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- Shui Wakashu
Satsuki kite nagame masareba ayamegusa omoi taenishi ne koso nakarure
May has come, and with the long rains my brooding deepens, so that, like iris roots swept away, I who thought my grief was cut off cannot help but cry aloud.
Shui Wakashu - Nyokurōdo Hyōgo
Shinobe to ya ayame mo shiranu kokoro ni mo nagakaranu yo no uki ni ueken
Did you mean me to remember you? With a heart too young to know the way of things, you planted these irises in the sad mire of a world that was not to last long.
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Michikane
Koko ni dani tsurezure ni naku hototogisu mashite Kogoi no mori wa ika ni zo
Even here the cuckoo cries so forlornly. How much more, then, in the Forest of Kogoi, the forest of longing for a child, how must it be there?
Shui Wakashu - Minister of the Right
Asagao o nani hakanashi to omoiken hito o mo hana wa sa koso mirurame
Why did I ever think the morning glory fleeting? The flower, too, surely sees us people in just the same way.
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Michinobu
Toki narade hahaso no momiji chirinikeri ika ni ko no moto sabishikaruran
Out of season, the colored leaves of the hahaso oak have fallen. How lonely it must be beneath the tree, and beside you, the child left behind.
Shui Wakashu - Emperor Murakami
Omoiki ya aki no yokaze no samukeki ni imo naki toko ni hitori nemu to wa
Could I ever have imagined it? That on an autumn night, with the wind blowing so cold, I would sleep alone in a bed without my wife.
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kuniaki
Akikaze ni nabiku kusaba no tsuyu yori mo kienishi hito o nani ni tatoen
She vanished even more quickly than the dew on grasses bending in the autumn wind. To what could I ever compare her?
Shui Wakashu - Emperor Murakami
Kozo miteshi aki no tsukuyo wa terasedomo aimishi imo wa iya tōzakari
The autumn moon we watched last year shines just as it did, but my wife, who watched it with me, grows ever more distant.
Shui Wakashu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Kimi nakute tatsu asagiri wa fujigoromo ike sae kiru zo kanashikarikeru
Now that you are gone, the morning mist that rises is like a mourning robe. Even the pond wears it, and that is so sad.
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Atsutada
Wagimoko ga nekutaregami o Sarusawa no ike no tamamo to miru zo kanashiki
To see my dear one's sleep-tangled hair as the jeweled waterweed of Sarusawa Pond, how sad it is.
Shui Wakashu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Kokoro ni mo aranu ukiyo ni sumizome no koromo no sode no nurenu hi zo naki
I have come to live in this sorrowful world against my will, and there is not a day when the sleeves of my ink-dyed mourning robe are not wet with tears.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Fujigoromo haraete sutsuru namidagawa kishi ni mo masaru mizu zo nagaruru
Into the river of tears where I purify and cast off my wisteria mourning robe, more water flows than the banks can hold.
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Fujigoromo hatsururu ito wa kimi kouru namida no tama no o to ya naruran
The threads fraying from my wisteria mourning robe, will they become the cord that strings the jewels of my tears for you?
Shui Wakashu - Unknown Poet
Kagiri areba kyō nugisutetsu fujigoromo hate naki mono wa namida narikeri
Because mourning has its limit, today I have cast off my wisteria robe; but the one thing that has no end, I find, is my tears.
Shui Wakashu - Fujiwara no Michinobu
Hito nashishi mune no chibusa o homura nite yaku sumizome no koromo kiyo kimi
I burned these breasts that nursed you into a man, and with their charcoal dyed this robe of ink-black mourning. Wear it, my son.
Shui Wakashu - Mother of Toshinobu
Fujigoromo aimirubeshi to omoiseba matsu ni kakarite nagusametemashi
Wearing my wisteria mourning robe, if only I thought we would meet again, I could cling to waiting, as wisteria clings to the pine, and find comfort in it.
Shui Wakashu - Ōe no Tamemoto