One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Book

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Oh, the foot-drawn trail
Of the mountain-pheasant's tail
Drooped like down-curved branch!
Through this long, long-dragging night
Must I lie in bed alone?
---


Ono no Komachi

Color of the flower
Has already faded away,
While in idle thoughts
My life passes vainly by,
As I watch the long rains fall.
---


Minamoto no Toru

Like Michinoku prints
Of the tangled leaves of ferns,
It is because of you
That I have become confused;
But my love for you remains.
---


Ariwara no Yukihira

Though we are parted,
If on Mount Inaba's peak
I should hear the sound
Of the pine trees growing there,
I'll come back again to you.
---


Mibu no Tadamine

Like the morning moon,
Cold, unpitying was my love.
And since we parted,
I dislike nothing so much
As the breaking light of day.
---


Fujiwara no Okikaze

Who is still alive
When I have grown so old
That I can call my friends?
Even Takasago's pines
No longer offer comfort
---


Minamoto no Hitoshi

Bamboo growing
Among the tangled reeds
Like my hidden love:
But it is too much to bear
That I still love her so.
---


Sone no Yoshitada

Like a mariner
Sailing over Yura's strait
With his rudder gone:
Where, over the deep of love,
The end lies, I do not know.
---


Fujiwara no Michimasa

Is there any way
Except by a messenger
To send these words to you?
If I could, I'd come to you
To say goodbye forever.
---


Oe no Masafusa

On that far mountain
On the slope below the peak
Cherries are in flower.
Oh, let the mountain mists
Not arise to hide the scene.
---


Lady Horikawa

Is it forever
That he hopes our love will last?
He did not answer.
And now my daylight thoughts
Are as tangled as my black hair.
---


Lady Sanuki

Like a rock at sea,
At ebb-tide hidden from view,
Is my tear-drenched sleeve:
Never for a moment dry,
And no one knows it is there.
---


Fujiwara no Kintsune

Not the snow of flowers,
That the hurrying wild wind whirls
Round the garden court:
What withers and falls away
In this place is I myself.
---


Emperor Juntoku

In this ancient house,
Paved with a hundred stones,
Ferns grow in the eaves;
But numerous as they are,
My old memories are more