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- Ugetsu Monogatari
Matsuyama no nami no keshiki wa kawaraji o
katanaku kimi wa narimasarikeri
The waves that break upon the shore of Matsuyama, long celebrated in old poems, seem as they have always been, unchanged. And yet you—whom I believed to be just as eternal and enduring—are changing more and more, as though you were fading from this world itself, until even the trace of your former shape is being lost.
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari
Matsuyama no nami ni nagarete koshi fune no
yagate munashiku narinikeru kana
Like a boat borne on the waves that wash upon Matsuyama and drift ashore, only to be left to rot in vain, so too have I, having left the capital, come at last to wither away just as you sang.
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari
Hamachidori ato wa miyako ni kayoedomo
mi wa Matsuyama ni ne nomi zo naku
Like a plover by the shore of Matsuyama, my traces can pass on to the capital, yet my own body remains here in Matsuyama, able only to cry out in sorrow.
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari
Yoshi ya kimi mukashi no tama no toko totemo
kakaran nochi wa nani ni ka wa sen
Even if, my lord, you once sat upon the jeweled throne, now that you have come to this state, what use could it be? Set aside such attachments to this world and find your peace in awakening.
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari
Mi no usa wa hito shi mo tsugeji Ausaka no
yūzuke tori yo aki mo kurenu to
The wretched sorrow of my own life—no one else can tell it to him for me. O bird of the evening call at Ōsaka Pass, cry out with me that the long-awaited autumn, too, has come to its end.
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari
Saritomo to omou kokoro ni hakararete
yo ni mo kyō made ikeru inochi ka
Even so, my heart, believing he would surely return, was taken in and led on by that hope; and so, against all odds, I have gone on living in this world until today. Is this what my life has been?
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari
Inishie no Mama no Tekona o kaku bakari
koiteshi aran Mama no Tekona o
O Mama no Tegona of the old tales—surely you too were loved by so many, just as deeply as Katsushirō’s heart loves in this tale of the present.
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari
Matsu no o no mine shizuka naru akebono ni
ōgite kikeba buppōsō naku
In the quiet dawn breaking over Mount Matsuo behind Matsunoo Shrine, I lift my gaze to the peak and, listening in reverence, hear the cry of the butsu-hō-sō—the Three Jewels.
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari
Tori no ne mo himitsu no yama no shigemi kana
On this sacred mountain where the secret practices of Shingon are upheld, even the birds’ cries seem to bear that secrecy, sounding from the deep and mysterious thickets.
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari
Wasurete mo kumi ya shitsuran tabibito no
Kōya no oku no Tamagawa no mizu
I fear that a traveler, forgetting the poison said to be in this stream, might draw and drink from it—the waters of Tamagawa in the depths of Mount Kōya.
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari
Kurushiku mo furikuru ame ka Miwa ga saki
Sano no watari ni ie mo aranaku ni
This rain that pours and pours in anguish, as though to torment my lonely heart—at Miwa’s cape, at Sano’s crossing, there is not even a single house to take shelter in.
Ugetsu Monogatari - Ueda Akinari