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- Gosen Wakashu
Kaku bakari wakare no yasuki yo no naka ni tsune to tanomeru ware zo hakanaki
In a world where partings come so easily, how frail and foolish I am to have trusted that things would always remain the same.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Chiri ni tatsu waga na kiyomen momoshiki no hito no kokoro o makura to mo gana
How I wish to cleanse my name, raised like dust! If only the hearts of the people at court could be my pillow, knowing the truth of my nights.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Uki koto o shinoburu ame no shita ni shite waga nureginu wa hosedo kawakazu
Enduring my sorrow beneath a rain that falls in secret, I hang out my robe wet with false blame, yet however I dry it, it never dries.
Au koto no katami no koe no takakereba waga naku ne to mo hito wa kikanan
This koto, keepsake of our meeting, sounds so loud—may you hear its music as the sound of my own weeping.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Namida nomi shiru mi no usa mo kataru beku nageku kokoro o makura ni mo gana
If only this grieving heart of mine could be my pillow, so that it might tell the sorrows of my life that only my tears know.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Ai ni aite mono omou koro no waga sode wa yadoru tsuki sae nururu kao naru
In these days of brooding, come upon me at just the season for it, my sleeves are so wet that even the moon lodged in them seems to wear a tear-stained face.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Aware chō koto ni shirushi wa nakeredomo iwade wa e koso aranu mono nare
There is no virtue in the word "aware," how moving, when one says it—and yet it is something one simply cannot keep from saying.
Gosen Wakashu - Ki no Tsurayuki
Utsurowanu na ni nagaretaru kawatake no izure no yo ni ka aki o shiru beki
The river bamboo, famed for never changing its color—in what age could it ever come to know autumn, or grow weary of you?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Fukaki omoi sometsu to iishi koto no ha wa itsu ka akikaze fukite chirinuru
Those words of yours, saying your heart was dyed deep with love from the first—when did the autumn wind of weariness blow and scatter them like leaves?
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Tokihira
Kokoro naki mi wa kusaki ni mo aranaku ni aki kuru kaze ni utagawaruramu
I am no heartless thing like grass or trees—why then am I suspected, as if the wind that brings autumn and weariness had blown through me?
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Mi no uki o shireba hashita ni narinubemi omoi wa mune no kogare nomi suru
Knowing the sorrow of my lot, I fear it would all come to nothing half-done, and so the fire of my love only smolders, scorching my breast.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Kumoji o mo shiranu ware sae morogoe ni kyō bakari to zo nakikaerinuru
Even I, who know nothing of the roads through the clouds, joined my voice with theirs and wept again and again, crying that today was the last.
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Madaki kara omoi koki iro ni somemu to ya wakamurasaki no ne o tazunuran
Is it that you would dye her so soon in the deep color of your love, that you go seeking the root of the young purple gromwell?
Gosen Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Mie mo senu fukaki kokoro o katarite wa hito ni kachinu to omou mono ka wa
Just by speaking of a depth of heart no one can see, does one think one has won out over everyone else?
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Ise no umi ni toshi hete sumishi ama naredo kakaru mirume wa kazukazarishi o
Though I am a fisherwoman who has lived for years by the sea of Ise, never have I dived and brought up seaweed like this—never have I been granted such a favor.
Gosen Wakashu - Ise
Ashihiki no yama no yamadori kai mo nashi mine no shirakumo tachi shi yoraneba
Like the copper pheasant alone on the mountain, I live here to no purpose, for you, like the white clouds on the peak, never rise and drop by.
Gosen Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kanesuke