four poems of Ki no Tsurayuki

even though I know

the body has no future

yet am I cast down

in the dusk of my today

for him taken by the dark

on visiting a temple in the mountains

I found my home there

on a hillock in springtime

I slept the night through

in dreams I saw before me

cherry blossoms fall all night

on hearing the wood thrush

first rain of summer

the whole sky echoes with it

how now you wood thrush

what is it torments you so

that you sing all night this way

as clouds to my mind

distant in a high degree

River Katsura

though you’ve made my sleeves all wet

am not I crossed over now

tr. after Prof. Miner