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- Tosa Nikki
Miyako idete kimi ni awamu to koshi mono o koshi kai mo naku wakarenuru kana
I left the capital and came all this way hoping to meet you, yet the journey seems to have been for nothing, for now we must already part.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Shirotae no namiji o tōku yukikaite ware ni nibeki wa tare naranaku ni
Traveling to and fro along the far sea-roads of white-crested waves—who is it that will one day share my lot, if not you yourself?
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Miyako e to omou mo mono no kanashiki wa kaeranu hito no areba narikeri
Even as I long for the capital, a sorrow I cannot name weighs on me—and it is because there is one among us who will never return.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Aru mono to wasuretsutsu nao naki hito o izura to tou zo kanashikarikeru
Forgetting again and again, as though she were still alive, I find myself asking "Where is she?" of the child who is gone—and how sorrowful that is.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Oshi to omou hito ya tomaru to ashigamo no uchimurete koso ware wa kinikere
Hoping that the one we are so sorry to lose might stay, we have come flocking together like ducks among the reeds.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Sao sasedo sokoi mo shiranu watatsumi no fukaki kokoro o kimi ni miru kana
Like the sea, whose bottom no pole can ever reach, so deep is the heart I see in you.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Asajū no nobe ni shi areba mizu mo naki ike ni tsumitsuru wakana narikeri
Because this is a moor where only low grasses grow, these young spring greens were gathered from a pond without any water at all.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Yukusaki ni tatsu shiranami no koe yori mo okurete nakamu ware ya masaramu
Louder than the roar of the white waves rising on the road ahead—will my weeping, left behind, not be louder still?
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Yuku hito mo tomaru mo sode no namidagawa migiwa nomi koso nuremasarikere
Those who go and those who stay alike shed a river of tears down their sleeves, and it is only its banks that grow wetter and wetter.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Teru tsuki no nagaruru mireba ama no gawa izuru minato wa umi ni zarikeru
Watching the shining moon drift down and sink into the waves, I realize that the mouth of the River of Heaven opens onto the sea.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Omoiyaru kokoro wa umi o wataredomo fumi shi nakereba shirazu ya aruramu
My heart, reaching out to you, crosses the sea; but with no letter to send and no path to tread, perhaps you will never know.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Miwataseba matsu no uregoto ni sumu tsuru wa chiyo no dochi to zo omou beranaru
Gazing out across the grove, I see cranes nesting in every pine crown, as if they counted the pines as companions for a thousand years.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Makoto nite na ni kiku tokoro hane naraba tobu ga gotoku ni miyako e mogana
If this place we hear called "Wing" truly were a wing, how I would love to fly home to the capital like a bird.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Yo no naka ni omoiyaredomo ko o kouru omoi ni masaru omoi naki kana
However far my thoughts may wander in this world, there is no feeling deeper than a parent's longing for a lost child.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Kumo mo mina nami to zo miyuru ama mogana izure ka umi to toite shirubeku
Even the clouds all look like waves. If only a fisherman were here, so I could ask him which is the sea and know.
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki
Tateba tatsu ireba mata iru fuku kaze to nami to wa omou dochi ni ya aruramu
When the wind rises, the waves rise; when it settles, they settle too. Could the wind and the waves be dear friends of one mind?
Tosa Nikki - Ki no Tsurayuki