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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
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
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
The rare tanka I've managed to render as a tanka.
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
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
