94 HEIAN PERIOD
- • •
Yume yo yume
Koishiki hito ni
Aimisu na
Samete no nochi wa
Wabishikarikeri
|
Dreams, listen, my dreams!
Do not bring me together
With the man I love—
When once I have awakened
It makes me feel so lonely.
|
Anonymous
- • •
Koi su chō
Wa ga na wa madaki
Tachinikeri
Hito shirezu koso
Omoisomeshika
|
They say I’m in love—
The rumor is already
In circulation;
Yet when I began to love
There was not a soul who knew.
|
Mibu no Tadamine
TRANSLATED BY DONALD KEENE
[from the Goshūishū, 1086]
Yasurawade
Nenamashi mono wo
Sayo fukete
Katabuku made no
Tsuki wo mishi kana
|
I should not have waited.
It would have been better
To have slept and dreamed,
Than to have watched night pass,
And this slow moon sink.
|
Lady Akazome Emon
TRANSLATED BY KENNETH REXROTH
Sent when ill to someone
Arazaramu
Kono yo no hoka no
Omoide ni
Ima hito tabi no
Au koto mo gana[1]
|
Soon I shall be dead.
As a final remembrance
To take from this world,
Come to me now once again—
That is what I long for most.
|
Izumi Shikibu
- ↑ The use of o and a sounds contributes to the effect of this poem.
