Author | Poems |
---|---|
A Young Woman of Hitachi |
|
Anonymous |
|
Ato Tobira |
|
Emperor Jomei |
|
Emperor Temmu |
|
Emperor Tenji |
|
Emperor Yuryaku |
|
Empress Jito |
|
Empress Kogyoku |
|
Empress Komyo |
|
Empress Yamato-hime |
|
Empress lwa-no-hime |
|
Fujiwara Hirotsugu |
|
Fujiwara Kamatari |
|
Hanishi Mitoshi |
|
Kakinomoto Hitomaro |
|
Kasa Kanamura |
|
Lady Abe |
|
Lady Fujiwara |
|
Lady Ishikawa |
|
Lady Kasa |
|
Lady Ki |
|
Lady Otomo of Sakanoe |
|
Lady Otomo of Sakanoe's Elder Daughter |
|
Lady Otomo of Tamura |
|
Manzei |
|
Otomo Miyori |
|
Otomo Momoyo |
|
Otomo Sukunamaro |
|
Otomo Tabito |
|
Otomo Yakamochi |
|
Otomo Yotsuna |
|
Oyakeme |
|
Prince Arima |
|
Prince Atsumi |
|
Prince Ikusa |
|
Prince Omi |
|
Prince Otsu |
|
Prince Shiki |
|
Prince Yuhara |
|
Princess Kagami |
|
Princess Nukada |
|
Princess Oku |
|
Tajihi Yanushi |
|
Taniha Ome |
|
Wife of Go Dan-ochi |
|
Yamabe Akahito |
|
Yamanoe Okura |
|
Young Lady |
|
Your basket, with your pretty basket,
Your trowel, with your little
trowel,
Maiden, picking herbs on this hill-side,
I would ask you:
Where is your home?
Will you not tell me your name?
Over the spacious
Land of Yamato
It is I who reign so wide and far,
It is I who rule so
wide and far.
I myself, as your lord, will tell you
Of my home, and my
name.
Countless are the mountains in Yamato,
But perfect is the heavenly hill of
Kagu;
When I climb it and survey my realm,
Over the wide plain the
smoke-wreaths rise and rise,
Over the wide lakes the gulls are on the
wing;
A beautiful land it is, the Land of Yamato!
Hear the twang of the mid-strings
Of his royal birchwood bow,
Which my
Sovereign, ruling in peace,
Loves to handle at break of day,
And
fondly leans against with dusk.
Now he must be out for his morning
hunt,
Now he must be out for his evening chase;
I hear the twang of
the mid-string
Of his loved birchwood bow! With horses drawn abreast
On the open waste of Uchi,
This morning he must be trampling
That
grassy land!
Not knowing that the long spring day-
The misty day-is spent,
Like the
'night-thrush';I grieve within me,
As sorely my heart aches.
Then
across the hills where our Sovereign sojourns,
Luckily the breezes
blow
And turn back my sleeves with morn and eve,
As I stay
alone;
But, being on a journey, grass for pillow,
Brave man as I deem
me,
I know not how to cast off
My heavy sorrows;
And like the
salt-fires the fisher-girls
Burn on the shore of Ami,
I burn with the
fire of longing
In my heart. Fitful gusts of wind are blowing
Across
the mountain-range,
And night after night I lie alone,
Yearning for my
love at home.
While at Nigitazu we await the moon
To put our ships to sea,
With the
moon the tide has risen;
Now let us embark!
Mount Kagu strove with Mount Miminashi
For the love of Mount Unebi.
Such is love since the age of the gods;
As it was thus in the early
days,
So people strive for spouses even now. When Mount Kagu and Mount
Miminashi wrangled,
A god came over and saw it
Here-on this plain of
Inami!
On the rich banner-like clouds
That rim the waste of
waters
The evening sun is glowing,
And promises to-night
The
moon in beauty!
When, loosened from the winter's bonds,
The spring appears,
The birds
that were silent
Come out and sing,
The flowers that were
prisoned
Come out and bloom;
But the hills are so rank with
trees
We cannot seek the flowers,
And the flowers ate so tangled with
weeds
We cannot take them in our hands.
But when on the autumn
hill-side
We see the foliage,
We prize the yellow leaves,
Taking
them in our hands,
We sigh over the green ones,
Leaving them on the
branches;
And that is my only regret--
For me, the autumn hills!
O That sweet mountain of Miwa--
I would go lingering over its sight,
Many times looking back from far upon it
Till it is hidden beyond the hills
of Nara
And beyond many turnings of the road;
Then should the clouds
be heartless
And conceal the mountain from me? Must they veil Mount Miwa
so?
Even clouds might have compassion;
Should ye, O clouds,conceal it
from me?
Clinging to this transient life
I live on the seaweed,
Which I,
drenched with the waves,
Gather at the isle of Irago.
