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- Kinyo Wakashu
Ayamegusa hiku te mo tayuku nagaki ne no ikade asaka no numa ni oikemu
How did the sweet flag, with roots so long that the hand grows weary pulling them, ever come to grow in the marsh of Asaka, whose name means shallow?
Tamae ni ya kyō no ayame o hikitsuramu migakeru yado no tsuma ni miyuru wa
Was this day's sweet flag pulled from the bay of Tamae? So I wonder, seeing it on the eaves of this finely polished house.
Kinyo Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kinzane
Ayamegusa waga mi no uki o hikikaete nabete naranu ni oi mo idenamu
O sweet flag, in exchange for all the sorrows of my life, may you spring forth in a form far beyond the ordinary.
Kinyo Wakashu - Yoen
Ayamegusa yodono ni ouru mono nareba ne nagara hito wa hiku ni ya aruramu
Since the sweet flag grows in the meadows of Yodo, where waters lie still, perhaps people pull it roots and all, as if half asleep.
Kinyo Wakashu - Fujiwara no Kinzane
Onajiku wa totonoete fuke ayamegusa samidaretaraba mori mo koso sure
If you are going to thatch the eaves with sweet flag, do it neatly. If it lies in disarray when the early summer rains come, the roof may start to leak.
Asamashi ya mishi furusato no ayamegusa waga shiranu ma ni oi ni keru kana
How astonishing! In the old village I once knew, the sweet flag has grown up while I was not looking.
Samidare ni numa no iwagaki mizu koete makomo karubeki kata mo shirarezu
In the early summer rains the water has spilled over the stone wall of the marsh, and one can no longer tell where the wild rice should be cut.
Kinyo Wakashu - Minamoto no Moroyori
Samidare wa hikazu he ni keri azumaya no kaya ga nokiba no shita kutsuru made
The early summer rains have gone on for so many days that the underside of the thatched eaves of the rustic hut has begun to rot.
Samidare ni tamae no mizu ya masaruramu ashi no shitaba no kakure yuku kana
Are the waters of Tamae rising in the early summer rain? The lower leaves of the reeds are slipping out of sight.
Samidare ni mizu masarurashi sawadagawa maki no tsugihashi ukinu bakari ni
The waters seem to be rising in the early summer rain: on the Sawada River, the bridge of joined planks is almost afloat.
Kinyo Wakashu - Fujiwara no Akinaka
Samidare wa oda no minakuchi te mo kakede mizu no kokoro ni makasete zo miru
In the season of the early summer rains, I do not touch the inlets of the rice fields, but leave them to the water's own will and simply watch.
Samidare ni irie no hashi no ukinureba orosu ikada no kokochi koso sure
In the early summer rains the bridge over the inlet has floated up, and it feels as if it were a raft being sent downstream.
Natsu no yo no niwa ni furishiku shirayuki wa tsuki no iru koso kiyuru narikere
The white snow lying all across the garden on this summer night melts away, I find, only when the moon sets.
Kinyo Wakashu - Minamoto no Akinaka
Satogoto ni tataku kuina no oto su nari kokoro no tomaru yado ya nakaramu
In village after village I hear the water rail knocking. Is there no house where its heart would wish to stay?
Yomosugara hakanaku tataku kuina kana saseru to mo naki shiba no kariya o
All night long the water rail knocks in vain, at a brushwood hut that has not even a door to shut.
Natsugoromo susono no kusa o fuku kaze ni omoi mo kakezu shika ya nakuramu
In the wind that blows over the grassy foothills of summer, is a deer, quite unexpectedly, crying out?
Kinyo Wakashu - Fujiwara no Akisue