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- Manyoshu
Aburi hosu hito mo are ya mo iebito no harusame sura o matsukai ni suru
Is there anyone here to dry my robe over a fire? No one. And still my family sends even the spring rain to me as their messenger.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Ōkura no irie toyomu nari imehito no fushimi ga tai ni kari wataru rashi
The inlet of Ōkura is ringing with sound. It seems the wild geese are flying across to the rice fields of Fushimi.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Akikaze ni yamabuki no se no naru nae ni amakumo kakeru kari ni aeru kamo
As the shallows of Yamabuki roar in the autumn wind, I have come upon wild geese soaring among the clouds of the sky.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Sayonaka to yo wa fukenu rashi kari ga ne no kikoyuru sora yu tsuki wataru miyu
The night seems to have deepened to midnight. Across the sky where I hear the wild geese calling, I can see the moon passing over.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Imo ga atari shigeki karigane yūgiri ni kinakite suginu subenaki made ni
The geese that cry so often near my beloved's home came calling through the evening mist and passed on, leaving me helpless with longing.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Kumogakuri kari naku toki wa akiyama no momichi katamatsu toki wa suguredo
When the geese cry hidden in the clouds, I wait and wait for the autumn leaves on the mountains, though the season slips away.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Fusa taori tamu no yamagiri shigemi kamo hosokawa no se ni nami no sawakeru
Is it because the mountain mist lies thick on Tamu that the waves are churning so in the shallows of the Hosokawa?
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Fuyu komori harue o koite ueshi ki no mi ni naru toki o katamatsu ware zo
Longing for spring, I planted a tree, and now I wait with all my heart for the day it bears fruit.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Nubatama no yogiri wa tachinu koromode no takaya no ue ni tanabiku made ni
The night mist has risen, until it trails across the heights of Takaya.
Manyoshu - Prince Toneri
Yamashiro no kuze no sagisaka kamuyo yori haru wa haritsutsu aki wa chirikeri
On the Heron Slope of Kuze in Yamashiro, ever since the age of the gods, the buds have swelled each spring and the leaves have fallen each autumn.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Harukusa o umakuiyama yu koekunaru kari no tsukai wa yadori sugu nari
The wild geese, carriers of letters, seem to come over Mount Umakui, the mountain whose name speaks of horses grazing spring grass—but I hear them pass my lodging by.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Mikemukau minabuchiyama no iwao ni wa furishi hadare ka kienokoritaru
On the great rocks of Mount Minabuchi, is that the thin snow that fell some time ago, still lingering unmelted?
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Wagimoko ga akamo hizuchite ueshi ta o karite osamemu kuranashi no hama
My dear wife soaked her crimson skirt in mud to plant this rice field. I would harvest it and store it away—but this is Kuranashi Beach, whose name means "no storehouse."
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (according to one account)
Momozutau yaso no shimami o kogikuredo awa no kojima wa miredo akanu kamo
I have rowed my way around countless islands, yet the little island of Awa is one I could never tire of looking at.
Manyoshu - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (according to one account)
Ama no hara kumo naki yoi ni nubatama no yo wataru tsuki no iramaku oshi mo
On an evening when not a cloud is in the wide sky, how I regret that the moon crossing the night will soon sink out of sight.
Taki no ue no mifune no yama yu akizu e ni kinaki wataru wa tare yobukodori
From Mount Mifune above the rapids toward the fields of Akizu, a bird goes crying across the sky. Whom is it calling, this calling-bird?