夜

Long as the trailing tail of the mountain pheasant is this long, long night. Must I sleep through it alone?

Seeing the white frost settled on the bridge the magpies are said to build, I know the night has grown late.

On a summer night dawn breaks while it still feels like evening. In which cloud, then, has the moon taken lodging?

Like the fire the palace guards keep, blazing at night and dying by day, so my thoughts burn and fade.

Do you know how long it takes for dawn to come, lying alone and grieving through the night?

We met again, and before I could tell whether it was really you, you were gone, like the midnight moon behind cloud.

I should have gone to bed without hesitating. Instead the night deepened and I watched the moon until it sank.

Though you fake a cockcrow while the night is still deep, the Barrier of Osaka will never let you through.

For an arm pillow no more real than a spring night's dream, I would hate to lose my name for nothing.

If against my will I linger on in this wretched world, I shall surely long for tonight's midnight moon.

How many nights has the guard at Suma barrier woken to the cries of plovers crossing from Awaji Island?

All night long in this season of brooding, dawn will not come; even the gap in the shutters is unkind.

Crickets crying on a frosty night, on a cold thin mat — must I spread one sleeve and sleep alone?

Autumn wind off the mountains of Yoshino; the night deepens, the old village is cold, and someone is beating cloth.