classic waka stream

  • Top
  • -
  • Manyoshu

Asagiri ni nure ni shi koromo hosazu shite hitori ka kimi ga yamaji koyuramu

Your robe soaked through by the morning mist, with no one to dry it—are you crossing the mountain path all alone now, my love?

Manyoshu

show detail

Imo ga tame are tama motomu okie naru shiratama yoseko okitsu shiranami

For my wife's sake I am searching for jewels. You white waves of the open sea, bring me the white pearls that lie offshore.

Manyoshu

show detail

Shirasaki wa sakiku ari mate ōbune ni makaji shiji nuki mata kaerimimu

Cape Shirasaki, stay just as you are and wait for us. We will fit a great ship with oars all along its sides and come back once more to see you.

Manyoshu

show detail

Minabe no ura shio na michi so ne kashima naru tsuri suru ama o mite kaerikomu

Tide of Minabe Bay, please do not rise yet. I want to watch the fisherfolk casting their lines off Kashima and then come back.

Manyoshu

show detail

Asabiraki kogi dete ware wa yura no saki tsuri suru ama o mite kaerikomu

Rowing out at break of day, I will go to the cape of Yura, watch the fisherfolk casting their lines, and then come back.

Manyoshu

show detail

Yura no saki shiohi ni kerashi shirakami no iso no urami o aete kogu nari

The tide at the cape of Yura seems to have gone out. I can hear boats rowing with effort along the winding rocky coves of Shirakami.

Manyoshu

show detail

Kuroushigata shiohi no ura o kurenai no tamamo susobiki yuku wa ta ga tsuma

Across the ebb-tide shore of Kuroushi Lagoon walks a woman trailing the hem of a lovely crimson skirt. Whose wife could she be?

Manyoshu

show detail

Kazanashi no hama no shiranami itazura ni koko ni yosekuru miru hito nashi ni

The white waves of Kazanashi Beach roll in upon this shore in vain, for there is no one here to see them.

Manyoshu - Naga no Okimaro (according to the Ruijū Karin)

show detail

Waga seko ga tsukai komu ka to idetachi no kono matsubara o kyō ka suginamu

Its name speaks of a woman who goes out to her gate wondering whether a messenger will come from her husband. Must I pass by this pine grove of Idetachi today?

Manyoshu

show detail

Fujishiro no misaka o koyu to shirotae no waga koromode wa nure ni keru kamo

As I crossed the sacred slope of Fujishiro, the sleeves of my white robe became soaked through.

Manyoshu

show detail

Senoyama ni momichi tsune shiku kamuoka no yama no momichi wa kyō ka chiruramu

On Mount Se the autumn leaves lie scattered everywhere. Back home, are the leaves of the sacred hill Kamuoka falling today as well?

Manyoshu

show detail

Yamato ni wa kikoe mo yuku ka ōgano no takaha kari shiki iori seri to wa

Will word reach Yamato that on the plain of Ōga we are cutting bamboo leaves to spread for bedding and sheltering in rough huts?

Manyoshu

show detail

Ki no kuni no mukashi satsuo no nariya mochi ka tori nabikeshi saka no ue ni zo aru

Here I stand on the very slope where, long ago in the land of Kii, a hunter brought down the deer with his whistling arrows.

Manyoshu

show detail

Ki no kuni ni yamazu kayowamu tsuma no mori tsuma yoshikose ne tsuma to iinagara

I will keep coming to the land of Kii. Grove of Tsuma, bring me a wife—after all, "wife" is your very name.

Manyoshu - Sakanoue no Hitoosa (according to one account)

show detail

Asamo yoshi ki e yuku kimi ga matsuchiyama koyuramu kyō zo ame na furi so ne

Today, the day you must be crossing Mount Matsuchi on your way to Kii, rain, I beg you, do not fall.

Manyoshu

show detail

Okure ite aga koi oreba shirakumo no tanabiku yama o kyō ka koyuramu

Left behind, I sit longing for you. Is today the day you cross the mountains where the white clouds trail?

Manyoshu

show detail