Though I go to you
Ceaselessly along dream paths,
The sum of those trysts
Is less than a single glimpse
Granted in the waking world.

Ono no Komachi

This poem appears as No. 658 in the Kokin Wakashu, an old anthology of poems from the 12th century. Komachi (9th cent.) had been a classic poet already for 3 centuries when the Kokin Wakashu was published...

***

Was it that I fell asleep
Longing for him
That he appeared?
Had I known it was a dream
I should not have awakened.

Ono no Kamachi

***

Washi to omae wa
Futa ba no matsu yo
Karete ochite mo
Hanare mai

We are, you and me,
Like two pine needles
Which will dry and fall
But never separate.

Anonymous

***

Shio no mitsu
Izumo no ura no
Isu mo itsu mo
Kimi woba fukaku
Omou wa ya waga.

Like the tides’ flood
In Izumo Bay,
Ever deeper and deeper
Grows my love,
Each time I think of you.

Anonymous

***

Loving Birds
On the Asuka plains
Today or tomorrow?
Waiting for the day
That I become your wife,
Through the unfulfilled vows.

Tokuyama Gyokuran

***

My keepsake—
Look at it and think of me,
and I will love you
through the long years
strung out like beads on a string.

Lady Kasa Yakamochi (mid 8th century)

***

This thing called parting
Has no color
Yet it seeps into our hearts
And stains them with loneliness.

Ki-no-Tsurayuki (ca. 868 - ca. 964)

***

Like a wild cherry
glimpsed dimly
through a break in the mist—
that’s the kind,
Can stir you to desire.

Ki-no-Tsurayuki (ca. 868 - ca. 964)

***

In a mountain village
at autumn’s end—
that’s where you learn
what sadness means
in the blast of the wintry wind.

Saigyo (1118-1190)

***

Another look like his
Mixed me up again—
You really do play tricks on me,
don’t you,
Gods of love.

Yosano Akiko (1879-1942)

***

Chibusa osae
Shimpi no tobari
Soto kerinu
Kokonaru hana no
Kurenai zo koki

Press my breasts,
Part the veil of mystery,
A flower blooms there,
Crimson and fragrant.

Yosano Akiko (1879-1942)

***

Yesterday felt like
A thousand years ago,
at the same time,
I feel you hands,
Still on my shoulders.

Yosano Akiko (1879-1942)

Beautiful

(((((( S1ow ))))))

re-reading tanka...

This thing called parting
Has no color
Yet it seeps into our hearts
And stains them with loneliness.

Ki-no-Tsurayuki (ca. 868 - ca. 964)




Love this one... it's so true

great collection

Carefully I walk
Trying so hard to be brave
They all see my fear
Dark glasses cover their eyes
As mine flow over with tears
"Kokinwakashu"