Spring has passed away
And summer is come;
Look where white clothes
are spread in the sun
On the heavenly hill of Kagu!
Our great Sovereign who rules in peace,
Offspring of the Bright One on
high,
Has begun to build her Palace
On the plain of Fuji;
And
standing on the dyke of Lake Haniyasu
She looks around her:
The green
hill of Kagu of Yamato
Stands at the eastern gate,
A luxuriant
spring-time hill;
Unebi, with its fragrant slopes,
Rises at the
western gate,
Ever fresh and flourishing
Its form divine;
And
the mountains of Yoshinu, of lovely name,
Soar into the sky,
Far from
the southern gate
At this towering Palace,
The shelter from the
sun,
The shelter from the sky,
The waters will be everlasting,
These clear waters of the sacred well! The bevies of maidens who will be
born
And come in succession into service
At the mightly Palace of
Fujiwara,
How I envy their happy lot!
Come, my men, let us hasten to Yamato!
The shore pines on Mitsu of
Otomo
Must wait and long for us.
Obedient to our mighty Sovereign's word,
I left my long-loved home,
And paddled my boat down the Hatsuse,
Many times looking back toward my
home,
At each of the eighty windings of the river;
And benighted on
the stream I reached
The River Saho flowing through Nara;
There from
my couch I could see,
Clearly in the bright moonlight of dawn,
The
night-frost lying like a sheet of linen
And the river bound with ice as if
with rocks.
Often on such a freezing night, loyal to my duties,
I
paddled down to build the mansion,
Where I hope my lord will live
For
a thousand ages,
And that I too may journey here for as long. I shall come
to the mansion of Nara
For a myriad ages;
Think not I shall
forget!
Since you, my Lord, were gone,
Many long, long days have passed.
Should I now come to meet you
And seek you beyond the mountains,
Or
still await you--await you ever ?
Rather would I lay me down
On a
steep hill's side,
And, with a rock for pillow, die,
Than live thus,
my Lord,
With longing so deep for you.
Yes, I will live on
And
wait for you,
Even till falls
On my long black wav1ng hair
The
hoar frost of age.
How shall my yearning ever cease—
Fade somewhere
away,
As does the mist of morning
Shimmering across the autumn
field
Over the ripening grain?
Oh, Yasumiko I have won!
Mine is she whom all men,
They say, have
sought in vain.
Yasumiko I have won!
Magnificent snow
Has fallen here at my place.
But at your tumble-down
old village of Ohara,
If ever, later it will fall
It was I who did command
The Dragon God of these hills
To send down
the snow,
Whereof a few fragments, perchance,
Were sprinkled over your
home.
To speed my brother
Parting for Yamato,
In the deep of night I
stood
Till wet with the dew of dawn.
The lonely autumn mountains
Are hard to pass over
Even when two go together--
How does my brother
cross them all alone!
Waiting for you,
In the dripping dew of the hill
I stood,--weary and
wet
With the dripping dew of the hill
Would I had been, beloved,
The dripping dew of the hill,
That wetted
you
While for me you waited.
Along the coast of Tsunu
On the sea of Iwami
One may find no
sheltering bay,
One may find no sequestered lagoon.
O well if there be
no bay!
O well if there be no lagoon!
Upon Watazu's rocky
strand,
Where I travel by the whale-haunted sea,
The wind blows in the
morning,
And the waves wash at eve
The sleek sea-tangle and the ocean
weed,
All limpid green.
Like the sea-tangle, swaying in the wave
Hither and thither, my wife would cling to me,
As she lay by my side.
Now I have left her, and journey on my way,
I look back a myriad times
At each turn of the road.
Farther and farther my home falls behind,
Steeper and steeper the mountains I have crossed.
My wife must be
languishing
Like drooping summer grass.
I would see where she
dwells—
Bend down, O mountains! From between the trees that grow
On
Takatsunu's mountain-side
In the land of Iwami
I waved my sleeve to
her--
Did she see me, my dear wife?
The leaves of bamboo grass
Fill all the hill-side
With loud rustling sounds;
But I think only of
my love,
Having left her behind.
In the sea of Iwami,
By the
cape of Kara,
There amid the stones under sea
Grows the deep-sea miru
weed;
There along the rocky strand
Grows the sleek sea-tangle.
Like the swaying sea-tangle,
Unresisting would she lie beside me--
My
wife whom I love with a love
Deep as the miru-growing ocean.
But few
are the nights
We two have lain together.
Away I have come, parting
from her
Even as the creeping vines do part.
My heart aches within
me;
I turn back to gaze--
But because of the yellow leaves
Of
Watari Hill,
Flying and fluttering in the air,
I cannot see
plainly
My wife waving her sleeve to me.
