Lying here awake quietly at daybreak,
I can’t hold back my tears at various thoughts.
Having spent my life in vain,
when can I expect to reach the Pure Land?
translated by Hiroaki Sato
12th CEntury Japanese poetry
untitled3 by Saigyo
Pearls plucked
the oyster shells
lie heaped in mounds
showing us
the aftermath of treasures
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
on the impermanence of life by Saigyo
Drops of dew
strung on strands
of spider web–
such are the trappings
that deck out this world
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
tanka2 by Saigyo
Trailing on the wind,
the smoke of Mount Fuji
fades in the sky,
moving like my thoughts
toward some unknown end
translated by Burton Watson & Hiroaki Sato
Sent to a woman on a rainy day by Fujiwara no Shunzei
When longings are too great
and I stare
at the sky in your direction,
spring rains come down,
breaking through the mist
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
untitled tanka on sadness from Saigyo
in a mountain village
at autumn’s end–
that’s when you learn
what sadness means
in the blast of the wintry wind
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
poem by Fujiwara No Tadamichi
As I row over the plain
Of the sea and gaze
Into the distance, the waves
Merge with the bright sky.
Wata no hara
Kagi idete mireba
Hisa kata no
Kumoi ni mago
Okitsu shira nami
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
on what one tries to leave behind by Saigyo
Why should my heart
still harbor
this passion for cherry flowers,
I who thought
I had put all that behind me?
translated by Hiroaki Sato & Burton Watson
a tanka by Saigyo
Little boat with no treadboard
crossing the straits,
take care!
The hail pelts wildly
and the swift wind sweeps in
translated by Burton Watson & Hiroaki Sato
Leonard Durso 