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- Makura no Soshi
Toshifureba yowaiwaoinu shikawaaredo hanaoshimireba monoomoimonashi
The years have gone, and age has come upon me; yet when I look on these blossoms, no sorrow is left in me.
Makura no Soshi - Fujiwara no Yoshifusa
Shionomitsu itsumonourano itsumoitsumo kimiobafukaku omouhayawaga
As the tide comes always in at Itsumo Bay, so always and always I think of you deeply — I do.
Motometemo kakaruhachisuno tsuyuooite ukiyonimatawa kaerumonokawa
Having sought out dew such as this upon the lotus, how could I turn back again into the bitter world?
Makura no Soshi - Sei Shōnagon
Ranshōkaji kinchōka kusanoiorio tarekatazunen
In the Orchid Ministry, in the season of flowers, beneath the brocade curtains you sit — and this hut of grass, who is there to come seeking it?
Makura no Soshi - Bai Juyi (opening lines), Sei Shōnagon (closing lines)
Kazukisuru amanosumikao sokotodani yumeiunatoya meokuwasekemu
That the diving fisher's dwelling should never be pointed out — surely that was why the seaweed was given you to eat.
Makura no Soshi - Sei Shōnagon
Kuzureyoru imosenoyamano nakanareba saraniyoshinono kawatodanimiji
Since what lies between us is like the crumbling slopes of Imo and Se, I will not so much as look on it as the Yoshino river again.
Makura no Soshi - Sei Shōnagon
Kokoninomi mezurashitomiru yukinoyama tokorodokoroni furinikerukana
This mountain of snow I took for a rarity here alone has, it seems, been falling — and growing stale — in every quarter.
Makura no Soshi - Sei Shōnagon
Urayamashi ashimohikarezu watatsuumino ikanaruhitoni monotamauramu
How I envy her. What sort of person is that nun, who does not even drag her foot, that such gifts should be given to her?
Yamatoyomu onononibikio tazunureba iwainotsueno otonizoarikeru
I sought out the sound of axes that set the hills ringing, and it proved to be the noise of the staves of blessing.
Ashihikino yamainomizuwa kōreruo ikanaruhimono tokurunaruramu
The water of the mountain well lies frozen — so what manner of cord is this, that comes untied?
Makura no Soshi - Fujiwara no Sanekata
Uwagōri awanimusuberu himonareba kazasuhikageni yurububakario
It is a cord tied as lightly as the thin ice on the surface — so of course it loosens in the sunlight that falls on the sun-shade vine we wear.
Makura no Soshi - Sei Shōnagon
Hototogisu tazunetekikishi koeyorimo shitawarabikoso koishikarikere
More than the cuckoo's voice we went all that way to hear, it is the young bracken that I long for.
Makura no Soshi - Sei Shōnagon (opening lines), Empress Teishi (closing lines)
Motosukega nochitoiwaruru kimishimoya koyoinoutani hazuretewaoru
You, of all people, called the child of Motosuke — and tonight you sit apart from the poems.
Makura no Soshi - Empress Teishi
Sonohitono nochitoiwarenu minariseba koyoinoutao mazuzoyomamashi
Were I not one whom people call that man's child, I would have been the first tonight to make a poem.
Makura no Soshi - Sei Shōnagon
Sorasamumi hananimagaete chiruyukini sukoshiharuaru kokochikososure
The sky being cold, in this snow that falls as though mistaken for blossom, there is the feeling of a little spring.
Makura no Soshi - Sei Shōnagon (opening lines), Fujiwara no Kintō (closing lines)
Tsumedonao miminagusakoso awarenare amatashiareba kikumoarikeri
For all our picking, the ear-less plant is a pitiful thing; among so many there was a chrysanthemum too — and hearing, too.
Makura no Soshi - Sei Shōnagon