Now as the moon, sailing
through the cloud rift
Above the mountain of Yakami,
Disappears,
leaving me full of regret,
So vanishes my love out of sight;
Now sinks
at last the sun,
Coursing down the western sky.
I thought myself a
strong man,
But the sleeves of my garment
Are wetted through with
tears.
My black steed
Galloping fast,
A way have I come,
My black steed
Galloping fast,
Away have I come,
Leaving under
distant skies
The dwelling-place of my love.
Oh, yellow leaves
Falling on the autumn hill,
Cease a while
To fly and flutter in the
air
That I may see my love's dwelling-place
At Iwashiro I bind
The branches of a shore pine.
If fortune favours
me,
I may come back
And see the knot again.
Now that I journey,
grass for pillow,
They serve rice on the shii leaves,
Rice they would
put in a bowl,
Were I at home!
I turn and gaze far
Towards the heavenly plains.
Lo, blest is my
Sovereign Lord--
His long life overspans
The vast blue firmament.
Though my eyes could see your spirit soar
Above the hills of green-bannered
Kohata,
No more may I meet you face to face.
Others may cease to remember,
But I cannot forget you—
Your beauteous
phantom shape
Ever haunts my sight!
On the hill slope of Sada
Bright in the morning sun,
We gather and
weep;
Our tears fall endlessly.
Dainty water-weeds, growing up-stream
In the river of the bird-flying
Asuka,
Drift down-stream, gracefully swaying.
Like the water-weeds the
two would bend
Each toward the other, the princess and her consort.
But now no longer can she sleep,
With his fine smooth body clinging
Close to hers like a guardian sword.
Desolate must be her couch at
night.
Unable to assuage her grief,
But in the hope of finding him by
chance,
She journeys to the wide plain of Ochinu,
There, her skirt
drenched with morning dew
And her coat soaked with the fog of evening,
She passes the night-- a wayfarer with grass for pillow--
Because of him
whom she nevermore will meet! Her lord and husband with whom she had slept,
The sleeves of their robes overlapping,
Has passed away to the plain of
Ochinu.
How can she ever meet him again!
From the age of the gods
Men have been begotten and begetting;
They
overflow this land of ours.
I see them go hither and thither
Like
flights of teal-
But not you whom I love.
So I yearn each day till the
day is over,
And each night till the dawn breaks;
Sleeplessly I pass
this long, long night Though men go in noisy multitudes
Like flights of teal
over the mountain edge,
To me-oh what loneliness,
Since you are absent
whom I love.
By the Toko Mountain in Omi
There flows the Isaya, River
of Doubt.
I doubt whether now-a-days
You, too, still think of me?
Even a breeze may fail me
When I desire it.
Little I should
grieve,
If only, sure of its coming,
I could await even a breeze.
Though my thoughts of her
Grow a hundredfold in my heart
Like the
leaves of the crinum
On the sea-coast of Kumanu
I do not meet her face
to face.
Did men living long ago
Pass also sleepless nights like me,
Longing
for their beloved?
Breaking and spreading for a bed
The shore reeds of Ise of the Divine
Wind,
Does he, my husband, sleep a traveller's sleep--
On that lonely
rugged sea-coast?
Think not of things, my beloved!
Have you not me--who would go,
If
need be, through fire and flood for you?
My very soul, it seems,
Has stolen into every stitch
Of the robe you
wear.
Forget not, I pray, your Eastland girl
Who will be thinking of you
always,
As she cuts the hemp-stalks standing in the yard
And spreads
them out to dry.
She goes to the sun-bright palace;
Yet so dear to me is the maiden,
It
is heart-ache to keep her,
But despair to let her go.
My friend, you are setting out
On a long, long journey--
May the gods
of heaven and earth
Help you till you reach your home!
As we go fast, rowing the huge ship,
Should she hit the rocks and
overturn--
Oh, let her overturn! I shall not mind
Since it is for my
dear wife's sake.
I have lived my life
In peace and quiet-
Ah, that I should
encounter
Now in my declining years
Love such as this!
When I shall have died of love—
What can avail me then?
I crave again
to see you
While I live, dear lady.
Beautiful is the moon-lit night,
And clear the voice of the river.
Here let all of us make merry—
You who go and we who remain!
Even after my locks,
Black as the berries of pardanthus,
Have all
turned white,
There comes a time when I must nurse
Heart-aching love,
alas!
Here in the capital I wonder
Where may be your land of Tsukushi--
It
must lie, alas! my friend,
Far beyond the mountains
Where white clouds
hover.
In the loneliness of my heart
I feel as if I should perish
Like the
pale dew-drop
Upon the grass of my garden
In the gathering shades of
twilight.
Even the sands uncounted of a long beach
That takes eight hundred days to
travel—
Could they at all outnumber
My thoughts of love,
O
guardian of the isle on the sea?
