its lower leaves and kept watch there until dawn.
Shika Wakashu - Retired Emperor Sutoku
Shimogaruru hajime to mizu wa shiragiku no utsurou iro o nagekazaramashi
If I did not see it as the first sign of frost-withering, I would not grieve to see the changing color of the white chrysanthemum.
Kotoshi mata sakubeki hana no araba koso utsurou kiku ni mekare o mo seme
If there were other flowers still to bloom this year, I might take my eyes off the fading chrysanthemum; but there are none.
Shika Wakashu - Dōmyō