Ki no Tsurayuki

Ki no Tsurayuki [Wikipedia]

tanka from Ki no Tsurayuki's The Tosa Diary, A.D. 935, tr. William N. Porter, 1912:

Though upon the shore

Wind-blown waves break into foam

White like flowers in bloom,

Neither nightingales nor spring

Knew these flowers were blossoming.

While I watch the shore

From the swiftly moving ship,

Do the pine trees guess,

That the hills on which they grow

Seem to move along also?

Fast my teardrops fall,

But to twist a silken thread

Surely would be vain;

Who could thread up pearls so frail?

All my skill wound not avail.

Suminoye’s pines,

As I watch them, seem to be

Younger far than I;

I shall vanish from the scene,

But the pines are evergreen.

If the cherry trees

Nevermore burst forth in bloom,

’Twould be better far;

For the saddest time of all

Is the spring, when petals fall.