Oh how steadily I love you--
You who awe me
Like the thunderous
waves
That lash the sea-coast of Ise!
More sad thoughts crowd into my mind
When evening comes; for then
Appears your phantom shape--
Speaking as I have known you speak.
IF it were death to love,
I should have died--
And died again
One thousand times over.
I dreamed I was holding
A double-edged sword close to my body--
What
does it foretell? It tells
That I shall meet you soon.
IF the gods of heaven and earth
Were bereft of reason,
I might
die
Without seeing you
Whom I love so well.
The bells are tolling,
Bidding all to rest.
But you being for ever on
my mind,
I cannot sleep.
To love you who love me not
Is like going to a great temple
To bow in
adoration
Behind the back of the famished devil.
What can I do with you--
You who so resemble
The lautel in the
moon
That I see with my eyes
But cannot touch with my hands?
You seem to have lived, my lady,
In the Land of Eternity.
You have
grown younger
Than when so many years ago
I saw you last.
By the light of the Moon God
Come to me, dear heart!
No mountain walls
divide us—
The way is not long.
Though clear and bright
The Moon God lights the way,
So blind am I
with love,
I feel I cannot reach you.
In the twilight darkness
Indistinguishable is the road.
Wait till the
moon-rise, and go,
That I may see you, my dearest,
Even for that
while!
Once--only once,
I saw him in the light
Of the sky-wandering
moon;
Now I see him in my dreams.
Here where the wild ducks
Sport in the pond,
The leaves fall from the
trees
And float-but no floating heart
Have I who love you true.
Having seen your smile
In a dream by chance,
I keep now burning in my
heart
Love's inextinguishable flame.
How I waste and waste away
With love forlorn--
I who have thought
myself
A strong man!
Rather than that I should thus pine
for you,
Would I had been
transmuted
Into a tree or a stone,
Nevermore to feel the pangs of
love.
Would there were a land
Uninhabited by man!
Thither I'd take my
love,
And happily we twain would live.
What do I care if my name
Be on the tongues
Of five hundred, or a
thousand, men!
Only should your name get abroad
I would regret it and
weep.
What pain and distress
A dream tryst brings!
I start and wake,
And grope in vain for you,
Beyond the reach of my hand.
Above the cascade tumbling down the rocks
The bracken sprouts and burgeons
on the hill—
Ah, the happy spring is come!
Forth to the field of spring
I went to gather violets--
Enamoured of
the field
I slept there all night through.
It snowed yesterday--
And to-day it snows
On the meadow I have
marked
For gathering spring herbs to-morrow.
Mirrored in the waters of the
Kamunabi River,
Where the song-frogs
call,
Do they bloom now—
those flowers of the yellow
Rose?
Her husband is gone towards Naniwa;
Pity it is to see a young wife,
Left gathering spring herbs!
You who are constantly on my mind,
And dear to me as the breath of
life—
You depart in obedience to the imperial command,
From the cape
of Mitsu in Naniwa Bay,
Where in the evening the cranes call to their
mates.
You will board a great ship, full-oared,
And sail away past
many an island
On the ocean of high white waves.
Then, I, who remain,
will see you go,
Making offerings and prayers to the gods.
Come back
soon, O friend ! Beyond the waves in the clouds
Is lost a small
island--
Even so, when you are gone,
Oh, the choking grief!
Would I could be
The shaft of your ship's oar
Rather than thus
remain
Disconsolate even unto death!
Slight not these flowers!
Each single petal contains
A hundred words
of mine.
Were these flowers broken off,
Unable to hold in each petal
A hundred
words of yours?
Pour your sake, O slave,
I plucked with busy hands
These sedge-buds
from the spring meadow.
Eat them and grow fat!
The silk-tree that blooms in daytime
And sleeps the love-sleep at
night,
Your lady should not see alone--
Look on this well, my
slave!
Tired of sitting indoors all day long,
I seek the garden for solace, only to
hear
The shrill chirps of the cicadas.
In the leafy tree-tops
Of the summer mountain
The cuckoo calls--
Oh, how far off his echoing voice!
Oh, the pain of my love that you
know not--
A love like the
maiden-lily
Blooming in the thicket of the summer moor!
The evening moon shines-
Here in the garden white with dew
The
crickets sing, alas!
Burthening my weary heart.
At home the hagi flowers of autumn
Are abloom in the evening glow—
Would that this moment
I could see your radiant form!
After we, dear friends, have drunk
together,
Setting plum-blossoms
afloat in our wine-cups,
I care not if those on the tree be gone.
The law allows our feasting;
Are we to drink the wine this one night
only?
Do not fall, O blossoms, fall not away!
How gladdening would be this falling snow,
Could I but watch with you, my
husband!