日に千度心は谷になげはててあるにもあらずすぐる我が身は
Existing each day. Neither here, nor gone.
Pitching my heart into the valley
one thousand times.
重ねそう八重山吹の匂いかな春の名残はいくか成らねど
Perfume from layers of yellow roses
when what’s left of spring
is only a trace.
君が名に思えば袖に包めども知らじよ涙漏らば漏るとて
Thinking of your name,
I wrap tears in my sleeve.
Unnoticed, they leak.
帰り来ぬ昔を今と思い寝の夢の枕に匂うたちばな
An orange sweetness
reaches my pillow
as I dream of what can’t come again.
都人沖つ小島の浜庇久しくなりぬ波路隔てて
A tiny island, dotted with beach huts,
cut off by the waves.
Poets, we have drifted so far apart.
静かなる暁ごとに見わたせばまだ深き夜の夢ぞ悲しき
Gazing into the silent dawn,
sorrow from a dark night of dreams
still with me.
ただ今の夕の雲を君も見て同じ時雨や袖に掛からん
Do you see these same evening clouds?
Are your sleeves damp
with this same winter shower?
時鳥横雲霞む山の端の有明の月になおぞ語らう
Up on the ridge, in ragged cloud,
a cuckoo, still talking
to the dawn moon.
玉の緒よ絶えねば絶えねながらへば忍ぶることの弱りもぞする
My string of jewels, if you must break,
then break. This relentless longing
is more than I can bear.
春来れば心も溶けて淡雪のあわれふりゆく身を知らぬかな
Spring comes. My heart melts,
oblivious to how, like the light snow,
I go on fading.