- • •
Omoikane
Imo gari yukeba
Fuyu no yo no
Kawakaze samumi
Chidori naku nari
|
The time I went to see my sister[1]
Whom I loved unendurably,
The winter night’s
River wind was so cold that
The sanderlings were crying.
|
Ki no Tsurayuki
- • •
Yo no naka wo
Nani ni tatoemu
Asaborake
Kogiyuku fune no
Ato no shiranami
|
To what shall I compare
This world?
To the white wake behind
A ship that has rowed away
At dawn!
|
The Priest Mansei (c. 720)
TRANSLATED BY ARTHUR WALEY
- • •
Wasuraruru
Mi wo ba omowazu
Chikaiteshi
Hito no inochi no
Oshiku mo aru kana
|
It does not matter
That I am forgotten,
But I pity
His forsworn life.
|
Lady Ukon
TRANSLATED BY KENNETH REXROTH
- • •
Yaemugura
Shigereru yado no
Sabishiki ni
Hito koso mienu
Aki wa kinikeri
|
In the loneliness
Of a hut where rankly grows
The prickly goose-grass,
There is not a soul in sight:
Autumn has already come.
|
The Priest Egyō
- ↑ A word for a sweetheart commonly found in the “Man’yōshū,” but rather archaic by this time, when the usual word was “person,” hito.
