ctly seen, yet there is no way to cross the
stream before the season of autumn._]

Kag['e]ro[:i] no
Honoka ni mi['e]t['e]
Wakar['e]naba;--
Motonaya ko[:i]n
A[:u]-toki mad['e] wa!

[_When we were separated, I had seen her for a moment
only,--and dimly as one sees a flying midge;[10] now I
must vainly long for her as before, until time of our next
meeting!_]

Hikoboshi no
Tsuma muka[:e]-bun['e]
Kogizurashi,--
Ama-no-Kawara ni
Kiri no tat['e]ru wa.

[Footnote 10: _Kag['e]ro[:i]_ is an obsolete form of _kag['e]r[=o]_,
meaning an ephemera.]

[_Methinks that Hikoboshi must be rowing his boat to meet his
wife,--for a mist (as of oar-spray) is rising over the course
of the Heavenly Stream._]

Kasumi tatsu
Ama-no-Kawara ni,
Kimi matsu to,--
Ikay[=o] hodo ni
Mono-suso nurenu.

[_While awaiting my lord on the misty shore of the River of
Heaven, the skirts of my robe have somehow become wet._]

Amanogawa,
Mi-tsu no nami oto
Sawagu-nari:
Waga matsu-kimi no
Funad['e]-surashi mo.

[_On the River of Heaven, at the place of the august
ferry, the sound of the water has become loud: perhaps my
long-awaited lord will soon be coming in his boat._]

Tanabata no
Sod['e] maku yo[:i] no
Akatoki wa,
Kawas['e] no tazu wa
Nakazu to mo yoshi.

[_As Tanabata (slumbers) with her long sleeves rolled up,
until the reddening of the dawn, do not, O storks of the
river-shallows, awaken her by your cries._[11]]

[Footnote 11: Lit., "not to cry out (will be) good"--but a literal
translation of the poem is scarcely possible.]

Amanogawa
Kiri-tachi-wataru:
Ky[=o], ky[=o], to--
Waga matsu-ko[:i]shi
Funad['e]-surashi!

[_(She sees that) a mist is spreading across the River of
Heaven.... "To-day, to-day," she thinks, "my long-awaited lord
will probably come over in his boat."_]

Amanogawa,
Yasu no watari ni,
Fun['e] uk['e]t['e];--
Waga tachi-matsu to
Imo ni tsug['e] koso.

[_By the ferry of Yasu, on the River of Heaven, the boat is
floating: I pray you tell my younger sister[12] that I stand
here and wait._]

[Footnote 12: That is to say, "wife." In archaic Japanese the word
_imo_ signified both "wife" and "younger sister." The term might also
be rendered "darling" or "beloved."]

[=O]-sora yo
Kay[=o] war['e] sura,
Na ga y