- Top
- -
- Kagero Nikki
Oto ni nomi kikeba kanashi na hototogisu koto kataramu to omou kokoro ari
To know you only by rumor is a grief. Cuckoo, there is a heart in me that wishes to speak with you face to face.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Kataramu hito naki sato ni hototogisu kai nakaru beki koe na furushi so
In a village where there is no one to speak with you, cuckoo, do not go on wearing out a voice that can come to nothing.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Obotsukana oto naki taki no mizu nare ya yukue mo shiranu se o zo tazunuru
How unsettling this is. Are you the water of a soundless waterfall? I go on searching for shallows whose course I cannot know.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Hito shirezu imaya imaya to matsu hodo ni kaeri konu koso wabishikarikere
Waiting in secret, telling myself it will come now, now — and no answer returns to me. That is what makes it hard to bear.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Hamachidori ato mo nagisa ni fumi mireba ware o kosu nami uchi yaketsuramu
Seeing a letter that keeps no trace of your hand, as a shore keeps no print of the plover, I wonder whether some wave that outstripped me has washed those traces away.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Izure to mo wakanu kokoro wa soetaredo kotabi wa saki ni minu hito no gari
I have enclosed a heart that makes no distinction between you; and yet this time I send it to the one whose hand I have never seen.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Shika no ne mo kikoenu sato ni suminagara ayashiku awanu me o mo miru kana
I live in a village where no stag is ever heard, and yet, strangely enough, I find myself meeting with the hard lot of never meeting you.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Takasago no onoe watari ni sumau tomo shika samenu beki me to wa kikanu o
Even if one lived up by the peak at Takasago, I have never heard of meeting with an eye startling enough to wake a sleeper.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Ōsaka no seki ya nani nari chikakeredo koewabinureba nagekite zo furu
What is this barrier at Ōsaka? It lies close at hand, and yet I cannot cross it, and so my days go by in lamentation.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Koewaburu ōsaka yori mo oto ni kiku nakoso o kataki seki to shiranamu
Harder than the Ōsaka you cannot cross is the barrier of Nakoso, known only by rumor. I would have you know that.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Yūgure no nagare kuruma o matsu hodo ni namida ōi no kawa to koso nare
While I wait at dusk for the carriage that comes flowing toward me, my tears have grown into the river Ōi.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Omou koto ōi no kawa no yūgure wa kokoro ni mo arazu nagare koso sure
My thoughts are many, and at dusk on the Ōi they flow away against my will, as tears will.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Shinonome ni okikeru sora ni omōede ayashiku tsuyu to kiekaeritsuru
Rising into the sky of dawn, I never thought it would be so; yet strangely, like dew, I have faded quite away.
Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie
Sadame naku kiekaeritsuru tsuyu yori mo soradanome suru ware wa nani nari
More uncertain than the dew that faded away — what am I, who keep on hoping for what will never come?
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Omōenu kakiho ni oreba nadeshiko no hana ni zo tsuyu wa tamarazarikeri
Standing at a hedge I never expected, the pink cannot hold even the dew upon its flower.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna
Kiekaeru tsuyu mo mada hinu sode no ue ni kesa wa shigururu sora mo warinashi
The dew that faded away has not yet dried upon my sleeve, and this morning the sky too comes down in cold rain. It is past bearing.
Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna