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Now out of the dark
onto the path of darkness
unwilling I go.
Linger to shine on me, moon,
poised at the rim of the hill.
--Izumi Shikibu
Only for you, lord,
am I out here in spring fields,
pulling early greens,
with snow falling
thick on my sleeves.
--Emperor Koko
君がため
春の野に出でて
若菜つむ
わが衣手に
雪はふりつつ
kimi ga tame haru no no ni idete wakana tsumu waga koromode ni yuki wa furi tsutsu
春の野に出でて
若菜つむ
わが衣手に
雪はふりつつ
kimi ga tame haru no no ni idete wakana tsumu waga koromode ni yuki wa furi tsutsu
Almost showed you plum blossoms
that were a light fall of snow.
--Akahito
How few the moments
that my gaze has lit upon
the flowers of spring.
How many the months and days
that I have passed without fruit.
--Fujiwara no Okikase
The sea slips from the shore.
One white wave again stands fast.
A crane in the surf.
--The Emperor Uda
Destinations unknown,
two ships that left harbor
side by side, now diverge.
--Saigyo Hoshi
Before the dubious shrine
I stand dumbstruck and crying.
--Saigyo Hoshi
This world, I try not to see,
still dogs me like a shadow.
--Minamoto no Toshiyori
...to be in this world
the seagull sleeping alone
on the tossing sea...
--Tagaya Masahiro
Leaves fall on the roof,
blurring the silence of night
and the sound of rain.
--Minamoto no Yorizane
Rising and falling, waves
scour the moon in the sea,
effacing nothing.
--Kiyowara Fukayabu
Between the eternals,
the unmoving mountains
and incontinent seas,
we are flowers, quickest
among fleeting flowers.
--Anon.
Long into summer nights
when I think at last of bed
the dawn cuckoo sings
--Tsurayuki
Spring, and a girl is walking
a path in peach blossom light.
--Otomo no Yakamochi
Foam on the water
I am, that still wants to live
for a thousand years.
--Otomo no Yakamochi
To an empty land
she and I would go and live
alone together.
--Otomo no Yakamochi
Sad to meet in dreams:
My hand reaches out to you
and flounders awake.
--Otomo no Yakamochi
Should we never meet,
and entwine, threads making cord,
now this way, now that,
upon what line shall I string
all the jewels of my life?
--Sakanoe Korenori
Yes, she may not think of me
not ever forgetting her.
--Anon.
Plum trees bloom again.
Empty as a locust shell,
my own springless world.
--Anon.
Love without requite:
a prayer in the temple
behind a starving god.
--Lady Kasa
But by its own call
on the evergreen mountain
the deer knows the fall.
--Onakatomi Yoshinobu
Unmistakably
even here, far south in Tsu,
winter's come at last
to my cottage, hidden down
in a blanket of rushes.
--Minamoto no Shigeyuki
That this day too comes
to dusk: more clear with each note
of the temple bell.
--Anon.
Unbearably cold,
sanderlings cried in the wind
across the river
the night I went to see her
whom I loved beyond bearing.
--Tsurayuki
Short as a segment
of Naniwa marsh reed,
not even that much
time for us to meet again
on the long passage, is there?
--Lady Ise
難波潟
みじかき芦の
ふしのまも
あはでこの世を
過ぐしてよとや
Naniwa gata mijikaki ashi no fushi no ma mo awade kono yo o sugushite yo to ya
ふしのまも
あはでこの世を
過ぐしてよとや
Naniwa gata mijikaki ashi no fushi no ma mo awade kono yo o sugushite yo to ya
