80 HEIAN PERIOD
- • •
Hisakata no
Hikari nodokeki
Haru no hi ni
Shizu kokoro naku
Hana no chiruramu[1]
|
This perfectly still
Spring day bathed in the soft light
From the spread-out sky,
Why do the cherry blossoms
So restlessly scatter down?
|
Ki no Tomonori
- • •
Ōzora wa
Koishiki hito no
Katami ka wa
Mono omou goto ni
Nagameraruramu
|
Are the vast heavens
Some keepsake of her I love?
No, that is absurd.
What then makes me stare skyward
Whenever I think of her?
|
Sakai no Hitozane (died 931)
- • •
Tane shi areba
Iwa ni mo matsu wa
Hainikeri
Koi wo shi koiba
Awarazarame ya wa
|
Because there was a seed
A pine has grown even here
On these barren rocks:
If we really love our love
What can keep us from meeting?
|
Anonymous
- • •
Kome ya to
Omou mono kara
Higurashi no
Naku yūgure wa
Tachimataretsutsu
|
Although I am sure
That he will not be coming,
In the evening light
When the locusts shrilly call
I go to the door and wait.
|
Anonymous
- ↑ Note how the use of words beginning in h intensifies the meaning of the poem.
